Visitors!

July 9th and 10th, my aunt Julie, my cousin Eric, and my cousin Phil's daughters Caitlyn and Taylor came up and visited us.  We went strawberry picking Saturday morning while we anxiously waited for them to arrive.  They stopped at their hotel, checked in, got into their swimsuits and met us at Maslowski Beach, on the far west end of town.  Nick went in the opposite direction, went to Bayview Beach and then paddled over to Maslowski.

We had lots of fun, Caitlyn, Taylor, and Julie were in charge of Lilly and they all had fun in the water.  Greta was mostly interested in eating Triscuits and staying on the beach.  Nick met up with us and joined the group in the water.  It was great fun until the dead fish caught Lilly's eye, and then she was out of the water.  

We headed home, they headed to their hotel to change, and came to our house.  The "kids" played while the grown ups chatted and prepped for dinner.  We grilled pizzas and even Eric was adventurous enough to try corn on pizza.  After dinner, Nick stayed back to put Greta to bed, while the rest of us headed to Dairy Queen and the ore dock.

We took advantage of the sunset, took some photos.  Lilly was rocking footy pajamas and shoes.  We also experimented with letting Lilly stay up late and that went quite well.  She stayed in a good mood and actually fell asleep rather quickly (although it was after 10:00 when I left her room).

Sunday morning after checking out of their hotel and going to the bakery, they headed over to our house.  The weather wasn't super cooperative but wasn't awful either.  After hemming and hawing we decided to drive to Bayfield and go raspberry picking at Blue Vista Farm. It rained off and on our drive up, but the weather cleared for our arrival.  You'd think having lived in Ashland for seven years we would remember to bring sweatshirts, but of course we didn't.  Lilly was quite cold, so Julie graciously loaned her her sweatshirt, as she was very well prepared with a second one.  

Greta was picking them off the bushes, until she realized the easier way to get raspberries.

After raspberry picking, we went to Co-Co's for lunch.  Caitlyn and Taylor's aunt and uncle happened to also be in the area, so we met them there for lunch.  It was a rushed lunch, it was past Greta's nap time, but delicious.  We left a bit earlier than our guests and Greta quickly fell asleep in the car.  She miraculously stayed asleep on the transport from the car to her crib.

While Greta napped, the rest of the crew went to Bayview Beach to go stand up paddle boarding and hang out in the water and at the beach.  It wasn't super warm, it wasn't sunny, but we went anyway.  I woke a very crabby Greta up a little after 3:00 (after washing and cutting the tops off all the strawberries we picked the day before) and met them at the beach.

Julie and Taylor both dunked in

While Nick and Caitlyn jumped in off the dock

Greta was not happy at all to be awake, only moderately okay with being at the beach

We left the beach and headed once again back to our house.  Lilly cried on the drive home, not wanting them to leave.  This time it was just a quick change of clothes and attaching the trailer to the truck (Julie's kayaks made the trip but never made it into the water).  We said our goodbyes, sent them with some raspberries (well, they ate the first round of raspberries we were going to send with them, so they grabbed a few more), and they headed home.  It was a whirlwind visit, but we had a great time and are so glad they made the trip up.