beanski

dear renee

Dear Renee,

 

I’ve been wondering for months how I am going to deal with my baby, my first-born, the thing that is solely responsible for coloring my world bright, happy colors, having her first birthday. I found out today. I cried a lot. I sat in your bedroom after I put you to bed and I watched the air go in and out of your lungs, marveling at what a miracle you are. It sounds cliche but it is the damned truth. I thought about how if things hadn’t gone down exactly the way they did, you would have never existed and about how miraculous it is that your Daddy and I basically conjured you out of thin air. I sat there amazed that you managed to become a healthy, smart, beautiful little girl despite your Dad and me floundering around, struggling to learn how to become proper parents. I feel like I’m living an entirely different life than I was last year, a life that I see through your eyes rather than my own. My new life is a lot more colorful and vibrant, the laughter is louder and much more frequent and not a day goes by that I don’t feel like my heart is going to explode from loving you so incredibly much. You brought more sunshine and sheer happiness with you the day you came home from the hospital than I ever thought existed.

 

I fell in love with your Dad the day you were born in a way I never thought was possible, as watching him teach you things and sneak in kisses on the top of your head, makes me realize that he, and only he, understands the way I feel about you. He is the only other person on the face of the earth that has been there every day to watch the intricacies of you growing into the shy, feisty and sweet all-at-the-same-time one-year-old you are today. Just thinking about it brings a lump up into my throat and causes tears to form in the corners of my eyes. It is a love that I could have never understood had you not come into our lives and I thank you for that.

 

Things like you starting kindergarten and you learning to ride a bike for the first time and you going on your first date seemed like an eternity away at the beginning but now they seem like they are right around the corner. Because this first year, it went by in the blink of an eye. I’m certain that every year from this point forward will seem like it is in warp time speed. My goal is to remember to sit back and watch and not wish away a single minute of it. I’ll even get up in the middle of the night and hold you if you want to be cuddled because baby, I know that someday you’ll just up and stop wanting me to hold you ever. I’ll take you outside even if there is laundry to be done because someday you’ll want to go outside without me and I’ll have all of the time in the world to do laundry. I have learned not to wish away a single moment of this experience as every phase is just a phase and it will go as quickly as it came. I have to remind myself of this often and utter the words to myself “You’re going to miss this someday” when I’m in the middle of struggling to get you down for a nap or when you’re trying to climb my legs in the kitchen because you just want me to hold you instead of making you dinner. I already miss you being that little blob of baby-cuteness you were when we brought you home from the hospital a year ago and by next year, I’ll miss your chubby little legs and everything about you that makes you the perfect little one-year-old I am so thankful to have today.

 

Happy Birthday, baby.

 

Love,

Mommy

twelve months

That's right, MONTHS. I refuse to come to terms with reality. In fact, I plan on referring to her as 192 months old on the day she turns 16. She is my baby and always will be and no one can make me stop. I will never admit that she is one-year-old. SO THERE.

The little monster had an interesting month. One minute she was as happy as a peach and the other she was a little, well, monster. She has decided that she is not only capable of, but really effective at, asserting herself. This is all fine and dandy as long as we cater to her every whim.

I WANT OUT OF MY CARSEAT RIGHT NOW. And no, I will not forget and be lulled to sleep by tranquilizing sound of the highway rolling under our tires. I will only get more and more mad until you remove me from these confines. Or you get in the backseat with me and feed me junk food. I'm partial to Goldfish crackers, so snap to it. Like YESTERDAY.

I DON'T CARE IF YOU TELL ME NO EVERY TIME I TRY TO CLIMB THIS GATE, I'M GOING TO DO IT ANYWAYS. I'll do it over and over and over and over until you eventually get so sick and tired of hauling me to the living room only to have me bee-line right back to the gate that you'll just let me do it. After no fewer than a thousand times of trying to deter me, even you will give up and not care if I fall down the stairs and crack my skull. That's all I want, WHY WON'T YOU JUST GIVE ME WHAT I WANT? I WANT A CRACKED SKULL RIGHT NOW!

She spent at least half of the month standing at her water table. And don't try to take her inside for dinner or try to warm her up and stop her from shivering because she will have NONE of it.

