"North for the Fourth"

Not that we knew we were doing something special at the time, but we found out that Wisconsinites go "north for the fourth" and we followed in that tradition unintentionally.  We went up to our land to camp over the holiday weekend.  We didn't actually take a lot of pictures, but it was a fun trip nonetheless.  We met a friend of Chris' on the way up for lunch of Friday; first time I had met him.  Very nice guy and I hope we can see more of him and his family in the future.  Got to our land that afternoon and the hubby cut down a tree that was leaning before we got the camper set up; he had been anticipating doing this because we are leaving the camper there for the summer to save gas costs hauling it back and forth.  I can honestly say that it was the hottest up there it has ever been since we've been camping there for the last 5-6 years.  He was absolutely drenched in sweat by the time he was done.  Unfortunately, it had also rained up there a couple days prior and with the heat was just steamy, which made for good breeding grounds for mosquitos and humongous black flies.  :(  I know I've mentioned before that  our camper is pretty much an apartment on wheels and hardcore campers will scoff at us calling what we do camping, but I'm really okay with that.  At this point, when they would be outside trying to fend off the flies and bugs, I stayed in our camper and turned on the air conditioning.  Laugh if you will, because we certainly did!!  Never did we think that we would actually use what we thought was going to be a miscellaneous piece of equipment that came with the camper.  Between that and the indoor shower, it just paid itself off as far as we were concerned.  That is the only time we used it during the trip, although it was so hot after we turned it off for the night that I thought I was never going to get to sleep!  I eventually did, although I don't think I slept well the entire time we were there because a certain little someone likes to flop around during his sleep, so I kept getting either kicked or hit in the face...a lot.

Boo did great, whether we were inside or out.  Before we left home, we found out that there is The Choo-choo Store (yes, that is the name of the store) about 40 minutes from our campsite.  So we drove down there on Saturday morning and let him play in the kid's playroom for a while.  And of course, he came away with some goodies to add to his collection of trains, all of which we took with us on our trip.  We went out to lunch at a little mom-and-pop shop where Boo proceeded to charm all the women around us, including actually climbing up in a chair at one table with two ladies who had been saying hi to him towards the end of our meal!  What a social butterfly.

That night, we had friends come camp with us overnight.  They are fellow adoptive parents, waiting to travel for their son in Korea.  At one point, I had called Jessie, "C_____'s mommy" instead of by her name and from then on, Boo called her C_____.  It was adorable!  And I could not get him to say her name at all after that.  I look forward to more camping trips with them and their son when he comes home.  It will be so much fun for Boo to have a friend his age up there.  Again, I didn't get a picture of all of us, but have one where Boo is showing C's mommy the stones he collected.

Sunday we just stayed around the campsite after Jessie and Jay left and didn't do much of anything.  Oh, I think that's the day I actually took a nap while Boo and daddy went for a walk.  It was cooler with a little breeze going through the camper and so quiet.  On Monday, we went to a national park/campground nearby and played in the water at the edge of a lake.  Boo held his first crayfish and Daddy was unbelievably proud!  We hadn't put him in a swim diaper before letting him get his feet wet and by the time we thought about it, it was too late.  Let me tell you, those regular diapers can hold a lot of water!!!  I think the thing was a good 5+ pounds by the time we were done there and got it off of him.  It was kind of funny because you could tell he was kind of walking bowlegged to make room for the extremely soggy diaper he was wearing!  But he was having such a good time, that I don't think he even noticed it.  We then walked around their campground and headed back to the camper.

Drove home on Tuesday, meeting Chris' parents on the way for dinner so they could see their grandson. He had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and got some new toys to play with, of course!  We were all happy to be home that night, though, and sleep in our own beds.  Boo had fallen asleep around 8 (his normal time) and we got home around 9.  We thought he might wake up completely and want to play once we got home, but decided to try to put him down in his crib right away anyways...so glad we did.  He did awesome!  Changed his diaper, got him in his PJs, rocked with him for maybe a minute and then put him down, awake, tiptoeing out of the room.  He went right to sleep and didn't fuss at all.  I think he was glad to be back home in his bed that he doesn't have to share with two big bed-hogging parents!  Home sweet home.

Chris, Boo, and Mike

C's mommy

dinnertime

chillin' with his M&M cookie

bathtime in the camper 

(another reason we like this because he hates showers!)

reading the free train catalogue he got at the store

holding his first crayfish

notice the soggy diaper??

going to eat with grandpa and grandma on the way home

Yeah, so I took more pictures than I thought while we were up there.  And video (to come on Movie Monday).  Guess I'll always be a shutterbug when it comes to our little man!!