Red House 2014: Day Five (Tuesday, July 15)

Tuesday, July 15

So, here's the thing.  This may look like the same stuff over and over to you, but - and this is gonna sound terrible - I just don't care.  This is what vacation always was for me growing up, and I feel so blessed to be able to share it with my family now that I'm a momma.  The fact that we get to do this with The Grumps is just the icing on the cake for me.

For The Princess, cabins are for eating and drinking in between outings to the water: lake versus pool, she doesn't care.  As long as she can swim, she's happy.  And floating in the middle of the lake is dandy, but beachin' is a major favorite activity.

10:00 am: This, my friends, is what happens when you
wait too long.  Girls take matters into their own hands,
and Speedos become very interesting contraptions indeed.

10:12 am: A little bit of pool kung fu with Da never hurt anyone.  This
picture kills me.

2:11 pm: We're back on the boat, and Piggy just loves it (and her daddy).
A cold front has moved through, and it's much cooler - in the high 70's to
low 80's, where the temp will remain for the rest of our trip.  Super weird
for this time of year, but really comfortable for cruising and beachin'.

4:34 pm: Meanwhile, back at the island, The Princess has been claimed.

5:21 pm: Family photo!  At least you can see all of us.  So what if one kid is
basking in the sun and the other is ramming potato chips into her mouth?

Before returning to the dock, we stopped off for gas and pizza at a marina close to the island.  I have to say my expectations were not very high for the marina pizza, but I was pleasantly surprised.  It was super yummy and exactly what I needed after a day in the sun and water.

6:49 pm: There are no words for how proud I am of my sweet little Piggy.
She stunned us many times on this trip, and she was such a good girl.

7:10 pm: The view from my seat on the way back to the
dock, Jessie leading the way.

7/16/14 12:19 am: Well, this is what I get for going to bed
so late.  That's my pillow she's passed out on.  Yes, I
carefully crawled in around her and took the hard-as-a-
rock resort pillow so she wouldn't have to move.

The main problem with the cooler temperatures: sunburn.  The Hubbs and Grumpa both kind of roasted themselves to a crisp today, never thinking to apply more sunscreen because it wasn't super-hot outside.  Just a guess: they won't be making that same mistake again.

Red House 2014: Day Four (Monday, July 14)

Monday, July 14

Ugh...Monday.  Oh, wait.  No work!  Fantastic!  I texted my buddy Bear to say happy birthday, and he told me he heard it was insanely busy at our office.  We were both off for the same week - him to celebrate his birthday and prepare for an upcoming move, and me for Red House with the fam.  I love being in a position where I don't have to worry about work crap while I'm on family time.  It's been years since I haven't been in an "on-call" position, and I am absolutely adoring my current office monkey status.

Something new today: water!  I know, I know...you've been waiting for it, just wondering when we'd finally get to the part where we swim.  Well, look no further, friends.  Today, we swam and swam and swam.

Somewhere in there, I believe The Hubbs and I also took The Princess into town to grab some extra snackies and things.  While we were out, The Hubbs set himself and me up with new cheapie fishing rods to bring home when the trip is over.  They work great, and mine is already broken in.

8:41 pm: This was taken right next to the Grumps' boat after our fourth
 swim of the day - count so far: pool 2, lake 2.  Very few pictures today,
as my phone and camera are sadly not waterproof, so they had to stay
back while I swam and played and chucked my girl into the air.

I just really like seeing her feet next to mine.  Maybe it's a mom thing; maybe
it's a me thing.  Not sure, don't particularly care...I just like it. :)

11:00 pm: My dock Piggy and I went fishing by ourselves tonight...
everybody else was too tired.

11:13 pm: Piggy thought fishing was great fun - lying on the dock, soaking up
love - until we actually caught a fish.  She freaked and danced backwards,
spooked by the flappy little thing.

My evenings tend to be long and lazy at Red House.  Piggy and I finished up our fishing trip shortly after this little guy, and we hung out with Grumma for a bit on the porch when we got back up to the cabin before heading to bed around 1:00 am.

Red House 2014: Day Three (Sunday, July 13)

Sunday, July 13

Buckle up, y'all...this was a heck of a day.  The Princess, The Hubbs and I ventured up to the pool a few times in between eating and relaxing at the cabin during the hottest part of the day.  Late in the afternoon, we decided it was time to take Piggy for her very first boat ride.  Like, ever.  In her life.

