4th of July at the Lake

Paul and I had a nice getaway to the lake for the 4th of July holiday. I'll let the pictures mostly do the talking!

We got to the lake around 11 am on Wednesday morning. The drive up to the lake was so so. Paul kind of cried on and off. He is not the best traveler and does not like to sleep in the car. :/ My brother and his boys were already at the lake so Paul got to see cousin Matthew. Paul gets lots of attention from his cousins but he is obsessed with Matthew!

After lunch and Paul's nap, we got our suits on and headed outside for some outdoor fun.

He had fun playing in the sand.

He didn't show much interest in playing in the water, so after lots of sand time, I gave him a bath and we headed outside for more outside time.

The 4th of July was on Thursday. We laid low at my parents for most of the day. Paul is still not walking but he loves to walk along furniture and climb on things. His newest obsession was climbing up and down by the fireplace.

He's still not a fan of grass, so he spent a lot of time on his cat blanket outdoors.

That evening, my dad's family gathered at my uncle's house for dinner. We drove over there but only stayed for about an hour and left around 6:15. I spent most of that hour wrangling Paul and didn't really get a chance to talk much with family. Such is life when you have a toddler!

On Friday, my dad's family came over to my parents in the afternoon. Unfortunately Friday was the crappiest weather day. It was overcast in the morning and then rained from 1-4pm. We had 42 people at my parents so it was a huge crowd. Most people hung out in the garage so it worked out ok. The weather cleared off later in the day so we were able to have our annual bean bag tournament! I did poorly this year which I was fine with! I once again didn't really feel like I talked much with family. I had a lot of brief conversations with people but that was about it. Paul was very overwhelmed by all the people/new faces so he was not his usual happy self!

While all the face overwhelmed Paul, he did really enjoy cousin time!

Evelyn and Paul

Reading with cousin Matthew

I didn't get any pictures of Paul with my parents but he was also obsessed with them - especially my dad. He would get excited and say "papa" whenever he saw my dad and he now calls my mom "nana."

Since Phil wasn't able to join us at the lake (he worked Wednesday and Friday) we drove back on Friday night around Paul's bedtime. I was able to pack and load up the car while Matthew entertained Paul!

After I had the car loaded up, I quickly ate so we could hit the road. I had a lot of food to choose from and it was all soooo good, especially the smoked brisket my brother made!

Paul typically does not like meat but he grabbed a hunk of brisket from my plate! Ha!

Mmmm! Give me all your brisket!

My plan to leave around Paul's bedtime - 7 pm - was an epic fail. He did not sleep on the drive home. He took a couple of 5 minute cat naps but cried on and off for much of the drive and he basically screamed for the last 30 minutes. I knew he was very overtired at this point. I was not in a good mood when I got home as it's tough to drive with a screaming toddler. :/ So I put Paul to bed and went straight to bed!

I woke up on Saturday morning to find that Phil had unloaded the car and unpacked everything. He could tell I had a rough drive so wanted to do something to offset the crappy drive home! Saturday was a warm, humid day. A college friend and her daughter came over in the morning for a walk in our neighborhood and we went on another walk in the late afternoon. We also spent time outside in our backyard. Even though Paul is a total mama's boy, he was very happy to be reunited with daddy!

Sunday was not a fun day... Paul threw up in the morning - right after we put him in the car seat to go to a lake for a walk. :/ He wouldn't eat anything that morning for breakfast but I thought he was just being a picky toddler. But I guess he was not feeling well. We were supposed to get together with a friend for a play date that morning and Phil's mom was going to come over for dinner but we canceled all those plans. Paul ended up taking 2 90-minute naps and was very tired in general, but he didn't throw up again thank goodness! By the end of the day he was back to his happy self. He is such a puker. I have lost track of the # of stomach bugs he's had! It's A LOT. I really hope we get a long healthy stretch this summer!

How was your Independence Day or Canada Day celebration?