August = ROADTRIP!

Finally got through all of those July posts! I couldn't wait to get to this segment.  We were invited to Broghan's dad's cousin's daughter wedding..did you follow that?  :) Anyways, it's basically Broghan's second cousin's daughter and the wedding was taking place in Charlotte, NC.  We had gone back and forth for a LONG time deciding on 1) if we should go or not and 2) if we should fly vs. drive.  With two little ones, flying usually makes more sense; however, Keller is now almost 3 and that means he needs his own ticket...we did the cost comparisons and that alone made more sense.  Then there is the plus of having control over when/where to stop and the time schedule we followed.  So driving it was.  

The next decision...do we just go for the weekend or make a huge trip out of it?  We knew people in Indianapolis, IN (half way-ish) and many people in Charlotte...then there was the fact that Broghan's parents were heading straight to their condo in MO the day after the wedding...add into it the ocean and smokey mountains and we were sold...a 12 day road trip was what we were going to do!  Crazy I know.  But the timing couldn't have worked out any better.  My 8 week class ended the Thursday before we left (on Wed. Aug 1) and that gave us just under a week to prepare ourselves with food, clothes, entertainment, camping gear, and emotional energy to tackle this trip.  We were traveling with two adults, an almost 3 year, a 15 month old and a 5 yr old chocolate lab! Yikes!  In the planning stages we learned we'd be spending over 40+ hours in the car not including any driving we did while at our destinations.  Since we knew we'd have to deal with the kids being in the car that long, plus we wanted to make the most out of our days, we decided to do most of the driving in the night hours...switching who drove while the other slept, but lets be honest, Broghan did most of the driving.  

I'll make a few separate posts of the things we did and that I got pictures of, but here is the overall idea of when and where we went. 

8/1 - 8:30PM - left EC, WI for Indianapolis.

8/2 - 4 AM - made it! Slept in the car though for a few hours so as to not wake our friends.

8/2 - day - spent at the Bonikowski household...then treated to an afternoon at the Indianapolis Children's 8/2 - 5 PM - Left Indianapolis and headed towards NC

8/2 - Evening - decided to skip caves we had originally planned and set our destination as the ocean in southern NC!

8/3 - 7 AM - arrived at the ocean! K-man woke up just before we got there and Lucy we had to wake up when we parked! Great night of driving..

8/3 - 12 NOON - Left Ocean for Charlotte.

8/3 - 2:30 PM - Arrived at hotel in Charlotte, enjoyed that evening at a BBQ hosted by the Farley side.

8/4 - all day - saw friends, attending a great wedding, spent time with family!

8/5 - 12 NOON - left NC for the Smokey Mountains!

8/5 - 3 PM to 8PM - spent time in the Mtns - it rained! Got some great videos though and saw Elk and waterfalls.

8/6 - 5AM - Arrived in Osage Beach, MO at the Reilly's condo.

8/6, 8/7, 8/8 - Spent these three days enjoying some down time and time on the water and in the sun in MO.  Great break from all of the driving!  We got in some barefooting (Broghan) and some shopping (Janet & I).  

8/8 - 8 PM - Left Osage for MN

8/9 - 5 AM - Arrived at my parents house in Minnesota.

8/9 - all day - Spent time sleeping and re-packing (Broghan) and playing outside.  Dropped Broghan off at the airport at 6PM for his trip to Denver for a friend's Bachelor party weekend.  The only other excited for this day was that Keller got stung by a bee! :( First bee sting in the family for the kiddos...thankfully no reaction and he didn't even know it happened 15 minutes later. 

8/10 - all day - Como Zoo day! 

8/11 - evening - Went to the Carver County Fair with just Keller, Lucy was being anti-car and stayed back with grandma and grandpa..which was fine...not much to do at a fair for a 1 yr old!

8/12 - 5PM - headed out to pick up Broghan from the airport and finally head home.  Made it back to our house at 8:30PM that night.  Meaning we were gone for almost exactly 11 days.  We survived!!

Pictures from our driving on the first few days...

Keller getting ready with his goggles..

here we go! Blankets, waters, animals, books, snacks...we're good to go!

The view past Lexington, KY.

Random park stop just outside...somewhere...I think Knoxville...lol.  Ended up having a great dog park though!

First dinner on the road! yum yum yum!

Until Next Time...

Baby Bump - July 16th, 2012 ~16 weeks 1 day

My burn..

