Vacation Slideshow And All Its Details

As a family, we were at the Parker Compound in Hancock, Wisconsin.  Below are some pictures from our trip.  A few tips for the slideshow and my captions.  If you want the autoplay to stop, simply hit the pause button (of course), but as a heads up, the pause button comes and goes depending on where you place your mouse/cursor.

Secondly, if you want the captions feature off, click on the the little word bubble in the bottom left corner (again its presence or absence will depend on where you cursor is).

Finally, you can also watch the slideshow on Picassa. Click on the colorful Picassa rainbow circle at the bottom right of the slideshow AND THEN click on the hypertext that says "2014-7-21."  Clicking on that will take you to the Picassa site, which has a slideshow option that is much cleaner and easier to look at.  If I were, say, a grandparent, these extra steps may be worth the hassle since I don't get to see these kids much.  Sorry I cannot put the link in directly but I have to write this post in HTML mode and it has been too long since I shared a link posting this way and I have forgotten how to do it. I really wish this weren't so clunky, but for some reason Google, who owns both Blogger and Picassa, has chosen to make interfacing between Blogger and Picassa difficult. I think they want to steer everyone on Blogger to Google Plus, but that is just a guess.

Anyway, the trip itself was awesome.  Everyone had a lot of fun and I am sure it is fun for Emily to see her kids grow up with their (second) cousins making memories in the exact same place Emily did, with her own cousins, who are now moms with her.  I know I enjoyed watching my kids enjoy themselves.

The Magic Number

This evening I was going through the pictures on my phone to delete the unwanteds when I came across this picture of a partially eaten sandwich.  I was about to delete it, wondering why I took the picture in the first place.  But then I remember why.

Last week we made a twilight dinner stop at a Culver's while we were on the road, on the way to the Parker Compound in Hancock, WI.  Charlotte, age three, took a break from eating to make a random observation, as is her wont.  This time she held up her twice-bit grilled cheese sandwich and said, "Look Daddy.  It's my three."

Fish Lake 2012

We went to the cottage for 10 glorious days.  Some of the days were perfect and some were very hot.  Charlotte took the lake like a fish.  She would wake up and say, "swimming.  Go swimming." She loved her floatie and got really mad when we dragged her back to the shallow area.  I took a nap everyday and Mike read all the books he brought with him.  The slideshow can tell the rest of the story.

Busy Babies

Some pictures from the cottage that I am just getting around to posting.....

Netta and Bailey are getting ready to go cruising.

Bailey!

Charlotte checking out the real estate in the Waushura county guide.

Netta cooling off.

Charlotte and her busy box.  We don't leave home without it.

Remember When....

we went to the cottage a month ago.  

I think it is Bailey, Charlotte, Netta.  That swim suit on Charlotte is actually a size 3-6 months, hence the sausage casing effect.

Up at the Lake

We just had a long weekend at the cottage.  It was our first trip with Charlotte and Charlotte's first trip to the cottage.  It was a relief to discover that she is a good traveler.  She didn't complain in the car and even slept for a little bit.  My sister's family was already at the cottage so all the cousins got to hang out. Well, hang out as much as 9 month olds do.  Actually, we had three pack n plays in the bedroom.  We called it the cottage nursery.  I should have taken a picture.  Each night we'd put the babies down and they would all cry sometimes waking each other up.  It wasn't as bad as it sounds.  They did eventually go to sleep.  

Splashes

It was wicked hot while we were there.  We had to spend a lot of time in the lake to stay cool.  Just like her friend Poncho, Charlotte loves the water.  She spent all her time in her floaty thing.  Netta and Bailey grew tired of their floaty things and had to be put in baby jail.

Baby jail

Happy Poncho 

Cooling off with popsicles

Our friends, Joanna and Greg, came to the lake with their daughters for a day. Joanna and I love s'mores.  We always make s'mores together.  It's one of our special cottage things.  I have been saving a box of Peeps since Easter for our s'mores time.  I thought the sugary outer coating would get all crispy like a creme brulee and make for a gourmet s'more.  Joanna brought fancy chocolate so we were good to go!  After a bit of roasting, the Peeps made a sort of chemical smell.  Probably the sugary coating and fake colors.  Also, the eyes melted off!  Maybe that's how you know when it's done?  The Peeps s'more was delicious, but not better than regular marshmallow s'mores.

Roasting Peeps!

Monday it was so hot that we opted to drive to Neenah and visit Joanna and Greg in their air conditioned house.  Charlotte had her first hairstyling experience courtesy of Pippa.  It was a good trip.  Can't wait to do it again!