More from the reunion

I thought I was finished with photos of Paul Bunyan Land, but then Mary sent me a few more. Here's Pete and I on the Tilt-A-Whirl, and Henry practicing his wave from the boats. He rode with his second cousins (once removed?) Taylor and Ethan. This Tilt-A-Whirl ride was crazy. Van and Liz were the only other riders and we thought the guy would never let us off. He did have sort of an evil glint in his eye.



I don't think I mentioned how hot it was Saturday morning while we were at Paul Bunyan Land. It was hot, and the place has little shade. Henry was covered in sunblock, and shaded in his stroller, but as soon as we got in the car after about 2 hours of Olde Tyme entertainment, he asked for some water, took a couple of sips and then conked out.
He was asleep for at least an hour and a half- through a diaper change, transfer to the stroller, lunch, transfer to the car and the drive back to the Garrison Inn. When he awoke he was perky as could be. He had a snack and we took a dip in the pool before heading back out to the lake house. I realize this is not a good photo of me, but Henry looks really cute. He enjoyed reading in the hammock. We were practicing counting, but he wouldn't let me get past "one" without clapping and saying "yay!"

More explanation about this photo will be coming soon. Yes, that is Bartelby my garden gnome. No, he did not ride up with us.

There was a lovely heron hanging out on the dock next to Steve and Pat's. Henry got a nice up-close look at it. I would point, he would look and then he would say "duck!" Duck was also his name for the loons we saw, though with much coaching he did eventually say "oon".

Here's a shot of the whole crew...

And finally, we had to get a photo of Henry with the giant walleye before leaving town. He did not care for the giant walleye one bit...as you can tell from the second photo. Had he known we were about to get in the car and drive for 12 hours he might not have been so determined to get away. Or, maybe he knew we were on our way to the Norske Nook.

Reunited and it feels so good....

This weekend, after a short stop in Minneapolis to have dinner with Sandy and Will, we went up to Brainerd, Minnesota for a Swanson family reunion. The Swansons are Pete's mom's side of the family. The majority of the family is still in the midwest, but a few came from as far as Washington D.C., South Carolina and California. I believe it's fair to say that a grand time was had by all. I don't seem to have many photos of the extended family, as I tend to be Henrycentric. Here are some highlights...

Sandy knew she had to have this yellow Schwinn when she found it at a flea market. I believe this is the first test ride. Henry loved it! We all enjoyed the chance to get out of the car and stretch our legs before the last couple hours of our trip. We walked down the street to have dinner at Rix which, despite the corny name, had pretty yummy food.


After a long drive we checked in to the Garrison Inn and crashed. The next morning we drove out to Uncle Steve and Aunt Pat's cabin on Crooked Lake. The weather was beautiful and we made the most of it. Here's the house....And the lake...
...complete with bathing beauties out on the dock.


We took a few boat rides...here's a shot of Henry checking out the lake. He wasn't fond of his life jacket.
Here's a view of the house from the lake. That's Liz and Van out on the dock.
Henry really wanted to give the boat lift wheel a crank every time he passed it. Fortunately he has a patient Bampa.


A few of us enjoyed some chilled refreshments throughout the day. Our hostess, Pat, even brought the grown-ups some frozen margaritas while we floated around on our rafts! The next morning we headed out Highway 18 to Paul Bunyan Land! We were greeted by Babe the Blue Ox.
Once inside, Paul greeted all the kids by name! He chatted us up a bit too....Grandpa Peter asked how many pancakes Paul could eat...Paul's answer was "How many flapjacks? Oh, about five or six hundred." Good old Paul. There were lots of other things to see and do, including Sport, the reversible dog. We enjoyed a few rides, took a train trip, played bumper cars...
Here are Pete and Liz on the Ferris wheel.
We weren't sure what the deal was with this turtle.

Aunt Liz took Henry for a tractor ride while I smashed up with the inlaws and Van in bumper cars. Those folks are vicious! Here we are on the train, enjoying the scenery.
The bouncy tent was one of the highlights of Henry's life so far. He LOVED this thing!
Pete and I wondered if we'd every make it out of the 'magnetic mine' alive...it was soooooo spooooky! We saw such amazing wonders as water flowing uphill.... and then, this weird room...which had bars and mirrors.... I don't know. The person who designed this attraction may have been smoking something.