4:54 pm: All ready to head out to the island for some beachin'.  Piggy did
far better than I had thought she would getting onto the Grumps' low
profile fishing boat from the dock.

5:12 pm: Piggy wades into the water, ready to discredit the myth that
bulldogs sink.

5:15 pm: She swam out to me when I called to her, and I led her to an
underwater picnic table to sit and hang with the fam.  The really funny
bit was when she tried to sit like this, her rear end would float.  That's
why her daddy has his arm around her like that (and - duh - it's cute).

Here we all are on the picnic table.  Thanks, Grumma, for taking pics. :)

On the way back to shore, I wanted to keep a hand on her harness in case
the rumors were true.

I'm happy to report that our bulldog most definitely does not sink.  She does,
however, spend an awful lot of time trying to shake the water off of her face.

5:37 pm: After her successful first swim, Piggy and I hung out on shore.

5:50 pm: The submerged picnic table is still a big hit.

6:02 pm: Piggy's aunt Jessie, sunning herself dry after
being coerced into the water with promises of
cheeseburgers.

7:33 pm: Going out on a limb here, I'm gonna say she
enjoyed her first time on the boat.

8:44 pm: Our sweet little worn out thing didn't move from this spot on the
couch for the rest of the evening.  Today was a heck of a day, man!

10:30 pm: The view from the swimming dock while I fished
with Grumma.

11:15 pm: Normally, I'd have all sorts of great bass, walleye and striper pics
to share from a trip like this, but we really got skunked with some weird
weather and not so hungry fish.  The green sunfish didn't mind eating
our minnows, though.  I'm extremely impressed with this one, as you
can plainly see.

I believe I ended up with something like 6 green sunfish this evening, none
of them any bigger than this.  Silly things.

That concludes day three of our week-long vacation.  Day 4 will be posted tomorrow...stay tuned for more riveting pics!

Red House 2014: Day Two (Saturday, July 12)

Saturday, July 12

Our first full day at Red House was largely spent moving Grumma and Grumpa to our newer, bigger cabin across the compound and getting all of us settled in our new digs.  When that was done, The Princess decided it was time to take Grumma, Momma and Piggy down to the dock.

1:55 pm: Here's my little swimmer showing off.  It's only about 60 feet
deep here.  Before the week was up, she was a friggin' ninja with this
life jacket.  Had to watch her like a hawk, or that thing was comin' off.

1:56 pm: Sharing one of my favorite places in the world with my favorite
person in the world.  Doesn't get much better than this.

2:12: This afternoon, we found out Piggy is a dock dog at heart.  She hung
out in this spot watching us swim and just taking it all in for about an hour
before we headed back up to the cabin to get ready for an early dinner.

3:45 pm: Another of my favorite places, this joint has the best catfish and
hush puppies.  I try to hit it at least once every time we visit, and though
The Princess had a bit of a rough time waiting for her food, we all enjoyed
it very much.

Not pictured: two or three trips to the pool, including feats of acrobatic beauty performed by The Princess while retrieving dive sticks.

Red House 2014: Day One (Friday, July 11)

Ah, home.  As nice as vacation is (and this was a doozie), it's always nice to settle back in.  We arrived home in time to have dinner from our favorite little place in town yesterday, and today has been spent running errands and preparing to rejoin the working world.

Sneaky, right?  I told y'all we'd be on vacation, but I never said when.  We left here on Friday, July 11, while everybody else was still at work, and pulled into our garage yesterday evening.  This past week was a big undertaking with an enormous amount of unknowns.  The Princess has been to Red House with me.  So has The Hubbs.  But we've never all been there together, and Piggy has never taken a car ride for more than about 45 minutes.  Red House is just over ten hours away.

Lots of stuff could have gone wrong.  So many wrenches could have gotten lodged in our gears.  But none did.  This past week was relaxing, invigorating, heartwarming and so many other "ings" that we so sorely needed.

This will be a multi-part post, likely running for the entire week, as I am completely incapable of keeping it short.  There are so many great pictures, and I can't possibly cram all of my faves into one post.  Plus, I have to make up for skipping last week's post, right?  Right.  Whatever it takes to justify this, sign me up.

And without further ado, I give you "Red House 2014: Day One (Friday, July 11)".

7:00-ish am: It's wayyy too early for a girl to get out of bed, but they made
me eat breakfast anyway.  Then, we got in the car.  Like, all of us...Piggy too.

9:16 am: A couple of hours into our trip, we had to blow off some steam.
I swung.  Piggy walked.  Momma and Da dragged me inside to pee.