Renee talked in a lot of capital letters this month. In fact, pretty much everything she said was in all caps. TWEE! DA! DAT! KITTY! NO! Mama still sounds a bit like Bwa Bwa and come to think of it, I don't think she says that in all caps. Let's face it, I'm not all that exciting. I find the whole learning thing so amazing. She remembers things I've only ever told her once and points at every one of them with this proud little look on her face. She is a very inquisitive baby and starts pointing at everything the minute anyone picks her up, desparately wanting to say "Please tell me what DAT is called."

She is on the M-O-V-E and hits the ground crawling the minute you set her down to see what sort of trouble she can get into. She has mastered the art of climbing the stairs and is pulling herself up to stand next to EVERYTHING. She can navigate between the two ottomans in our living room and her balance is getting better every day.

 

She's started showing interest in reading books again so that is a lot of fun and is the ONLY time she is willing to sit still for anything. Well, that and having a bottle. For a baby that cried every time she even saw a bottle for the first 11 months of her life, she sure has grown fond of it. Like, sort of obsessively fond of it. I'm sure that is going to be a fun habit to break. I'm just glad that she still lets me cuddle her for at least 3 minutes per day. She especially likes the picture books where we point at something and tell her what it is called. She can identify over half of the things in her Baby's 100 First Words book. We knew she was a super genius from way back but she still astonds me every day with how fast she picks up words. Quit rolling your eyes and admit it, you think your kid is smart too.

Diaper changes are a TOTAL nightmare and it is getting to the point where I would almost rather just smell the rancid stentch coming from her pants than try to change it. She hates to have her clothes changed so she ends up in just a t-shirt most of the time. Is it time to start potty training yet? She picks her nose and picks my nose whenever I'm holding her and I am so thankful that I have daycare to blame for that. She claps at herself ALL of the time. The other day Ski had her in her carseat while he was taking the garbage out in the morning and he came back to get in the car to find her clapping at herself in the rear-view mirrow. All you have to say is the word Clap, even blended into a sentence, and she starts at it. She can wave bye-bye and violently shakes her head NO for no apparently reason at random times. If I say, 'Are you ready to go night-night?'...she immediately starts waving bye-bye followed by clapping. Every. single. time. 

She giggles super loud at her daddy if he dances around like a crazy man. She pushes the button on her ABC magnets on the fridge and immediately starts dancing by rocking her little awkward body back in forth totally out of rhythm to the music. If I sing her the ABCs she will not rest until she has made her way into the kitchen to push the button to play the song back to me.
 

She'll eat anything covered in cheese or alfredo sauce or hummus but is pretty picky about everything else she eats. I've given her no few than a hundred different varieties of pizza and pasta and quesadillas this month and you know what? I'm FRESH OUT of ideas.

She burrows her head into anything soft: blankets, stuffed animals, her Lambie, Mommy's shoulder, whatever is around when she's tired and every SINGLE time her Dad says "Oh, so soft and so comfie" and she smiles this sweet little sleepy grin.

If I so much as mention the word bath she flies up there as fast as she can and flaps her arms up and down until we get enough water in the tub for her to start throwing everything off the edge in. She chugs water out of the cups that she is supposed to play with. Bathtime is the best time of the day.

I can't believe it's over, this first year. I can't believe how fast it went and I can't believe how much I have changed for the better because of her. I can't believe how many tears I've shed looking back through the literally tens of thousands of pictures I've taken of her trying to make her a book to remember her first year. Prepare yourself for a few posts of me obessing about this milestone including pictures from her first birthday party this weekend where she was pretty darn excited about smashing that cake. This is your warning...stay away if you don't want to hear me blubber on and on about my baby growing up.

Finally, my favorite picture this month. Oh, those eyes.
    

