Lake Lounging with the Lundgrens

The week at my parents' cabin with the Lundgren family started out with a high-powered water gun assault. Here's what the fierce battle looked like from the cabin:

The warfare clearly wreaked havoc on Cole's emotional state:

Claire and Uncle Kurt:

Grant, of course, joined in:

Retreat, Cole, retreat!!!!

After the battle cries ceased, it was time for some jet ski fun! And, yes, unfortunately that is the man I chose of my own free will to marry, the one parading around all-too-gleefully in the neon-yellow wetsuit:

The only time Grant is excited to have his picture taken is when he knows he looks like a total dork. Of course, it's all the more fun if there's another guy who looks like a dork, too (Wade). And, nice chest hair Grant:

But, at least he wasn't hard to spot on the lake!

The cousins all loved playing on the boat when it was docked. Sometimes, they'd put the cover on it so it was like playing inside a tent. I think the sun was a little too bright for this shot:

Here's my sweet baby, Ava LuLu:

A cute shot of Charlotte, Kerstin and Wade's baby who was born exactly a month after Ava:

Here's Far Mor ("Grandma" in Swedish) and baby Evja (pronounced "Eh-vee-yah"), who was born a little over two months after Ava. I'm so excited for these three girl cousins to grow up together!

Cole in his wetsuit, hammin' it up for the camera:



The three older girl cousins, Claire, Alice, and Jane:


Cole thought Uncle Kurt was the coolest guy since He-man (the kids' favorite show since I found it at Wal-mart). He followed him around everywhere he went - Kurt was such a great sport about it!


My family came out for a few days to join in on the fun. Here's Mads entertaining Ava:

Here's a shot of the three Dickson girls (me, my mom, and my sister Madeline):

And here's a FABULOUS shot of the GORGEOUS Dickson sisters:

These are some of my favorite shots of Claire. Her funny poses crack me up and she just looks so dang CUTE in that wetsuit!!!

Cole joined in for some shots, flexing his "He-man" muscles!

Even He-man, though, needs some snuggles from his daddy now and then:

Claire and Grandma Mar:

The following picture of Ben (Grant's brother) demonstrates his unique ability to look like a gremlin:

I love the lighting in this shot of Maddy. It's perfect evening-on-the-lake lighting:

Grant and Ava:

WARNING: Having this much fun can be exhausting:

What a cute shot this is!

We did, however, have some trouble making the life-jackets cooperate for the picture!

Me and my Coley-man:

Far Mor and Ava:

Claire got upset with me about something, but it made for a great picture!

Ah yes, Grant, just the finishing touch for your neon-yellow wetsuit - bright blue goggles!!

Far Far (Swedish for "Grandpa") with Ava (on the right) and Evja:

Slip-n-slide in the wading pool:

All the cousins love Aunt Melissa!

We sure had a great time. Here's a shot of the whole Lundgren clan:

Five Candles for Claire

Claire turned five while we were on vacation at my parents house in August. I cannot believe my sweet little baby girl is already five years old. She's growing up too fast!!!!! To celebrate, we went out to eat and Claire got to pick where we went. For the last 6 months or so, Claire has loved fried fish. She came home one day from school and asked me why we never ate fish for dinner. Uh...I don't know...cuz I don't know how to make it? Cuz I don't really like it? So, ever since then whenever we go out to eat she begs for fish. Grant and I do not like this new phase since the only place around us that consistently has fried fish is not a very good restaurant. But, of course, since it was her birthday we let her pick where to go, and since we were in Spokane and not Milwaukee there's a restaurant called Zip's that has good fried fish and good hamburgers, so we were all happy! Here's the birthday girl at the restaurant:

And we even tricked LuLu (our nickname for Ava, if I haven't mentioned that yet) into wearing the crown for a little bit.

We had cake and ice cream when we got home (and got in pjs!):

I had planned on doing a party for her when we got back from vacation, but school started the following week and I was so busy that I never planned it and it seemed like Claire had forgotten about it anyway. Well, not so. A few weeks ago she started making "invitations" for her party and every few days or so since then she lists for me the people she's going to invite to her party. Apparently, in her mind, her birthday still just occurred yesterday. So...we're going to be having a very belated party here in the next couple of weeks! She really has turned into such a sweet and fun little girl. I sure love her.

Cabin Fever!

Ok, so I realize it has now been a month since I last blogged and promised an entry about our trip to Spokane/Coeur d'Alene. My friend, Kara, has officially given me an "F" in blogging and says she's going to design an official award to give me for "Worst Blogger of the Year." She continued to say that I must not have much of a life if I have nothing to blog about - I told her it was because I have TOO MUCH of a life that I don't have time to blog!!!! :) So, anyway, to all of you people out there who've been just DYING for an entry from me (ok, so what if there's only 3 of you) here it is. Drumroll, please...

So, at the end of August we went to my parents house in Spokane, WA for two weeks. The first week we spent with my family going back and forth from their house to their cabin on Lake Coeur d'Alene (which is only a 45 minute drive away). The second week, Grant's family all came out and stayed at my parents cabin for their annual family reunion. (I'll write about that week tomorrow. This first post is going to be about the first week with my fam.) We had an absolute blast, as evidenced by the many pictures to follow. So, when we first got there my Grandma Connie had flown up to be with us for a couple of days because she had never seen Ava. Here is a cute picture of them:

My grandma kept remarking what a surprisingly easy and pleasant baby Ava was, as do most people who are around her. She definitely takes the cake as far as being my easiest up til now(we'll see about those teenage years). Anyway, it was fun to spend time with Grandma Connie and meant a lot to me that she always takes the time to come to see us and my little family when she can.

We also overlapped a few days with my cousin Hannah's trip to see my sister, Madeline. Despite the fact that we had to endure hours of Harry Potter skits performed by the two of them, we were so happy that we got to see her for a few days, too.

The rest of the week we spent our time down by the lake, roasting marshmallows...

(Yummy!)


playing in the water...

reading (that's Kevin, my brother, who also came up)...

giving kisses to Grandpa...

laying in the sun (under umbrellas, of course!)...

playing in the sandbox...

playing on the boat...

laying in the hammock...

skipping rocks...

riding on jet skis...

playing tetherball...

(we obviously haven't taught Cole the first rule in sports - no, not keep your eyes on the ball, but keep them open!)

and going on boat rides.

Of course, all of this playtime for us meant a lot of babytime for the grandparents!

(Zerberts!)

My dad took his usual role as baby-snuggler and almost never put Ava down (unless she had a poopy diaper!)

This was a good thing, however, since whenever Kevin held her he kept thinking he was going to drop her...

and Ava wasn't too particular to being held by Madeline...

Ava, to my surprise (and especially to Grant's surprise, who was convinced that Ava would be completely miserable) absolutely LOVED going on boat rides! She thought it was the best thing in the whole world!

(You know she's really excited when she makes her "fishy face" and repeatedly slams her hands down on something!)

We had so much fun!!!! We even managed to get a Dickson family picture, despite the loud groans and protests from the men. Sure, we all look a little water-logged, but at least we're all smiling.

(Ok, Kara, I did it! Even though it's now 1 a.m., I finally posted an entry! Are you happy?) :)