Sunday Day at Boyds

We had all agreed that we would get Kaycee up at 7:30am if she didn't wake herself up earlier than that. She did wake herself up around 7 and fortunately, she's not quite a quiet person in the morning. Everyone else was soon awake too. So we made it to breakfast around 7:45am. I had pancakes, Daddy had a waffle and Kaycee shared a waffle with Grandpa. Breakfast is one of my favorite meals at Boyds! Unfortunately, Jamey isn't feeling well today. Hopefully this passes quickly as not to ruin his or anyone else’s vacation. Grandma and Kaycee went to the Wigwam after breakfast to check it out. This must be the first week the Wigwam is open because they weren't quite unpacked in there. Kaycee did get to color and put her handprint on the sign, though.

We ended up back in the cabin while Dad and Jon went fishing. Mom and I talked a lot about Grammy's house and the important/sentimental things inside, while Anthony played on his iPad and Jamey napped. Then went up to lunch. Lunch was left over prime rib in the form of stroganoff, pretty tasty! We had taken all our fishing stuff with us and was able to secure 2 boats on Little Bass lake before lunch. So Mom and Dad set out in one boat and Anthony, Kaycee and I in another. Anthony drove, while Kaycee sat in my lap. Of course we were all in our life jackets to be safe! Kaycee had a hard time getting her sea legs at first and fell down several times in the boat, but eventually got the hang of it. Anthony and I fished while taking turns paying close attention to where Kaycee was and what she was playing in. Mom caught a keeper Large Mouth Bass (14in) and dad caught a goliath Blue Gill (9in).  Anthony and I caught an assortment of other large Blue Gills to keep and clean for future eating! At nap time, we took a quick trip back to the cabin to lay Kaycee down and then dad and Anthony and I went back out to Little Bass lake to fish for Walleye's until dinner. Grandma stayed with Kaycee while she napped, or so we thought she was supposed to nap. Apparently, no napping actually happened. She did stay in her pack n play for a while before getting up to play and then ride in the boat back to the dinner. Again, she apparently didn't want to play with her toys instead she wanted to unroll all the otilet paper in the bathrooms, play with bags of ice from the garbage and rearrange the clothes in teh bedroom. Silly girl. We did not catch any walleye's to speak of. The first set of cribs we tried, the fish finder said there were a lot of fish around, but we wern't catching any. We were quite confused until we saw the ginormous back of a muskie roll over the top of the water. Then we knew exactly why the walleyes were running away from our bait (to stay away from the muskie and not get eaten themselves). The second set of cribs we tried didn't turn up much either, so we eventually called it quits and went to dinner.

Dinner was turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and corn with gravy. We all ate till our belly's were content and then had apple pie for dessert! Boy is the food tasty here! After dinner, we made a quick trip back to the cabin to put Kaycee to bed and grab the fish cleaning supplies. Grandma and the uncles stayed at the cabin while Dad, Anthony and I went to clean the bass and bluegills from earlier. They'll make a few sandwiches when we get back! When we got back we still had minnows to get rid of so we all spent a half hour on the dock fishing. Last night dad caught a walleye off the dock and so Anthony really wanted to catch one. So he claimed the right side of the dock where dad had caught one before. Unfortunately, it was Jamey who brought in the walleye from the left side of the dock tonight. Maybe tomorrow Anthony! When it was finally too dark to see what we were doing and the fish had stopped biting we came in to relax. Then we played a few rounds of yuker (sp?) and called it a night. Another successful day at Boyds!

First Day At Boyds!

After waking up we all got dressed and met mom, dad and Jon at the continental breakfast for waffles. Then we decided to go swimming. After getting into the water and playing with Kaycee for a while, the cleaning crew came through and told us that technically the pool area wasn't open for another 20 minutes and they weren't actually done cleaning in there. We offered to get out of the pool, but they told us not to worry about it. It's particularly funny because 20 minutes later when the pool actually opened, Kaycee was done swimming. It was pretty cold and she was shivering by then. Grandma wrapped her up in several towels and sat Kaycee on her lap while they played cards for a while. Then Kaycee and I went to shower and get dressed for the day. We hung around playing cards and keeping Kaycee from walking towards the pool for a while until Kaycee had an unfortunate fall. She sleeping forwards, landing on her hands and knees then trying to get up she slipped backwards and landed square on her back.  She managed to soak her entire self in the process. So after changing her outfit again it was pretty much time to pack up and get on the road.

The drive to Monicals was only an hour long and Kaycee slept for most of it. She woke up right in time to make a quick stop at the Jerky shop in Minoqua. Anthony got some Kangaroo, Elk and Alligator Jerky and I got some ? jerky. Then we went a couple miles up the road to Monicals for lunch. We shared 2 family pleasers and Anthony got his own deep dish pizza. Kaycee got an adult portion of tortellini and ate the entire plate. After lunch we drove another hour to Boyds! We're here, finally!!

We checked in, but couldn't buy fishing licenses right away because the machine was down. Dick told us to not let that stop us from fishing!! We also found out that we weren't going to have access to a pontoon boat this year. It was quite sad to hear that a few other families had booked the pontoon all week long. We'll still do a shore lunch, just no pontoon for the morning. So after getting settled into our cabin (unpacking clothes, setting up the pack n play and generally putting things away so we could be comfortable) we got started on setting up fishing rods and getting bait on the end of the line. Dad, Anthony and I fished Long lake for bass with lures (no live bait) and caught a few, but nothing to write home about. While we were out Grandma, Jon and Jamey took Kaycee out for a walk and even on to the dock to look at the lake (she of course was wearing her Little Mermaid life jacket). Then we all headed to the Lodge for dinner. Tonight was Prime Rib (cooked rare, unless otherwise specified), green beans and baked potatoes. I did order Kaycee some spaghetti that she ate after she had tried prime rib. She ate well! I asked for my piece to be completely done and unfortunately it came out pink in the middle. I asked our waitress for another piece completely done and that one came out pink in the middle. She offered to have them go back and cook it again. This time it was better but still a little pink. I ended up eating it anyway. I hope Baby will be fine! Dessert was an inside out lemon tart (parfait looking dessert) and it was tasty.