perfect little fondant butterflies

• I have serious control-freak/perfectionist tendencies that cause me to do things like choose an elaborate first birthday cake for my daughter and then INSIST on making it myself. Then, when I realize how much work it is going to be for me, I promptly start complaining. About something I CHOSE TO DO IN THE FIRST PLACE. It is almost like I can't control myself. I did the same thing with our wedding. I create these visions in my brain and then refuse to stop until they are realized. Someday I'll post pictures from our wedding and you can see how crazy I am...everything all coordinated and perfectly planned and I made every blessed thing painstakingly with my bare hands. Well, and Tara's bare hands. I even made table runners because I couldn't find the perfect shade of chocolate brown to buy. This is the shit mental institutions are made of. I believe this to be one of my biggest faults. Could you tell me what your faults are now so I feel better about the 20 hours this week I'm going to spend trying to make perfect little fondant butterflies?
• I have two big gripes about the town I live in today: 1) The housing market sucks. We are going to be living in 1600 square feet forever because I refuse to buy a house that is crappy and poorly constructed and in a gross neighborhood because those are the only houses we can afford for the square footage we want need. 2) The FREAKING tourists. There is not a hotel room available in this stupid town for less than $225 per night. The same town where you can stay for 3 nights for $100 in the winter. Is it winter yet?
• I have to get my first shot tomorrow and I'm scared that my butt is going to hurt and I'm not going to be able to stand long enough to make the perfect little aforementioned fondant butterflies for the one-year-old who is probably going to hate fondant butterflies and cry all day anyways.
• I have SIX doctor appointments that I have to get out of work for in the next THREE weeks. Do these people think that I can just magically grow time-off out of thin air? Don't they know I have fondant butterflies to make?
• We are flying with a one-year-old on an airplane in a couple of weeks. The particular one-year-old in question does NOT like to be held and screams LOUDLY if she doesn't get what she wants at any given moment. I'm regretting that whole not buying her a seat thing but am too stubborn to shell out the SIX HUNDRED dollars to buy her a seat now. I'll spare you my gas prices rant for now because I get all twitchy and pissed off when I start to think about the politics in this country and it is easier for me to just live in my blissful fondant butterfly universe instead.
• I split the money he saved for my lens with him and bought him a new grill for Father's Day. And I still haven't ordered my new lens. He gets a grill, I get nothing. I get fondant butterflies because apparently I have no problem spending money on fondant butterflies but am physically incapable of pushing the order button on something for myself. I WILL buy it before the big wedding because I still have some serious delusions that I might have a free hand long enough to take some pictures of the beautiful bride and groom.
• I had a baby appointment last week and its heart rate is now in the 150s. They could hardly get it to stay still long enough to listen to it and told me that I "have a mover in there." I knew I must have a mover when I felt the thing move at like 14 weeks. Feeling a baby move from the inside never ever gets old. Now if only I could just sit on the couch for more than seven seconds and enjoy it. Alas, there are perfect little fondant butterflies to be made.
• We have our 20-week ultrasound on July 9 and I am surprised that there is a big part of me that wants to know if it is a boy or a girl. I find this odd because I didn't really have any desire to know with Renee. Ski thinks it's a boy, I think it's a girl. What do you think? GO MAKE A GUESS RIGHT NOW. Or else I will force you to come over and help me make perfect little fondant butterflies.
• I get to hold and kiss and snuggle baby Sam in like five days and if I didn't have fondant butterflies to make, I think I might literally be counting the minutes. All of that soft, still, smelling-good blob of baby cuteness. One-year-olds aren't at all soft and cuddly. And their morning breath is atrocious.

meeting the chipmunks

Renee had her first trip to Sha Sha to feed the chipmunks two weeks ago when we were up north visiting my parents. She sat there wide-eyed with a look on her face that can only be described as sheer amazement. Charlie ran wild, he was as excited and happy as I've seen him in a while and it made me smile. Sarah-cita was interested in watching the chipmunks for about 10 seconds, until she could find a handful of dirt to stuff in her mouth :)

Don't my parents both look happy in this picture? It makes me smile.

Charlie riding the Sha Sha chipmunk.

What the heck is THAT?

Hmm, very odd indeed.

The girls. I love how they are almost EXACTLY the same size.

Renee and her Papa. She thinks her Papa is pretty funny.

The gang. And Renee shoving an ENTIRE banana in her mouth. We were in the Sha Sha gift shop dropping THIRTY dollars on a sweatshirt for the spoiled brat and she was pointing at something and saying BA! BA! over and over and over again. I sort of ignored her because I was busy paying THIRTY dollars for a tiny little sweatshirt and I finally realized that she was pointing at a banana. The kid is communicating! Praise the Lord!

