Busy, Busy, Busy...

Wow! This past couple of weeks has been so busy! Sarah (my sister) left on Wednesday, so I wanted to make sure that she saw the best of Wisconsin before she left. So last Thursday, we went to Menomonee Falls beach. We were the only ones there for a while and so we could see the fish swimming with us (a little bit weird, but I am getting used to it). Carter loved it. He would sit very still, waiting for the fish to get close enough for him to catch in his bucket. All he caught was a tadpole. He didn't believe that it was a baby frog, and just tried to squish it. All in all, it was a great day.

Friday we went to Six Flags. We were a bit hesitant, because we didn't have a babysitter for Carter, and Samantha had to come with us as well. So I just expected to watch the kids all day while Sarah and Mike went on rides. It's pretty much how it worked out, but I was very surprised at how many rides Carter could go on! He is a little bit tall for his age, so he just made the 36" cutoff for most of the rides. There were also a lot that he could go on all by himself--he loved the idea. I am pretty sure that he went on more rides than all of us put together. He didn't even get scared, which shocked me, especially when he went on the boat that swings back and forth really high. Mike said he was just screaming along with everyone else. To this day, anytime he thinks about roller coasters or anything to do with Six Flags he has to remind me that the roller coasters are scary and the people go "aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh" as loudly as possible (that didn't fly so well when he did it as Samantha was going to sleep today). If you can, ask him about it. He'll share.
We saw the wiggles. Here is Carter with Wags the dog. We also met Dorothy the Dinosaur--jealous?
After about 6, the lines on certain rides really went down. After getting soaked on the Roaring Rapids (where onlookers can pay $.25 to soak the riders), I realized why... we were freezing! Carter was afraid that we wouldn't let him go on more rides, so through chattering teeth he made sure that we knew that he was warm. This is him making his cold face (I didn't say it was a cute face).
One ride that the lines disappeared on later on was American Eagle. It is the old wooden roller coaster. We were able to walk on to it after 9 (yes, we are bad parents keeping our kids out so late). We waited an hour to go on the Batman roller coaster and it had nothing on this one. There is just something about feeling like you could derail and die at any moment that really gets your heart racing. I am pretty sure we caught air a couple of times. It was definitely a great way to end the day.

Saturday was the Kohl's Big Event, which is their yearly Brewer's game/tailgating party. It was pouring, which kind of sucked, but they always have great food, and this year was no exception. As anyone who knows me knows, I love food, and this was good food. I probably gained a good 5 pounds between 6 flags and the game. They closed the roof, so we stayed dry inside. Samantha loves baseball, and she always looks so good in her Brewer's outfits (thanks Laura!). I am not sure how much she loved being zipped inside Mike's jacket on the way to and from the stadium, but she stayed dryer than the rest of us!

Sarah left on Wednesday. We will miss her! I am doing OK on my own. I only have to make it 3 weeks until my other sister Amber comes out (yay!). She is only here for a couple of days though.

The rest of this week has just been resting up from last week, and trying to get this house cleaned up. My kids know when I want to get things done and do everything in their power to thwart my efforts. Samantha took a total of 45 minutes of nap today and then wouldn't go to sleep tonight--that's a whole other issue. Carter also declined the nap today, after playing in his room for a half hour, he comes out and says "good morning mommy!" in this high pitched, syrupy sweet voice. He was a terror today. Needless to say, I did not finish cleaning the house. I need to lower my expectations.

One cute thing Carter is doing now is using the word "super" for everything:
"It's super rainy"
"I'm super sorry, Dad"
"It's super locked"
Everything is super. It's a good thing he is so funny, otherwise, we probably would have sent him away months ago.


Anyways, I think that's enough for now. We don't have much going on in the next little while, except Mike going to Vegas next week for work. I am pretty jealous, but I am pretty sure that there are some sort of laws against bringing young children into the casinos. I am just hoping to hold on to the very last bit of sanity I have going for me. We'll see...

Bowling

I took Carter bowling today for the first time. Other than the cranky old men on the next lane who insisted on giving me bowling etiquette lessons ("a little courtesy here..."), it was a lot of fun. I love Carter's shoes.

Carter mostly loved the ball return. He didn't care about knocking down the pins, he just loved it that he could push the ball down the lane and it would come back to him.

I, on the other hand bowled a 135, almost a personal high (go bumpers!). Sarah did pretty well also. Just not as good as me.

Fair Friday

Mike's dad is in town, so we thought we would show him what Wisconsin is all about. What better place to do this than the state fair? All the best of Milwaukee showcased in one fantastic location. My favorite booth was Dr. Vegetable's--deep fried vegetables. That's right, cauliflower, broccoli, even pickles! People here will do anything to make food taste better with more fat. Ice cream not rich enough for you? Let's add some more cream and eggs and call it custard! You like hot dogs? Try a brat! Maybe it has something to do with survival, we all have to pack on a couple extra pounds to survive the 10 months of winter.
Anyways, Carter loved the animals, I loved the food, and Samantha just enjoyed being anywhere with air conditioning. Mike got a big kick out of my choice of location for feeding Samantha (hey--it was a quiet, shady spot!).

