The Lincoln Lodge, Summer 2011

We spent last week vacationing with Tom's family (everyone - Grandma, Grandpa, the four of us, Adam and Chandi, Jenna, and Grant - made it) at The Lincoln Lodge in Northern Wisconsin. We fished, swam, and lounged in the lake; played disc golf, Blongo Ball, Uno, and checkers; watched girly movies and Man vs. Wild episodes; read books and trashy gossip magazines; sang “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and Justin Bieber’s “Baby”; danced to keyboard demo songs; and shopped “in town” at antique and touristy shops. We ate too much fried fish, too many brownies, and too many Harry Potter Bertie Bott’s beans (there’s a story here, but this isn’t the post for it), and drank a few too many Blue Moon beers and Amaretto Sours. We laughed and cried and talked and sat in comfortable silence and made this vacation, as vacations at The Lodge always are, perfectly relaxing and rejuvenating.

Bottom line: we had a blast. And here are the pictures to prove it!

We're back!

The airline misplaced our luggage for about 24 hours, so for the first day of our trip we were all wearing other people's clothes. Hallie and Will thought it was awesome.


Enjoying the view from the end of the dock.


My super hero boy.

Happy Birthday, America!

Good times shopping at Wal-Mart.


Chandi's leg goes on forever!


Horribly ugly Wal-Mart 4th of July shirt #1.


Horribly ugly Wal-Mart 4th of July shirt #2.


Horribly ugly Wal-Mart 4th of July shirt #3.

Waiting for Uncle Adam to start the campfire with fireworks. We convinced Will, in the name of fireworks safety, that Uncle Adam had attended and graduated from a special school that trained and then qualified him to use fireworks.


The Bertie Bott's beans we snuck into Tom's birthday cupcake were heavy and fell to the bottom of the cupcake paper, thus ruining the surprise. (Or at least preventing Tom from learning about their presence when he bit into his cupcake.)


"Cheers-ing" the beans. (We played quite a few rounds of Uno. All of the losers - everyone except the one winner - had to eat a bean at random from the Bertie Bott's box of beans.)


"Chasing" the beans with donuts.


Rotten egg.

The girl loves her boat coat, and the water, to the point that I just couldn't stop her when she was ready to go in.

Will is a pro at fishing. He knows how to climb in and out of the boat (for the record, the boat is on the shore here, which is why he's not wearing a life jacket),

Cast,

Take the hook out of and thumb the fish,

And throw the fish back in the water.


He can also do all of these things naked. (?!)
  

We bathed the kids in the lake one night. One child loved it...


...And one child hated it.

Love.

Aunt Chandi painted tiny hearts on Hallie's toenails.

And every morning, Aunt Chandi and Hallie picked bouquets of Sweet Williams (or "Will Sweeties", as Hallie called them). Chandi's bouquet was displayed in the kitchen, and Hallie carried her bouquet around for the entire day.

Cousin Molly and her husband Kevin stopped by and Hallie caught up with their full-grown-but-just-Hallie's-size dog.

Sharing Fruit Loops with Grandpa.

Cuddling with Grandma.

Will learned how to play Checkers, Uno, and Sorry on this trip.

We gave potty training a try at the Lodge, but found out that Hallie is definitely NOT ready.

Awww... Grandma consoles naked Hallie (who's not picking her nose) while Hallie's mom sits back and drinks a beer.

Culvers - mmm...

Fish fry - double mmm...

Playing with Uncle Adam and Aunt Chandi.


Will and Hallie LOVE the song "Baby" by Justin Bieber (thank you Glee). Here's a video of them singing and dancing to Tom's piano rendition of the hit tune. I think Will's trying out a heart throb meets superhero-who-has-to-pee performance style.

There's still one video post to come, but we're waiting on AJ (who is super busy these days) edit a couple of different videos down into one top-notch video. Just thinking about it makes me smile, and I'm sure you'll love it. Hint - the video has to do with "Baby", and Hallie's obsession with singing the correct words...

Thanks, everyone, for a great trip!