Can someone tell me what Typepad is doing to my pictures when I upload them? Three months to convert my blog over and I've regretted it every minute since. GRRRRR.   

dear da

Dear Da,

 

On your very Father's Day as a dad, I know not how to speak the words I want to say to you today as I am just a baby and my only words are Dada, Muwa muwa, light, no, tree, ba (bath), kitty and dat. I guess I could say No kitty, dat tree, Dada but that doesn’t really get across the point I am trying to make. The best I can do to tell you thank-you for being such a wonderful Daddy is to giggle extra loud when you tickle my neck or fly across the room so fast my knees hardly hit the floor to greet you when you get home from work. I do these things to try to tell you thank-you for giving up so much of your spare time to tend to me and Mommy over the last year. Thank-you for being so understanding and patient (oh DEAR LORD, the patience) and for learning how to cook dinner and empty the dishwasher and do laundry and to act without having it on your geek toy for at least a month or two, procrastinating by moving it from day to day until you finally find the energy to actually do something about it. Thank-you for learning so fast how to adjust to my ever-changing temperaments and for being so loving and understanding towards Mommy when she’s having a bad day. Thanks for rushing upstairs to see me as fast as you can every day and for saying Hi Honey and scooping me up for a kiss and a hug before even taking off your jacket or putting down your man purse. Thanks for following Mommy up the stairs to get me when I wake up because you want to see me and hug me and snuggle me during those rare moments of stillness just as bad as she does. That Mommy of mine, she sure does have great taste in men. I love you, Da.

 

The Little One

what is in a name?

In dreaming up a name for our second child, we have been discussing the topic of nicknames a bit. Every kid on the planet calls Renee, Nae, and while I'm fine with it overall it is caused me to think a bit more about names in general. Then again, Renee has the most absurd nicknames that her dad and I have given her, Nae seems downright normal. It seems a new one pops up every week. We hardly ever call her Renee...well, unless she is bee-lining for the stairs and we are trying to get her to slow down and turn around long enough for me to jump my pregnant ass up and get there in time to stop her from diving down head first. Because she would dive down head first. She's fearless like that. Have I mentioned that we don't have gates on our stairways? I don't know if I have but APPARENTLY OUR HOME THAT WAS BUILT IN 1947 'Just isn't built for baby gates.' Don't worry, I'm not bitter.

On to my real point of this post. Have you noticed how the rambling, off-point rantings have returned now that I am again with child? There is something about this whole pregnancy thing that causes me to lose my whole train of thought in the middle of sentences. And I bitch a lot more. Like infinite amounts of more bitching. About everything. I sort of like it...almost like I have permission to say all of the bitchy things that I usually try to hold back for fear of making people mad. I apparently don't care if I annoy people when I'm pregnant. Did you hear that? I just found something good to say about pregnancy! Please hold while I go write it in BabySki2's baby book that I haven't even considered buying yet. 'I like being pregnant with you because I get to say all of the bitchy things on my mind without a care in the world that I will offend people.' 

I'm curious to know, does everyone else have absurd nicknames for their kids or do they actually call them by their given names? I am a wee bit concerned that she'll grow up thinking her name is Mu Shu Chicken. I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING, WE CALL HER THAT. Like every single day. More than once.  

Her names:
- Mu Shu Chicken
- Moo Goo Guy Pan
- Boo Boo
- Honey
- Sweet pea

What are your nicknames? Are they result of your name or just randomness like Mu Shu Chicken? My dad has ALWAYS called me Beaner. Or Bean. I think I could probably count the number of times my dad has called me by my given name on one hand. It sprouted from 'Gina Beana' when I was a small fry and it stuck. Hence the name of this here site. Bean for me. Ski for Ski. Get it? Off subject again, CRIPES. If you have kids, what do you call them? Are there nicknames that have come out of your kid's name that you didn't see coming? Do you use their nicknames more than their real name? 

consider yourself weaned

I have avoided the subject of breastfeeding on this blog for a long, long time. It is one of those issues that, depending on your experience with it, polarizes the troops. Some formula-feeding moms are paranoid and think breastfeeding moms are judging them and some breastfeeding moms are doing just that. Everyone is guilty, including me. This post is not to say what I think it right or wrong because I can see both sides. The purpose of it is to document my experience with it, if only for prosperity's sake. Or maybe to help someone out there reading that is struggling with breastfeeding or someone that is wondering if they can do it. It was a HUGE part of my life for almost an entire year and if I can't look back on it and document my very personal experience with it on my blog, I have let my blog become something other than its original purpose.

A support group was crucial.
Both of my sisters nursed or are nursing both of their babies. They told me over and over early on that I could do it and that at some point she wouldn't want to abuse my hoots every ten seconds. I didn't believe them but they were right.