After dinner we we took Kaycee back to the cabin and Anthony, Dad and I went out fishing again. We fished right off the island near Ottie and again didn't catch much to speak about. Before Grandma put Kaycee to bed she played for a while in Papa's shoes. She apparently doesn't want to play with the huge back of toys I brought, but instead with everyone else's stuff. Silly girl! We all played Mexican Train Dominos (except for Kaycee) to end the night. We never finish a whole game in one night, we'll see if we finish the whole game before the week is up.

Friday Night at the Hotel

After a quick lunch and the walk packing of the car, we headed towards my parents. We picked up Jamey, his stuff and some of Mom and Dad's stuff and were finally on our way (about 2:30p)!! We chose to stop north of ...Milwaukee for dinner at Cracker Barrel at about 4:20pm. It was super yummy and we were all happy with our decision! While the waitress was taking our order, Kaycee stole her pen from her apron pocket and started sucking on it. The waitress didn't even feel it and no one noticed until we were almost done giving our orders. Kaycee's getting sneaky!

Another couple of hours in the car Kaycee started to whine a bit, but we were able to manage. We turned on her kids songs CD and started singing her the songs as loud and obnoxiously as we could. Who knew the Arky Arky song could sound so repulsive!!  We got to the hotel about 7:30p, not the same hotel as last year, though. It was super nice, rooms surrounding the giant pool area a restaurant/bar and friendly staff! Kaycee went down as soon as we were settled in our room and we hung out near the pool where Jamey was swimming. After Jamey was done we went to the bar to use our free drink tickets, that came with the room. Jamey didn't get one because he wasn't of drinking age :( He got water and I got a sprite. We were going to play Bags, but they hadn't set up the sets yet. Instead we sang Karaoke. Then Jamey and I went all over creation to buy ice cream from Briqes. They were the biggest medium ice cream cups I've ever seen before. Then mom, dad and Jon got to the hotel and went to settle in their room, which ended up not actually being cleaned and set up for them. There were no sheets on the bed, no new towels, and garbage still in the can. Fortunately, the staff came right away and cleaned it up/reset the room. After talking with Dad for a while we all called it a night!

Car Wash

After the cupcake disaster, our van NEEDS a carwash/vacuum before we pack for Boyds. I'll just add 1 more thing to my already ridiculously busy morning that isn't turning out how I expected. It was quite silly to be in the carwash with Kaycee and then watch her play around the waiting room while we waited for the guys to vacuum. It was such a mess, we needed to pay the professionals to do it. I would have probably ground more frosting into the carpet than actually sucked up into the vacuum.  But it sure looked spic and span when they were all finished. Now we can pack all our Boyds stuff in it. I'm guessing we'll need another wash/vacuum after Boyds when the van is full of sand/dirt and fish guts. 

Cupcake Bouquets

I finished the cupcake bouquets this morning after some struggle with keeping the frosting on the bottom layer of cupcakes.  I tried to transport the purple bouquet to Zurich on my own and I almost made it all the way. The last turn it fell and all the cupcakes/frosting fell off. It was a huge disaster. I cried. 

After talking with Anthony and the ladies in charge of the bake off, I agreed to go home and get the other bouquet. I threw together the flat bouquet, just incase and they ended up taking only that one. Hopefully, it earned them some money. 

I gave the rest of the pink bouquet/cupcakes from the purple bouquet to Molly and then went off to a carwash/vacuum.  This should teach me to not accept cake orders for the day before vacation...

Aldi Run

I can't get enough of this cutie! She decided to stand up in the cart and I firmly told her to sit down, this is how she sat herself down. I guess it's a good thing she didn't get stuck! 

We're finishing all the packing and getting Grammy ready for us to be gone for a week. First order of business was to buy snack food for the trip and easy to prepare food for Grammy's care givers. Check, that's done! Then we're going to go home and finish cupcake bouquets for the Fundraiser Bake Off at Zurich and finish any packing that doesn't have to wait till last minute.  I'm giddy with excitement. I feel like a little girl on the first day of school!! 

Swimming in Life jackets

It's been a while since we've been to the swimming pool and "Oh My" how things have changed. This little girl no longer needs her Momma to hold her in the pool. Instead she's a little independent swimmer girl! She wants to walk all around the play area, touching everything, climbing everything and exploring everything. She loves to get water dumped on her and she loves the slides! Momma and Kaycee went on the slides several times as well as played in the lazy river and under the sprinklers. Then we tried on our 2 life jackets to make sure they held Kaycee up. She even liked to float on her back, as long as Momma was holding her some how! 

After the pool it was more packing and checking items off my to do list for before vacation. Slowly but surely we're getting everything ready! 

Pig Tales

Today we put Kaycee's hair in her first set of pig tales before small group! She looked so cute and so grown up! My little peanut isn't a baby anymore! Tonight's small group was the last one for the summer. Rob grilled his BBQ chicken and we all hung out outside. Devo was even outside while the kids played on the trampoline and swing set. 

(I put her down for her nap without a diaper on, and couldn't resist a picture of her cute little behind!)

Monday

We leave for vacation this week!! I've got so many things to do before we leave: shopping and cleaning and packing and appointments and cakes and so much more! Wish me luck!