Summer, Week 9

WHEW! Another fast week!
As soon as Megan and Tony left, we started getting ready to head north to the Evenson Family Reunion on Lake Wapogasset in Amery, WI.

While Mom packed, it became awfully quiet upstairs...

and this is what laughed itself down the stairs! All 3 girls had such a fun time with the new rubber bands and Ava's ponytail...

Anyway, back to the reunion. We really enjoy getting together with Andy's Aunts and Uncles and cousins...it is always a good time. The weather was a bit steamy this year, but that made the boat rides and swims in the lake all the more pleasant!

We did have some strange spots appear though...on both Ava and Colin.

The above picture shows what Ava looked like most of the 1st day, after we discovered the hundreds of red bumps/dots on her skin...and gave her a large dose of Benadryl to try to stop the itching! Anywhere there was bare skin, she was dotted. What her suit covered was clear! What could it be? Sunscreen? Lake water? Heat rash? Of course, a quick post of picture to facebook brought up many ideas! The most popular idea was "chigger bites" from lake water. Affects some, not others. That would explain Colin and Ava's bumps but not Ellie and Jayna's!

There were also "a few" animals at the lake...a couple of VERY well behaved dogs. (Can anyone believe we have pictures of Jayna looking HAPPY holding dogs?!?!?!?) And Mary and Shoo have chickens! All very cool for the kids to observe. Well, mostly cool....Ava and Colin were not thrilled with the dogs AT ALL.

We had lots of time to re-connect...below you will see:
Andy and cousin Paula by the campfire (Thanks to Aunt Paula for texting me that photo while I was at the motel with the sleeping polka dotted babes!)
Photo below on the top right is 'the spa' at the reunion--apparently it is a tradition for a few kids to offer foot rubs!

Uncle Andy shared some OLD stories about his family and the beginnings of the Boe Cabin (lower left photo above). And what is a campfire without S'Mores?! Ellie was beyond thrilled to have a "real" one, complete with a safe chocolate bar!

All of the children got along wonderfully. It touched all of our hearts to witness kids that see each other 1x a year just pick up where they left off and have a blast together. These photos below just make me laugh...they are of Colin and "his babysitters". These 2 precious girls are Andy's cousins' girls. At one moment, they were playing with Colin outside and we asked them if they could "babysit" him by the sand...they happily took their role VERY seriously.

The babysitting role continued with Colin referring to the girls as "my babysitters" whenever he saw them. Andy snapped the top two photos as they were playing in the bunk room. We did pay the babysitters a dollar and made the comment to one of their dad's that we'll take the girls every Friday night--we'd meet them 1/2way (They live in MN and in NW WI!). One of the girls heard me and said "We'll see you every Friday right?!?!?!" :)

These girls are just precious...and even after we got home, as Colin was looking at the family picture that was taken, he said "Look! My babysitters!"

There was also a lot of re-connecting:
Aunt Joan and Uncle Andy got Ellie an "Ellie's" tee-shirt from a local ice cream store named Ellie's! (The goal is to one day be able to eat that ice cream!)

The "little" girls got to spend time with Aunt Paula from Arizona doing a little craft.
(Aunt Paula is a faithful blog follower and loves keeping up with our family, especially since she is so far away from the rest of us!)

LOTS of Grandma time....and of course, there was Iowa Hawkeye talk! Above lower right photo is Andy and his cousin's husband, Jake--he and Andy were making plans of attending the IA/MN game this coming fall...and "the babysitters" said they'd take care of Colin at the Mall of America during the game! (Cute!)

There was also a lot of swimming and tubing. As you can see, even Colin went on a tube ride! Uncle Shoo is so good with taking the kids (and adults!) out for ride after ride after ride on the boat. He took Colin's ride out R-E-A-L-L-Y slow!

and a huge thank you to Grandma for taking care of Colin in the lake water for his frequent swimming requests!

We were at the reunion Friday-Sunday morning and then took off late Sunday morning for the Wiggles concert in Wisconsin Dells. The children had NO idea we were attending the concert. We THOUGHT surprising them as we arrived in the Dells was a good idea...but looking back, we should have told them as we left Amery. Here we had already traveled for 4 hours and when we arrived at the Dells, they thought we should be home already!

After the initial shock and disbelief, the kids were very excited to see another Wiggles show!

Above, you will see Colin in his "Wiggles Birthday Bash" tee shirt and then making his "Wiggle move" (bottom right photo). This show was the Wiggles' 20th birthday celebration! As usual, it was an awesome show!

As you can see though, one Wiggle was missing...

Jeff had heart surgery in June and Brad replaced him (purple Wiggle). Brad was wonderful...and a comment was made that "Someday you will be Numero Uno"....Hmmm...Wiggles part 2?!

Rico was a part of this show again (upper left) as was Katerina (the kids LOVE Katerina, one of the Wiggly dancers--upper right photo)

And Henry, Dorothy, Captain and Wags too!

Last year, Murray had a family emergency and missed the Chicago show we attended. We really enjoyed seeing him this year. You can tell he is all about the fans, he took time to listen to them, to say "hi", to spend time shaking their hands. We love Murray...."Play Your Guitar With Murray...."
And here's a funny story: Before the show started, Andy walked Colin up to the stage to see all of Murray's guitars lined up on the set. Guess what Colin started doing as soon as we got home? Lining all of his guitars up just like Murray's!

How about that action shot of the Captain that Andy captured?!

Another really fun part of the show was the gathering of the roses for Dorothy the Dinosaur. In reality, the roses are collected and taken to nursing homes...but in all of the Wiggles' stories, Dorothy the Dinosaur LOVES roses!

We had forgotten about the roses...and how the Wiggles come into the audience to collect them.
BUT...the people behind us had A LOT of roses and one of the gals gave each of the girls a rose to give to the Wiggle that came in our area. Below, you will see Sam Wiggle coming to get the roses and saying "hi" as he takes the roses from each girl. They thought it was fabulous!

And a family favorite Wiggle song at their concerts--Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! They just put a great spin on the song! It was a really fun end to a busy weekend.

We did capture a couple of videos:
Wake Up Brad/Toot Toot Chugga (Brad was a Broadway singer and they tied that into his wake up!): Click HERE.
A bit of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: Click HERE.

Once we finally arrived home, we were ready to switch gears for Music Camp which started early the next morning. However, as we unpacked, we discovered that Ellie was burning up with a fever! No wonder she had eaten nearly nothing all day and was a tad grumpy on the drive home! Not a good condition to be in though, when you have a part in the musical for music camp that is just 1 week long!

We tried to attend music camp but I received a call Monday afternoon before practice was over...Ellie was sick. Sure enough, she was now polka dotted in a rash and was running a fever. I rushed her to the dr to get a strep test--she had all the symptoms, but a negative test! She was down and out for a good 36 hours and then bounced back beautifully for the rest of music camp!

During that same time, Colin also came down with a fever, severe headache, and threw up 2x one night all over me, the couch, the floor...ugh. He too, was fine after 36 hours!

And as I end the week 8 round up, I leave you with 2 Colin photos...one of "the sand"--he is still constantly asking to play in the sand. And he doesn't just play in the sand...he becomes one with the sand. He's had a lot of baths this summer! And then the photo with the Chicago Bears helmet--Andy was elated to find a Bears helmet at the reunion and HAD to have a photo shoot with Colin wearing it!