Stubbornness, selflessness and determination.
This whole journey has been about her. It may have started about me and my obsession with perfectionism in everything I do, be it my job or being a wife or being a daughter or a mother. Those first few weeks when we were struggling to learn how to latch and she was struggling with her preemie baby sleepiness, I admit it was about me. It was about my determination and my profound internal NEED to give the people that I love everything I am capable of giving and then some. She took to nursing like a crazy baby and I didn't feel like it was my decision to make her stop. She pretty much weaned herself because my milk dried up so I let her decide.

Listen to the advice you want hear and ignore the rest.
The nurses as the hospital told me preemie babies don't take well to nursing. I ignored them. People told me that I wouldn't be able to keep up a mik supply using nipple shields and guess what? I nursed the little monster for 11 months exclusively using a nipple shield. Not every case is the same. Just last week my sister who nursed her son was struggling with her new baby's latch. It isn't easy and there is no right and wrong. There is only each individual baby.

Perfectionism is a good thing in some cases. I don't think this is one of them.
My experience nursing Renee isn't without regrets. I look back now and shake my head that her dad has hardly fed her in her entire life. He gave her plenty of bottles while I was home on maternity leave but after I went back to work, I was always struggling with not having enough milk. I (we) could never go anywhere because using the milk I had pumped at work would mean she wouldn't have enough for daycare. I talked a lot about supplementing with formula but I could never do it. I wish I had. I got up in the middle of the night (sometimes twice) to pump to have enough milk for daycare even though my baby learned how to sleep through the night when she was only three months old. It put a lot of strain on me and it put a lot of strain on my husband. For that, I have to put regrets down on paper, so when this baby that is currently growing in my tummy is five months old, I can look back and remind myself that Renee had formula at the end and everyone lived through it. There is a time and a place. Sometimes getting away or giving up some of the control is a good thing for everyone. If I hadn't gotten pregnant when I did, I would have never learned this. And a year from now I would have still never gotten out of the house for more than three consecutive hours. While I will absolutely choose to do it again and will do everything in my power to nurse BabySki2 for as long (or longer) than I nursed Renee, my husband deserves to be able to take care of her/him without worrying obsessively that s/he will want to eat while I'm gone.

The Mommy Magnet
The bond that nursing created between Renee and I is definitely there. There is no denying that. While my whole heart explodes with love every time she stops crying the minute I touch her, I can't help but wondering if I created our current troubles. Are the separation anxiety issues that we are currently facing with her a direct result of my refusal to let anyone but me feed her for an entire year of her life? I don't know if the two are related but I can't help but wonder. It breaks my heart that she cries when I leave the room. It hurts that she won't spend time with her grandmas without thinking that I am deserting her. Did I make her feel like I am the only one capable of caring for her? She is totally fine with going to daycare and with taking bottles there because it is part of her routine. Would she be OK with Ski and I going out for dinner or for a night away if I had allowed someone to give her a bottle when she was younger? These are questions I will never know the answer to. I do know that I will try to answer them with my second.

The transition was sad and harder for the mom than the baby.
I miss snuggling with my baby. I spent months bitching and moaning that I had no life and then my milk dried up and I haven't nursed her since Thursday night. And I miss her. I feel sort of unsure what to do with my new-found, post-nursing freedom. I do know if I wasn't knocked up I would drink A LOT of wine. I ran errands this weekend and I gave her a bottle and she drank it in her car seat. For eleven months I scheduled errands around her every-three-hour nursing schedule and here I was, out of the house for five or six hours in one shot. I was never a public nurser, not because I have a problem with people that do, just because I was never really comfortable with it. I am a creature of habit and the habit of that last year was to be at home to feed the baby every three hours. Can I understand why someone would choose to not do that? HELL YES, I can. I can understand not wanting to and I can understand not being able to have it any other way.

Oh and one more thing, formula is FREAKING expensive. I think it is the biggest form of gouging out there. She's been having formula for one month (2-3 6oz bottles a day) and I can't believe how much it costs. How does one afford it at the beginning when they eat every fifteen seconds?

I would love to hear anyone out there's experience with breastfeeding. Did you try it and would you do it again? What secrets did you learn that might help me with the next one? What was the hardest part?

the water table: a story in pictures

Hmmm, what is this?


