fun day at the lake...

we were invited to spend the day up at the johnson's cottage.
it was a beautiful day and we had fun spending time with such wonderful people!

max was having a blast playing with the water toys that mary ann found for him.

doing some swimming with becky and nate.

max wanted to drive the boat.

some of the crew decided they were going to swim across the lake and back. well, they made it across the lake and then mel went to rescue them and bring them back in the boat.

we got to see this plane take off and later land in the water...it was pretty neat.

a picture of me and my husband.
i kinda look naked...but my swimsuit top is strapless.
just felt the need to clear that up! :)

becky and nate decided to use too much of max's sunscreen.
aren't they cute!

just chillin on the raft.

we ran out of little swimmer diapers so it was time for a little naked swimming.

look at that little bottom!

our water baby

having fun.

just too cute!

thanks to mel, mary ann, becky, nate, michael, and the porters for sharing such a great day with us! this was the perfect way to end my vacation!

what a difference a year makes...

last year at the family birthday party for diane, hannah, and teddy...


this year at the family birthday party for diane, hannah, and teddy...


wow.

family birthday party...

last sunday we gathered to celebrate diane's birthday and the 10th birthday of hannah and teddy.

max enjoyed some play time with uncle bill.

we were all so excited to hear that ryan, leslie, and hayden were going to be able to join us. here i am with my little brother! :)

teddy snuck in some snuggles with his mommy.

diane making her wish and blowing out her birthday candles!

hayden and max were checking out the fish.

look at that face! this kid cracks me up sometimes!

max was having a ball playing with hannah's barbie cars.

leslie and hayden were watching some of the family play basketball.

i am so lucky to have family that likes to spend time together, celebrate, and have fun.

sunday morning and afternoon...

we had a GREAT start to our sunday.

we got up and managed to get to church and we were only 5 minutes late.

after church we headed to "art in the park."

max helped us eat our chicken gyro and berry smoothie.

when we were walking around max heard the band playing.

he started bouncing in his stroller and just kicking his feet.
we discovered that max is a huge big band fan.
we've been listening to it on our cable channel...i'll have to take a video or two to post soon.

we skipped his morning nap to make this all happen.
and as a result we had one pooped little guy.

mmm...

today max enjoyed his first real popscicle.
now, i don't mean that we've been giving our child fake popscicles, i mean that he had his first popscicle all on his own.
and from the following series of photos, i think it's obvious that he LOVED it!

and straight into the bathtub he went!

a family dinner...

uncle austin stayed at our house to keep an eye on things and the dogs while we were at the cottage. we met drew's family in fond du lac last night to do the austin exchange.


max and his uncle austin.

max, grammie, austin, amie, and ken at dinner!
we were glad to get to see all of you.
thanks for dinner grampa ken!

great new find...

we picked up this baby backpack at a friend's garage sale yesterday!
we've been eyeing them up lately and couldn't beat this barely used one for just $10!

i didn't get the camera out in time to get one of daddy wearing this...but it looked pretty stinkin adorable!

1st boo-boo...

max got his first big boo-boo.

he was playing with some dvd cases, lost his footing, slipped and banged his head on the big glass jug that we put our change in.
i'm not sure if you can really see well in this picture, but this is the best one that i have.

chatterbox...

max is saying so many things these days.

he's really getting people's names down.
other than "mama" and "dada," he can say without any prompting:
"mai-me" - amie
"mmm-ma" - grama
"nah-na" - hannah
"nnn-da" - linda
"bih" - bill
"mae" - maggie (one of our dogs)

he also says "ba" - ball, "buh" - book, "caa" - car, "waa" - water, and "go" with out prompting.

he says "nigh-nigh" when he gets picked up with his blanket at nap or bed time.

i sure think our little guy is smart!

vacation at the cottage - day 7

we didn't' stay long this last day.

max got in a little play time before we headed out.

we've been getting a lot of rain lately and it's supposed to continue through saturday night.

we wanted to get home to make sure that things were dry at home.

thank you linda and bill for hosting all of us in your beautiful cottage for the annual family reunion.

we had a wonderful time.

vacation at the cottage - day 6

this is how max started off ever day of our vacation...
relaxing on the couch, enjoying his bottle, and hanging out with hannah.

here's a pic of my wonderful husband and i before i had to leave.

this day wasn't a vacation day for me...i had to head back to appleton to work.

youth go was the charity recipient of a golf outing and i had to work at the event.

max was playing with the birthday kids.
wednesday was hannah and teddy's 10th birthday.

this picture is kinda fuzzy but his facial expression is hilarious!

daddy, uncle bill, aunt linda, lindsay, and max went for a great boat ride.
i sat at hole #1 and ran a contest.
i think they had the better day.

vacation at the cottage - day 5

on tuesday the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day.
we made plans for the afternoon to split up...some were going to go golfing and some were going to go shopping.

i had told hannah that i'd do her hair so she took a shower and came down dripping wet!
this picture was taken AFTER i brushed through her hair.

can you imagine having this much hair! holy moly!

max and grama were playing in the sunroom.
max would make his way to this room every day to look at the "fa" (fan).
he would stare at it and point until someone turned it on.

after a great morning and afternoon max and i headed into town for some shopping with grama, lindsay, and hannah. daddy, denny, heidi, and teddy went golfing.

we bought max a lollipop at the door county confectionery.

he pretty much thought it was the greatest thing ever and was less than happy when i took it away.

hanging out on main street while hannah ate her ice cream.

i love this picture!

giving grama kisses.

we tried to get a good picture...max was too busy saying "car" every time one passed by.

self-portrait of lindsay and i.

max was working on his percussion playing skills before bed.

what a great way to enjoy a meal!

ending the night with some euchre and some laughs.