Gone Fishin'

Vance has been really excited about taking Isaac out for his first ever fishing experience. Although at first he thought Isaac should wait until he was 3 for this Whitaker rite of passage, Vance changed his mind. I got Isaac a little pole at Wallyworld, and he barely let go of it for the rest of the day. I couldn't even tell him where we were going until after dinner. He was SO excited. He kept on saying, "Go fishing, just like Daddy!"

First, we had to stop at a respectable local establishment to get some big red worms. I couldn't believe the literary perfection of having a bait shop named Gimp's.

Which of these two is more excited? It's hard to tell :)

oh, the anticipation.

Claire was slightly more skeptical of this whole enterprise.

He could hardly contain himself, hopping around on the pier, talking endlessly about his fishing rod. It was very cute.

He was taking every moment in, but he was a little scared of the worms. A boy, afraid of worms? I'm a little concerned...

This is where Vance began to betray some signs of his agenda for the evening. He wanted Isaac to keep the bobber stationary for awhile. Isaac, of course, being 2.5, wanted to reel it in fast and then cast it out again. But they were making it work...

They caught---a weed.

"AAAA!" Isaac was scared of the weed, and jumped back to Mama's side.

Trying out a new spot on the dock. The sunnies were biting, but the hook was too big. No matter, Vance was very industrious and figured out how to tease a smaller hook out of one of his lures. Eureka, that would do it!

Even Claire is looking excited now.

While Vance was busy threading on a new hook, Isaac took the can of worms and....dumped them in the lake. Game over.

Poor Daddy.

Isaac kept asking, "where'd the worms go?" and saying, "I sorry, Daddy." He was still excited...he got to use his pole, "catch worms" and "catch grass". As an added plus, he ingratiated himself with the fish at Lake McCarron by offering them a free dinner. Vance was slightly less enthused, having his dream of an early success with his future fishing buddy drowned along with the worms Isaac so carelessly cast overboard.

Me? I thought it was hilarious.

Superior National Forest

We're back from our big trip to the boundary waters! I hadn't been backpacking up north since I was pregnant with Isaac, so it had been too long, and I was itching to go. Vance is always itching to go where there might be big fish, so no one had to twist his arm :) It was a little nerve-wracking to think of leaving the kids for four days when one of them is still nursing and we would be out of communication the whole time. But thanks to wonderful friends who watched our kids, Medela, and a God who I can trust my kids with, we all did great.

Getting in...what a great feeling! We took a more relaxed trip this time, portaging only 65 rods and going through a second lake to the campsite we stayed at. Instead of looping, we stayed at one site and took daytrips. Muuch more relaxing than breaking camp every morning...

Our trip started the same way the last one did 3 years ago...with car trouble. This time it was a flat tire, which was better than last time. It still involved Vance and Ryan changing a tire right next to some very busy highway traffic. Scary.

Ryan took a bunch of the best of these pictures...

Ryan, the unanimously-voted Walleye King. He could fry fish better than anyone else.

Our daytrip to South Wigwam Lake. In this case, "wigwam" was code for "thick, marshy, switchbacking creek that takes 45 minutes of pushing, poling, and otherwise hauling your large canoe through a swamp." I was amazed how everyone kept up a good attitude through it all.

the site of our trials

Vance helping Ryan & Michelle through

Anna relaxes while Jason scouts a better way back through the slough

We all brought blue bandannas!

Vance in his element

proof that Vance is rubbing off on me. That's a 20-inch walleye, for those of you who dont know, and yes, I caught it all by myself.

We saw the northern lights again, and it was even better this time around. Awe-inspiring.

Look Who's Crawling!

Today I think I can officially announce that we have a crawler! She's been trying hard for weeks now, but just couldn't figure out the hand part. She's got it now...just two days behind when Isaac crawled. However, he was army crawling at this stage, and she's doing a true crawl, so maybe she's ahead, who knows? It's the beginning of a new phase...
And by the way, she's creating the crumbs, not eating them off the floor :)

Look at her! She's a true woman--already multitasking! Eating on the run, just like a pro.

Stupid Mommy Tricks

I should have known that it would happen someday. But Mom always said I had low self-preservation instincts (have I mentioned that before?), and my maternal instincts are apparently afflicted with the same malady.

We were leaving a friends' house after Friday prayer (and yes, we're actually getting some prayer done in the midst of the chaos!), and packing our 3-ring circus into the car. I had just clicked Claire into her seat, and thrown in my purse and diaper bag. Isaac climbed in, but hadn't gotten buckled yet. Do you see where this is going? I realized that Isaac had left his shoes inside, closed the door, and ran in to grab his shoes. On the way in, I thought, "I hope Isaac doesn't lock the car on accident."

Jinx.

Then Bethany noticed there was a bee in the car.

