As I mentioned in a previous post, we had a nice Fourth of July, traveling to Tomahawk, WI to stay with my parents at one of their friends' house and then to Eagle River to go to Nick's Uncle's cabin. Lilly did quite well in the car, she tried so hard to fall asleep in the car, closing her eyes, pretending to sleep and snore but didn't manage to fall asleep until we were about a mile from our final destination. We let her sleep in the car and then she played with my parents while I worked on my homework assignment and Nick worked on his talk for an upcoming conference.
The next morning we headed to Rhinelander to see the parade. The reliable Internet told us the parade started at 10. We got there at 9:45 to find the sidewalk lined with empty lawn chairs. We snuck in between two sets of lawn chairs (a family's set up) and sat on the very edge of the curb. The chairs around us and across the street and down the street remained fairly empty . . . We watched the Lions Club march down the road with kids with decorated bikes, trikes, people dressed in costume, etc for about twenty minutes. And then we waited. Lilly did remarkably well waiting for the parade. She went on a few walks with my mom to see if the parade was coming. When we discovered the actual parade started at 11, I took her on another walk. Finally it was time for the parade to start.
I'm not big on parades. It seemed like every small business in Rhinelander and the surrounding area had a float, a few marching bands (Lilly's' favorite, every time they walked by she wanted more). She finally started to get the grabbing candy thing, but she had some pretty adept kids around her fighting for candy. I wasn't too upset by kids snatching candy from her since we limit her candy supply, but was pretty mad at the kid who appeared to be seven or so who swooped in and took the rubber duck from right under her hand. The woman next to us was pretty upset by it too, but Lilly just seemed a little sad and moved right on with her life. There were marching bands to see, after all. When the bagpipes strolled by, Lilly covered her ears!
Rhinelander is home of the Hodag, so there are hodag statues all around the downtown area. Lilly added a new word to her vocabulary while waiting for the parade as she and my mom checked out all the statues.
The afternoon was spent playing down in the water.
The next morning we headed to Rhinelander to see the parade. The reliable Internet told us the parade started at 10. We got there at 9:45 to find the sidewalk lined with empty lawn chairs. We snuck in between two sets of lawn chairs (a family's set up) and sat on the very edge of the curb. The chairs around us and across the street and down the street remained fairly empty . . . We watched the Lions Club march down the road with kids with decorated bikes, trikes, people dressed in costume, etc for about twenty minutes. And then we waited. Lilly did remarkably well waiting for the parade. She went on a few walks with my mom to see if the parade was coming. When we discovered the actual parade started at 11, I took her on another walk. Finally it was time for the parade to start.
I'm not big on parades. It seemed like every small business in Rhinelander and the surrounding area had a float, a few marching bands (Lilly's' favorite, every time they walked by she wanted more). She finally started to get the grabbing candy thing, but she had some pretty adept kids around her fighting for candy. I wasn't too upset by kids snatching candy from her since we limit her candy supply, but was pretty mad at the kid who appeared to be seven or so who swooped in and took the rubber duck from right under her hand. The woman next to us was pretty upset by it too, but Lilly just seemed a little sad and moved right on with her life. There were marching bands to see, after all. When the bagpipes strolled by, Lilly covered her ears!
Rhinelander is home of the Hodag, so there are hodag statues all around the downtown area. Lilly added a new word to her vocabulary while waiting for the parade as she and my mom checked out all the statues.
The afternoon was spent playing down in the water.
Swimming lessons seem to have paid off some. Lilly was much more comfortable with the water than ever before. She was willing to jump in the water with some games of chop, chop, timber and even did a little bit of "swimming". So, progress - a girl who was afraid of the bathtub in April to one who will jump in the water at a lake (getting caught in the air before she actually hits the water).
That night we grilled pizza and it was delicious. I get the Penzey's spice catalogue in the mail and it has recipes. Each time I ignore all the spices and just look at the recipes and tear those out that look interesting. There are many interesting ones in my recipe binder that have yet to be tried, but since the first time we tried the pizza, we've had them three times. The first time was three weeks ago.
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| Lilly and Grandpa playing I spy. She did ride her bike earlier. |
Then on Saturday morning we packed up and headed off to Eagle River. A nice short drive to Nick's Uncle Dan and Aunt Lynn's cabin. His parents were there, as well as his cousins Amanda and Abbey. Amanda's husband and her two kids were also there. And Lilly's favorite, their dog Max. So much more chaotic than earlier, but Lilly loves chaos. Lilly played in the water, played with Hailey and Bennett (the baby boy I have zero pictures of), played with the toys, and played with Max. She absolutely adored their dog Max. I think I mentioned this earlier, but when we'd ask Lilly about her favorite part of the weekend, she's say, "petting Max." I asked her later if we had a dog, what would it be named and of course, it is Max.
Lilly and her dad spent a lot of time in the water, picking rocks up and dropping them back in the water. Lilly got to the point where her face was nearly in the water, which is HUGE progress. Dan was more than willing to take Lilly out in the boat but she wanted nothing to do with the boat. We didn't want to push her newly found comfort zone with water. The picture in the cool tube is of Ross, Hailey, and Amanda (Nick's cousin and her family).
Max is getting older and arthritic. But he doesn't really realize that jumping off the dock after a tennis ball time and time again leads to aches and pains. When we stopped throwing the ball for him, he started jumping in the water, sticking his head under, digging around, and coming up on the dock with rocks. He's never done that before, it was pretty crazy.
Saturday night Lilly wrapped up the evening by throwing up on the guest bed we were going to sleep on. Luckily it was a one-time puke and she ended up sleeping pretty well (the first time on the trip) and ate her weight in breakfast the next morning. Not sure what her illness was, we went back to Ashland first thing in the morning. It was a whirl-wind weekend, but nice to see family and spend some time near water that is actually warm enough to put your feet in.
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