I'll be honest, I mostly went for the food. Nothing beats a fresh corn dog, followed by some roasted corn and fresh french fries. Yum! I probably gained 5 pounds today. It was worth it, though. We all had a great time, and I think we wore Grandpa out as much as we wore Carter out!

After the fair, a nap and dinner we went swimming at Grandpa's hotel. It was Samantha's first time swimming and Mike bought her swimsuit. So cute! Overall, we had a fun, full day, and I am exhausted!

This is Samantha at 11:00 pm when she is supposed to be asleep (she doesn't know that apparently): I love her crazy hair. I really do try to make it look nice, but within minutes it's all sticking up again.

On another note, I finished Harry Potter today. I am a little bit sad that it is over and there are no more. It was a good ending, I won't give it away, but I am excited for Mike to finally finish it so that I can talk about it!

S'mores

We had some leftover s'mores stuff from camping, so we made some after dinner (we roasted the marshmallows over the stove top).

Carter's prayer tonight:

Heavenly Father, thank you for s'mores. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

In my defense

At lunch today my sister was telling me that she saw a Mythbusters (the show on the Discovery channel) and they addressed the whole daddy long legs myth. http://mythbustersresults.com/episode13
And yes, daddy long legs can indeed bite. And, they are poisonous. So, I have every reason not to like them. I only wish that Sarah had come to my defense when I was being made fun of for shreiking like a little school girl when I had one on me. Where were you on that one, Sarah?

The itsy bitsy spider...

Alright, I know that they are "harmless", that their mouths are too small to bite you (so they say). But you tell me that you would be alright knowing that your tent is covered in spiders? Knowing that they could be creeping all over you? Luckily, I was blissfully unaware of the spider situation until the morning when we were taking the tent down. I was in the tent brushing out the grass and dirt, when I see one of them staring down at me from the ceiling of the tent. Then on the way out, I felt one on me. Needless to say, I screamed a little bit (I believe the word was "yeeks") and got out of there fast. After that, it was Mike's turn to deal with the tent. I saw no less than 8 of these on the outside of the tent, and I don't even want to think about how many more made their way inside.

Then, to make things worse, Mike left Samantha's car seat outside of the tent overnight, so we had yet another one of our little friends in there, and one of his cousins (probably the poisonous kind). I hate spiders and wish they would all die. I don't really care what impact that would have on the ecosystem, I would be happy if I never saw another one.

So, after all of that, you may think that I am a pampered camper. This is not the case. I have been camping all my life and I love it. It is a bit more challenging with kids (more so for Mike who slept on the floor next to me and the kids on the air mattress), but still fun. I can't believe how much stuff you need. It took all day to prepare for this event and then the rest of Saturday cleaning up from it. I did 10 loads of laundry on Saturday! Not all of this was from camping, but a good share of it was. Luckily, I can start the hallway washers for free, so I get those going and I can be doing 6 loads at a time. Was all of this worth the 15 hours we actually spent there? I'm still not sure, but it was fun.

Mike finally bought the tent that he has been looking at for at least a year and a half (trying to find the best deal). I have to say, it is really nice, although we did get teased a little bit due to the size--hey, it's got to last forever for how much we paid for it, and our family isn't getting any smaller. Best of all, Mike can put it up all by himself, which means less work for me.

Carter had a blast. There were lots of other kids for him to play with and he absolutely went nuts with the s'mores. He was shoving the chocolate and marshmallows in this face Kobiyashi-style. It was pretty special. That would be the main contributing factor to him not going to sleep until 10:30. He was up bright and early, though: "Mom, I can be awake now, it's light!" 6:30 sure comes early... However, by the time we got up, the Anthonys had already been to McDonald's and back. It's kind of cheating, but actually a really good idea.

We went swimming in the lake Saturday, and even though the water was pretty cold, and it was cool and cloudy, Carter got right in.

I forgot his swim suit at home, so he went in just a swim diaper, which for the record, I am against. He had a great time and kept going deeper and deeper until the water was to his chin. I think he was a fish in a past life. Even Samantha got her little toes wet. She loves the water too- If I would have had a swim diaper for her, she would have gotten in. However, I am also against kids in fat, soggy diapers. I'm no fun.

Our swim time was cut short when a group of drunk kids came down and started causing trouble. I didn't want Carter to have to witness one of them drowning at such a young age.

All in all, though, it was a great time. We had a good turnout and we might even consider going camping again this year!

Hooray!!!

For those of you who don't know, I manage the apartments that we live in. It has been a great job--I work for a good company, the money is good, and it is very nice to be able to work at home. However, it is a LOT of work. Anyways, yesterday I found out that everyone will be staying for September and October, which means that I am done for the year! I still have 2 more apartments to rent out for this month, but after that, I am done. I am so excited! I am going to turn on the answering machine and never answer the phone or the door. I am going to stay in my pj's all day and take naps--how I have been missing my naps. Anyways, during rental season, I always have to be ready in case someone drops by to check out the apartments. No longer! It's the same feeling as the last day of school. I have started making plans for the last months of summer...we are going camping this weekend, we are going to the Dells (the water park capitol of the world), I want to go on a road trip to DC to visit Jon and Christine, and I am sure that I will be able to find more to do. Blessed freedom...