6:33 pm: We're here!  Dragged the necessities into Grumma and Grumpa's
little cabin (we're moving to a bigger one tomorrow), and we headed straight
for the pool.

9:56 pm: This is what Momma and Grumma do at night:
they take big sticks, put little fish on the ends, dangle
their feet off the dock and listen to the tree frogs.

10:35 pm: Almost a full moon!

Well, y'all, that's day one.  Stay tuned for more!

Did Somebody Say Montage?

The Fourth of July: one of those holidays that historically has not played well with our family.  Take a puppy who is terrified of boomers, a girl and her autism who are not fans of crowds or noisy places and things, and pop them into a teeny tiny town with a big celebration.  Stir, and you've got the equivalent of human Mentos and diet Coke, if you know what I mean, Vern.

Last year was the first time we took The Princess and ran before they shut down the road for the parade.  This parade involves all of our small town's firetrucks, sirens wailing, and about eight hundred and forty-two more vehicles.  Kids march in the parade for their baseball teams, the ski team is represented, as are all area politicians.  Candy is thrown from floats and cars alike, and it's really kind of fun if you like that kind of thing.

Last year's trip to the state park during this craziness was so relaxing, we decided to do it again.  Before lunch, we packed up the kiddos and got the heck out of Dodge.

Our little picnic in the shade...the weather was just
perfect - about 75 and sunny.

The Princess was excited to get to the playground.

From there, we took our guard Piggy to another playground nearby.

The Princess thought this one was pretty great - it was our first time here.

It's nice to know I'm not the only one looking out for our girl.
Such a regal pup.

This playground was seriously cool.

This came a split second before...

...she jumped.

This beautiful covered picnic area is huge, and it even
has a fireplace.

A Piggy and her momma.

And, as every good underdog movie editor knows, sometimes you just need a montage.  Here's one of my girl during Sprinklerpalooza on the afternoon of the 4th, while the rest of the town was down at the lakefront watching the ski team's annual show.

After playing in the sprinkler, we went inside for a bit to dry off and calm down.  This is when I began my annual "I wish someone besides me wanted to see the fireworks" ho-hummitude.  I know I can go by myself, but somehow that just doesn't seem as fun.

The Princess wanted to snuggle up with me on the couch, so on a whim I showed her a couple of videos of fireworks on my phone.  She.  Was.  Mesmerized.

Huh.  I wondered.  I hemmed.  I hawed.

I asked her if she'd like to see fireworks down by the lake, and without a moment's hesitation she nodded her head and grunted to the affirmative.  For better or worse, I decided, we were gonna try this.

She was super-excited to go for a walk with me, and she even carried her
own bag chair all the way down to the lake.

Getting close to dark, and we got a great spot.

Tom Petty was right...the waiting is the hardest part.

And then - just when I thought for sure she was going to wiggle right out
of my grasp - she plopped back into her seat in awe.

I was afraid the noise would be too much.  There was no way to know
until we were there, in the thick of it.  I needn't have worried.  There
were happy flappies all over the place and not a panicky moment
to be had.

She loved it.  Seven years old, and my girl has finally experienced her
first fireworks display.  I'll tell ya this: it won't be the last.  I smell
a new tradition forming.

The rest of the weekend has been spent doing as much family stuff as we can.  Piggy has accompanied us pretty much everywhere, except the places where she's not allowed.  She has also developed a deep and meaningful relationship with her current rawhide bone, who we've dubbed Wilson after Tom Hanks' volleyball friend from Castaway.  Ya know, because Wilson keeps her company while she's all alone.

Going out on a limb here, I'm guessing this girl just
hates going to the lake.  Right?  Heh.

Today was overcast, and the water was a bit too cold for me, but Da is
way braver than I am.  He must have tossed The Princess twenty
times, and you should have heard the squees of joy.

Running along shore

About to launch herself off the pier

After a while, she decided it was super fun to just get
her momma's back all wet and clammy.  Can't say
I disagreed too much.  I'll take hugs from my girl
any day of the week.

The Princess's last day of summer school was Wednesday, and now we're dealing with the annual transition from lots of structure to loosy-goosy vacation land.  She has another new tooth coming in, and it's wreaking havoc on her poor little head.  Never a dull moment, I tell ya.

Ooh!  And we may have figured out what we're gonna do for our vacation next year.  It involves a big-ass road trip and somewhere between four and nine national parks.  More to come on that later. :)