Harrington Beach

Today Ned and Baba experienced the staple of my childhood summer existence--hot days at Harrington Beach on Lake Michigan in Belgium. They joined Nana, Papa, Josiah, Samuel, John Thomas and Tommy for some beach bummin'...and yes, I'm seriously bummin' that I missed out. :)

From the looks of it, she had as great a time as I remember having there. Digging in the sand, chasing seagulls, discovering that Lake Michigan never actually gets warm...good stuff.

(And would you look at my girl's fabulous thighs?! YAY for baby fat!)

Meeting Aunt Jackie...and Mr. Ed

What a blur of a weekend! My sister Jackie (Houston) was in Chicago for work, so we drove down to the Windy City on Saturday to introduce Ned and Jackie. They hit it off. ;) It just warms my heart to oozing sap to watch our siblings interacting with Ned. Seriously, it does. I get all goosebumpy just thinking about it. Jackie was the last to meet Ned and it was so cool to have one introduction occur when we're somewhat past the new-parent-freaking-out mode. (Heck, I didn't even care that she had yogurt all over her face for the bulk of the day--Ned, not Jackie--though I'm sure when she's old enough to care she's gonna ask why the heck we didn't bother to wipe her face before taking pictures... :)


And then Sunday brought the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Ozaukee County Fair in Cedarburg. (It's the last free fair in the State, you know.) Being a 10-year 4-Her and having blown a good bit of my childhood summers at the fairgrounds, it seemed like the right thing to do. So, we went to the parade and then down to the fairgrounds where Ned had her first real live horse encounter, we ate a brat (funny, Ned can chew up brat like it's goin' out of style...), watched some pig wranglin', listened to some country tunes, and marveled at my sister Lisa's new weave. You go, girl. ;)

Polkaing, scootering, and cat ears...

Hanging out in the yard, polkaing with Papa at Cedarburg's German Fest, scootering with Grandma and cousins, unsuccessfully attempting to make Hank think you're one of his kind...ahhhh, the good life. :)