Wait a second, Mom, did you see this?


Wow, would you take a look at that!

Whoa, it is real water. That can splash in my face. Who knew?

But it tastes good.

Let me in there.

I finally got my mitts on something to put in my mouth. It's what I do.

So, do you think she liked it? Thanks Auntie Annie & Auntie Jen - you always know what I'll love next!       

soliciting camera advice

Have I mentioned that I am married to a really thoughtful, kind, sweet man? He puts up with so much garbage from me that sometimes I wonder what keeps him here. In the last two years I haven't done a lot to say 'thanks babe, you rock my world', except for an occassional 'I do love you and I miss hanging out with you but I'm just SO TIRED...I'm sorry I'm so lame' as I climb the stairs to go to bed alone at 8PM. Sure, I have carried not one, but two of his children around in my belly and/or in my arms for months on end providing them with nourishment from my own body. That counts for something, right?

Anyways, six months or so ago he started putting money away to buy something for me. Namely, a new lens for my camera. He does the bills and would transfer $100 here and there without me really knowing. I knew he had started the account but I had NO IDEA how much money he had stashed in there. Then, around Mother's Day he told me how much money he had saved and told me to pick out a new lens for my camera and order it. I have been dragging my feet because I know we could use that money for something else, something like FOOD when I go on maternity leave in six months. Or a crib, because we are going to need to buy ANOTHER crib. And another rug. And blinds for the new baby's room. He asked yesterday if I had ordered my lens yet and I said 'No, I was thinking we should use it for the baby's room.' He said, 'Absolutely not, that money is for you to buy something for YOURSELF. And we will NOT spend it on anything but that.' Do you see why I love this man?

Here is where the advice comes in. I don't know what kind of lens to buy. Or if I should buy a new camera body instead. I have a Canon Digital Rebel XT but it is the 8MP version that I bought only a few months before the XTi came out...something that still pisses me off. I have two lenses: a 50mm (f/1.8) and a Tamron 28-300 (f/5.6) that is pretty much worthless for inside shots of any kind but I use it a lot outside. I use my 50mm for pretty much everything and like it but it just isn't wide enough for some of the inside shots I'd like to get and it is SLOW. To complicate matters, I'd like to take an online class and they are pretty expensive. I know for sure that I want to get a good inside, natural light lens and I would like something that gets a bit wider than my 50mm, although I could probably be talked into buying a better 50mm (like the f/1.4 or f/1.2) if someone tells me that is the best place to spend my money. I pretty much only have time to take pictures of my kid(s) so that is for sure my focus here. Do I buy two lenses, a better 50mm and a wider 28mm or one pimp lens? A cheaper lens and a new body? A lens and a class? I will probably NEVER get another chance to be this frivolous again in a very long time (can you say college fund and daycare for TWO?)! I have about a max of $1,000 to spend. Please help, I would REALLY appreciate it from you people that know so much more than me about taking pictures (I know I missed someone here but holy crap, waiting for the popup to load in Typepad is enough to make me gouge my eyes out and I can't do it even. one. more. time). I'm scared that the f/2.8 isn't low enough for inside shots as I shoot almost everything on 1.8 right now. Is that wrong? Hehe. I really should not be allowed to spend this much money on something I know so little about.

Lens options:
- Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens
- Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM Wide Angle Lens
- Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM Medium Telephoto Lens
- Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM Wide Angle Lens
- Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L USM Wide Angle Lens
- OTHERS?

Other stuff I sort of want:
- Kubota actions (not sure which ones or if you have other suggestions for actions, I would really appreciate it)
- Shootsac (or another bag good for 3-4 lenses and a body)
- Online class (any suggestions welcomed)
- New body - 40D?

picnic in the park

The regada sails in the harbor here in Duluth on Wednesday nights. As luck would have it, this Wednesday has the nicest weather we've had all year and I had no plan for dinner. I decided on my way home we were going on a picnic, went home and packed picnic food for the three of us and waited (im)patiently for Ski to get home. We packed up and headed down to the lake. Sometimes I forget that we live in such a beautiful place, we definitely take it for granted and don't utilize it as often as should. I think the kids will force us to do it though because seeing their faces light up makes it worth the effort. Renee was super excited about all of it, giggling at the dogs, pointing at the boats, eating her dinner from a location other than her high chair.