Madison and Eagle River July 2nd, 3rd, and 4th



Fishing at Tenney Park Madison

 Brennan stayed the night with Aunt Wendy and Uncle Dan and had a blast!  They are so much fun and mean so much to Brennan (and of course me!)  Kate and I went back to Britt and Erik's house to sleep and enjoy another lazy morning.  We left around 11:00 AM to go pick up Brennan after he enjoyed breakfast out with them.  Wendy and I then took him fishing at one of his favorite Madison spots and of course he caught fish right away!  We could only stay for an hour though because we needed to get on the road to Eagle River. 

Wendy and Kate keeping busy
while Brennan fishes

Kate and Grandma in Eagle River



Brennan's favorite spot!


Both kids took a long nap in the car on the four hour drive to Eagle River.  When we arrived grandma got a little alone time with Kate because Brennan ran right out the door to go fishing.  Soon grandpa came home and two good friends, Tony and Linda, stopped by to say hi.  It was great to see them because they had recently moved to Milwaukee!  Then up the stairs came Uncle Spyros and Aunt Kim, which was a GREAT surprise!  Kim is my step sister and Spryos is her husband.  Then came Tina, Scoot, two of their boys, and their six dogs.  Tina was my foster sister when I was in high school and Scoot is her husband.  Tina and Kim have been part of my life for so long and are truly special family members to me- and their husbands have made our family even better!  So we had eight dogs, nine adults, and four kids for most of the evening.  We ate bone chicken (what Brennan calls fried chicken), potato salad, and made S'mores on the campfire.  Brennan went on the paddleboat with Tim fishing and Kate snuggled with everyone.  It was a fun evening! 



Ellie one of Tina and Scoot's
six dogs



Will with another one
of the six dogs

Uncle Spyros and Kate



Uncle Spyros and Brennan


 

Uncle Spryos and Aunt Kim

  One little hitch though- Brennan locked the keys in the trunk of our car and the carwas locked.  Ughh... he felt bad, especially when I had to pay $50.00 for a locksmith to come and help.  I'll have to remember to bring an extra key the next time I decide to drive such a long way from home!

Having a bubble gum blowing contest

Kate and Grandpa

Getting on the boat for the
fireworks

Ready for fireworks

 

 
 

At the Eagle River parade



The kids actually slept in until about 9:00 AM and then Brennan was out fishing again!  We had to drag him away from fishing long enough to go to the adorable and fun Eagle River parade.  We had great seats because Grandpa Steve and had gone down earlier to save spots for us!  Thanks Steve!  The parade was as cute as ever and Kate really started getting into it when she realized that many of the floats threw candy!  She LOVED that!  After the parade we stopped by a local restaurant to eat corn on the cob and then stopped for ice cream too!  The weather was perfect and it was great to spend time with grandpa, grandma, Kim, and Spryos!

Kate enjoyed a very loud game of hide and seek with Uncle Spryos after lunch and Brennan was off fishing again.  He loves visiting Eagle River because grandma and grandpa's house is right on the river and he can fish as much as he wants!  It is truly paradise for him!  After Kim and Spyros left, Brennan talked grandpa into taking him to a few other lakes to fish as well.  While they were gone, my mom and I thought we'd try to put Kate down for a nap so she'd be ready for a late night of fireworks.  Well... two hours later she was still crying/whining and we wished we had never started this battle. LOL.  Kate is strong willed and once I say something, I can't go back on it.  She is so adorable and sweet and so much fun- but like any kid has been testing her limits a little more lately.  I figure she is missing the routine of her orphanage, she truly is tired with so many late nights, and she has been running and exerising a lot more than she is used to. Anyway... we let her cry it out and finally she wore herself out and fell asleep for about five blissful minutes. Then the dogs woke her up by barking. Ughhh..  we didn't want this battle to start again so we went in and made a big deal about the fact that she took a nap and let her get up. Not sure who won this battle!  Hee hee.

We decided to take her for a walk and she was happy to be in her stroller and fell asleep right away.  Why hadn't we thought about this two hours earlier!  We enjoyed shopping downtown while we pushed her in her stroller. 

We had another round of her crying when we had to put the life jacket on her for the boat ride to see the fireworks.  We won that battle much easier and the fireworks from the boat were great!  There were fireworks all around us from different resorts and the city ones as well.  Brennan fished a little while we watched and we all had fun! 

It truly was a special fourth of July since I got to celebrate with two kids this year!  Happy Birthday America!