I talked about it in my earlier post, so I might as well add the only pictures I have of it.  This was pretty close to immediately afterwards.  Looks worse than it felt..I promise :)

Until Next Time...

Boating fun!!! - New boat pics & more.

Since my last post was all about Lucy getting her stitches...it's only appropriate that this post is all about our new boat.  Mostly this is because the two events happened less than 24 hrs apart from each other.  Another thing to add to the list of why our kids are so awesome (and my husband too) is that immediately following the ER trip, they switched vehicles and drove 2 1/2 hrs up to Tomohawk, WI to trade in our boat for this new(er) one.  I got an evening and a full day to myself, although I actually didn't sleep well with it being that way!  But since getting the newer boat, we've been able to make good use of it and have really enjoyed the extras that our older boat didn't have...such as a deeper bow and better seating...plus its got two platforms on the back to help facilitate getting into and out of the boat easier (and work as great jumping off platforms for Keller).  While on their trip, they were able to meet up with some of Broghan's cousins and their kids and in that time, his cousin Mike's oldest daughter, Kate, showed Keller how to trust his life jacket and float and swim without touching! SO AWESOME!

Side profile - gotta love the teal and pink...ahh back to the 90's we go! lol.

Front view.

Same old engine we had before but with a brand new paint job.

First time out on the river...just floatin'..

Dad's handling it.. ;)

Cutie! Gotta protect those stitches!

Keller REALLY likes Lucy's hat..

This wasn't actually taken on the boat but in our back yard...I am in LOVE with Lucy's curls..and this was after boating all day...so it fits here.

This was on a trip we took up to another lake ~45 minutes away...Keller is a pro-fisherman!

Lucy just likes to hang out and play with my stuff when we fish..

This is funny...we finally decided to head in..and at the landing Broghan mentioned he saw some fish swimming around (we had caught NOTHING up to this point) so I through a hook in...and low and behold caught a fish!  I was the first the catch a fish on the new boat :). Sorry for the over exposed skin shot..my belly is taking over!

Keller finally touched a fish!

Hanging out on the river... 

Trying to create shade where the is none..it worked!

That's Keller...just floating...haha, don't worry, we're in a cove with no current...and I could touch where he was...great picture though!

Until Next Time..

Lucy and her stitches.

So this is my side of the story:  It was a Wednesday and I was planning on running a local race at 6:00pm.  I really didn't want to push the kids in the double runner since I had signed up for the 5-miler.  Since I figured I had to be at the race about 30 minutes early - I got the okay from Broghan to drop the kids at the office at around 5PM.  This happened just as planned.  I stayed until about a quarter after and then said my goodbyes and left.  Within five minutes (~2miles away) I saw I missed a call from Broghan...then a second call came in., so of course I took it.  He simply said, "Keller pushed Lucy into the table, she's going to need stitches, you need to come back".  So I turned around and headed back.  On my way I put in calls to her pediatrician office to see if they were still open (they were not), then the Urgent Care (we couldn't be seen for another 2 hrs - not ideal for getting stitches) and finally the ER (who simply said, we cannot guarantee she'll be seen earlier than Urgent Care...super helpful).  But Urgent Care recommend the ER, so that's where we headed.  Luckily enough, it was busy, but not in the waiting room - so it didn't take too long.  I of course missed my race (it rained anyways) but was surprised to see how well Lucy handled everything.  

Waiting in the ER.

Up close.

Hi Dad!

The numbing gel...the longest part of the whole ordeal.  We let it sit for 45+ minutes...

Had to entertain ourselves somehow! So we danced!

Happy tot to calm her down - just after stitches were placed.

Smiles already!

3 stitches was all it was...

Big brother didn't quite realize he caused the whole ordeal (it happens) but he certainly did NOT like her being held down and crying while she got the stitches...I took him out to a waiting area and he just wanted to be with baby Lucy...so worried.  I think the ER visit wore him out more than Lucy!  He was out within minutes of being in the car..

Still smiling!

POST STITCHES PICS

Just before getting them out.

Her ID tag.

No more threads! Just a little steri-strip!

Until Next Time....

Let me climb in your shirt.

Recently, Keller has had this fascination with being skin-on-skin.  As he calls it - I nakey on you! - but in order to achieve this ultimate goal, he chooses to actually climb into our shirts.  We let him of course...because its hilarious and he doesn't do it often.  I was able to snap him in action a few times though.

Playing around outside - photos