Beach Day

We have made several trips to the beach so far this summer and each has been pretty spectacular. This trip was hot and humid and there wasn't much of a cool breeze coming off the lake but if one is to be hot and sticky, what better place? And, it is truly incredible how a quick immersion in icy Lake Michigan can cool down a body.

We are leaving for a trip to the family lake house this weekend and will be gone until about the 23rd. At times on our visit we will be gloriously alone and other times will be joined by dear friends and eventually my sister, niece and nephew. We haven't seen them since they left to move to Virginia in January. I am really looking forward to all parts of the trip. Spending alone time away from the usual distractions with my two favorite boys, getting to spend a weekend with my oldest friend and her husband, reconnecting with my sister and discovering how six months has changed the interaction between cousins. I am hoping for a couple of weeks of vacation bliss...just add water.

Wait! Did I mention knitting? Because I will be knitting up a storm. I have tackled four holiday gift projects already and will be working on hats and mittens and perhaps a shawl or sweater while we are away. Every gift given by the Appleton Schultzes will be hand knit item...so if you are on our gifting list, prepare yourself for something fantastic with essence of the summer sun still clinging come December or January.

Christmas in June

Here are the promised photos from Christmas and a couple from our low key New Year's Eve.

Some of the great things Kai has said lately...

At dinner, repeating Jake's grandpa:

"Same difference."

In the empty barn at Jake's grandparents' farm:

"The cows escaped!"

To Jake's grandma regarding the cows:

"You stole their milk and then they escaped."

- He was very insistent about this. Very.

Inspecting a button at the yarn store:

"This is a dragon tail."

- I was pretty sure it was a leaf. I was wrong because it is definitely a dragon's tale.

Waking up with a summer cold:

"Mama, I'm too icky."

And now for a tale from my blogging hiatus:

Kai and I stopped in the yarn store near our house. The shop worker and I set him up with a tray of toys. I was obsessing over which gray yarn to choose for a sweater for Kai and buttons for some nearly finished projects. Kai went into the bathroom and I followed but did not get there soon enough. He had shut and locked the door. None of my usual tactics worked to lure him out. The shop worker declaring that she was going to have to call the firemen to remove the door did not lure him out. I am actually certain that this gave him incentive to stay inside. There was quite a lot of noise coming from behind the door and I realized I was not talking him out. I took a deep breath and told the shop worker that I was going to ignore the situation and she agreed that it was probably best assuring me nothing could be harmed in the bathroom. I was pretty sure that Kai, being a three year old boy, could probably find a way, but had faith that he would tire of hanging out alone. More noise, many more minutes passed. Finally the door opens. Kai is on the other side with a plunger in one hand and a toilet brush in the other. He says, "I am just in here; with my weapons."

A word from Kai:

nnnnnnnnnmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmnmmmmnnmnmnmnmnm mnmmnmmnmnmnnmm

Holiday Weekend at Lake

We headed up to the family cabin for the third year. Three Memorial Days. We have lived in Wisconsin as a family for three Memorial Days. This photo is actually from the first because we didn't manage to take even one photo. Not one. We were beyond occupied with......

:: catching up with friends and family ::

:: canoeing : napping : mama knitting : daddy fishing ::

:: inch worm watching : swimming : soaking up sunshine ::

:: movie watching : cabin furniture rearranging ::

:: turtle catching : eagle spying : walk taking ::

:: candy store visiting : pancake eating ::

We will be returning for an extended visit in July and part of the visit will be with my sister, niece and nephew. I cannot wait for Kai to have time to play with his cousins. He asks about them a lot and sometimes asks if we are going to see them when we are headed out of the house. I will remember to break out the camera from time to time while we are there. In the meantime...would you believe that Kai was this tiny our first Memorial Day weekend trip to the cabin:

AH! I just remembered that something seriously cool happened while we were there. Aside from the 90 degree weather....Kai treaded water. Like it was no big deal, just hands and legs moving keeping his little self afloat for a bit.

!

Wow, right? What have we been up to in the past oh...six months or so? Well, there was Kai's birthday and party. Jake's birthday and no party. Lots and lots of snow and hours upon hours coming up with inventive ways to pass the winter days. My sister and her family left for Virginia and will be back in eight or so short years. Tons of knitting, including the vest in the picture above. Kai started sleeping through the night, pretty much every night. He also began using the potty and even stays dry most nights. We started the new garden and will be putting the rest of the seeds and plants in the ground in the next few weeks. We experienced our first tornado warning since returning to the area. Kai got his first two wheel bike, with trainers and is riding all over the place. I am working to plan events and new community projects with La Leche League and am helping a mom to become an accredited leader for the first time. We are looking forward to the summer and all that it will bring including some time at the lake, the return of the farmers' market and being able to spend days enjoying the sunshine and warm weather. I am also planning to attempt to become enthusiastic once again about keeping up with the blog. So, stay tuned.

Two things and still no photos.

On Sunday we ordered Chinese delivery which is done very very infrequently around here. I searched around for a restaurant and finally chose one and 25 minutes later...dinner arrived. As it is freezing cold, I invited the delivery man inside. Kai came over to say hello and the man waved to him and smiled while I finished settling up. He left and we went to the kitchen to survey our dinner. As I was picking all of the broccoli out of Jake's chicken and broccoli to give to Kai he was telling me about how the man waved to him. Then he says (of a man who we have never seen as far as I know), "That man remembers me because I'm awesome. People think I'm awesome." For real. I couldn't agree more.

This morning, Kai was playing with a pen and paper and watching Sesame Street. He started exclaiming to me that he "made an A!" I went over and sure enough, he wrote the letter A. I should take a picture probably to post. It was pretty awesome. His next picture was of eggs, so we thought perhaps we had misunderstood him. But, no, when shown the first paper he told me it was the letter A.

In non-Kai news, I have almost finished up my very first knit sweater. Pictures are sure to follow as soon as it is off the needles. My sister and her family made it safely to Virginia and I miss them horrendously already. And Jake was happy to report from work to home this week that he will be getting a raise this month that was seriously delayed after a pay freeze at the company. So, happy and sad balancing out around here.

Why are there any pictures yet?!

We have one more Christmas celebration on Monday and then Jake needs to figure out what the glitch in transferring over from the new camera is and there will be a post full of Christmas time photos. So...next week.