So there we are, an hour past naptime, with Claire innocently looking around at the bee buzzing around her head, Isaac ecstatically "driving" in the front seat (and shamelessly showing off for Eva), while I stand helplessly at the driver door, tapping on the window, saying, "Isaac, honey? Push that button! That button right there!" He giggles and keeps driving. Bethany immediately starts praying that the bee won't sting the kids, and Becca starts laughing at me. Me? I'm picturing 3 hours of standing next to my car, begging a hysterically grumpy child to push the magic button, and I'm not thrilled. I start wondering why I still haven't put a spare key on the outside of my car... I keep tapping the window...

And then Isaac just opens the door. Effortlessly. Crisis over. It probably only lasted 2 minutes.

Whew.

In other news, when we went to the grocery store this week, I dressed Claire in bright fuschia capris and a top with big hot pink hibiscus flowers on it. We got in Marv's line, and I waited for the baby talk to begin with a thinly veiled smile. Would he get it?

"How's my baby girl?!"

Hooray for Marv! He got it! If he had missed that sign, I would have had to put a Minnie Mouse bow on Claire's head.

Here are more pictures from the last couple of weeks:

That's Isaac delighting in green eggs. We were reading "Green Eggs and Ham" before breakfast, and then when I asked him if he wanted some breakfast, he said, "Want green eggs and ham!" I didn't have any ham, but I could get some green eggs on without much hassle. He loved it.
Isaac helping Vance do push-ups, with Claire imitating as well (or looking on in adoration, either one. She loooves her daddy). I just got a great deal on a gym membership (with included childcare!), and Vance and I have a deal that he has to do 50 push-ups for every extra day that I work out and he doesn't. If he works out more than me, I have to run two miles for every day I'm under. So far he has 250 push-ups in his tally, and I haven't had to run extra yet. I plan to keep it that way. :)

We watched Hazel recently, and Isaac was a big help! Can't you see him helping Hazel eat her cereal?

She was an angel child, as always. She makes Claire look like a mischevious and fussy child in comparison.

Small group picnic! Perfect weather, burgers, bocce ball, and friends. What more could you ask for?

Isaac and Maddie had a great time at the picnic, too.

what a gentleman! hope it sticks...

Fun in the Sun!

Today we went to the wading pool with Caleb & Alicia. It's close to our house, but we'd never been. We had a great time, all except for the leaving part. Claire can still nap in the sling, and I've been doing that some lately when we want to be out and about all morning. It worked pretty well!

I didn't get any pictures of Claire at the pool, but took a few after we got home. Darling? Yes, I think so!


Isaac didn't want to be left out of the photo shoot. Here he is, eating at the table like the big boy he is! We've moved him up to eat with the adults, and we all like it a lot.



Other random notes from our days here:

- Isaac now asks for backrubs when he's going to bed. I think it's cute, but it scares me too...I can barely keep up with Vance's backrub addiction! What will I do when he's 16 and they go lift weights together at the gym or something, and they both want backrubs the next day? Yikes.

- We've had some angelic visits to the grocery store lately. I've gotten lots of admiring comments about how well-behaved my children are, and how easy I make having two kids look. I smile demurely and beam down on my angelic children, and then we float away to go get more peanut butter. The only downside to our visits to the grocery store is that Marv, one of the cashiers, thinks that Claire is a very cute little boy. It seems like every time we're in his checkout line, she's wearing yellow, green, or blue, and for some reason he doesn't notice the very floral/be-ribboned aspects of her attire. At least he likes my kids.

- I love love love one of my local consignment stores, and got lots of good stuff at my fave spot's 50% sale. Lots of Ann Taylor, JCrew, Banana Republic stuff there. Hooray for me!

- Isaac lost my keys. They're around here, somewhere...

- I've been experimenting with eating more raw food, and it's been good. I shredded up zucchini and made "pasta" with it, which everyone liked. In fact, Isaac pulled the leftovers out of the fridge and asked to eat the plain zucchini shreds for lunch. He did, and really enjoyed it. I count it as a minor victory in my life as a parent.

- We finally cracked and put in our A/C today. It's been a beautiful, perfect MN summer so far, but today it's supposed to hit 92--maybe the second time we've gotten to 90?--and we put it in. It's nice to feel the cool air, but I miss having the windows open.

- Vance and I are going on a date tonight! To a highly reccommended Thai restaurant! That's pretty cheap! Hooray!

$6 Well Spent

Shortie

Claire went for her 6 month checkup yesterday. She clocked in at 16 lbs even, which puts her in the 49th % for weight, and she was in the 30th % for height. Go figure! My doctor said that my roly-poly baby is probably going to end up being an average baby in the end. That's fine, but her height still has me stumped. Maybe she's got the Whitaker height genes, or maybe she'll just keep growing when everyone else slows down, like Isaac has. I don't mind if she's shorter than me, though...just think of the shoe options she'd have available to her! :)

She's a healthy, happy little girl, though. She's getting on her hands and knees more and more, and she's started rocking, so I think crawling is probably a month or two away. She loves loves loves to eat. She can sit up by herself as long as she supports with her hands, but can't quite do it without yet. She's going and growing...I can hardly believe how fast the time is flying by!