Henry did like the carousel ride almost as much as the bouncy thing. He perfected his waving skills.
Okay, well, blogger's being pokey uploading the rest of the shots. And this is probably enough excitement for now anyway. I'll post the rest of the pictures tomorrow. You can just wait in anticipation until then...

Independence Day

Our day started with "pancakes in the park" in the Village Green. The event started at 7AM, which is when Pete and I both woke up, hungry for pancakes. But we decided to let Henry sleep in, so we didn't get to the pancakes until about 8:30. It was good timing, as the line grew exponentially after we went through. We were pleased to find that the pancakes were tasty and warm! Henry got a balloon and had lots of fun with that throughout the day.


After breakfast Henry had a chance to play with some of the Greenbriar girls who were around. He loves to be the center of attention!

On our way home we took note of all the chairs holding places for the parade- which wasn't to start until 2:30. We got a little nervous, but we ended up finding a nice spot anyway. We weren't in the shade, but the weather was lovely, so it didn't matter.

We did try to put Henry in the shade, however, since he had fallen asleep on the walk over. He slept through the first half of the parade....fire trucks, polka bands and all.



He finally did wake up, and Bampa was eager to get him out of his stroller and point out all of the marching bands. Our favorite was the one from Dubuque, IA. They wrapped up the whole parade and sounded great! Henry marched right along.

Afterwards, we went home and got set to barbecue!

Henry wore his party shoes...

We had a nice group of friends and family, and our little bunny friend even ventured out boldly to join the party.

Henry was once again surrounded by adoring fans. No wonder he likes reading so much...what little boy wouldn't love to read with these girls as your reading partners?

We hung out on the patio until the fireworks started. We could see them through the trees, but we decided to try for a closer look, so we started off down the street. We stopped a few houses down where we had a pretty clear view through some trees. I don't think the neighbors would have minded us standing in their yard....but they weren't home anyway. The fireworks were lovely! I had a very enjoyable evening! I hope everyone joins us again next year. We especially look forward to hearing more explosive stories from Tristan!

It doesn't get much better...

When Blogger is at it's worst, or I'm at the end of my patience rope, I find it easiest to do the center-format quick caption blog entry. So here goes...

Last week, before leaving for Iowa City, we enjoyed our first real patio meal. Henry liked the cornbread, and also enjoyed watching the airplanes while eating.


When we got to Iowa City we had a Pagliai's dinner with Darcie and Pope. Unfortunately, we have no photos of the event, or our time with them. We were so happy to spend time with them though, as it had been months and months....
We knew Joyce was coming up to IC, but we were happily surprised when she brought Jan and Sam with her. Henry loved romping around with his pal Sam. Here's a fun picture of Henry giving Sam a look over breakfast.

For some reason the camera didn't make it down to the Pentacrest with us for any of Saturday's music. On Sunday we went out to Dad and Kathie's house where Henry played on Grandma Kathie's Rollercoaster.
He also picked some raspberries...

...and played with the very cool new "Field of Dreams" that Aunt Paula made for Grandpa Bill to enjoy with Henry...and whatever other grandkids might come along. In case you can't tell it's a very cool set of fields made out of felt and various types of ric-rac. My Grandpa Fritz's old lunchpail (not shown) is packed with bend-able picket fencing, farm animals and containers of dried corn. I wouldn't be surprised if the corn actually came from Grandpa's farm. It is a very clever toy and I loved watching Grandpa and Grandson both enjoy it.

Finally we have some pictures of actually being downtown at the JazzFest. Henry didn't want to hold still for too long. He spent some time dancing (of course), some time playing Hop On Pop (and other family members) and the rest of the time exploring the Pentacrest.


To me the Ginkgo tree means Iowa City. This is what my Ginkgo aspires to be...

The Henrirazzi was out in full force.
How we love Iowa City. How we love the JazzFest! Thank you ICIA, for more memories of lovely evenings spent with family, friends, music and funnelcakes!

Winner!

The official winner of the caption contest is AMBER! Congratulations on humorous entries that made me think! I had to go with the Adam Sandler reference though, because that guy always makes me chuckle...

And speaking of yamulkas (sp?)...right now I'm down at school waiting for my professor to arrive and unlock the Reading Clinic so's I can get to work. I'm growing more and more annoyed as the minutes tick away...
Stay tuned for updates from our weekend in ICIA. We love us a good JazzFest. Henry did some serious bopping and we had lots of nice, loving family time. I'll try to post later tonight so that tomorrow is freed up for 4th of July photos...as I'm sure there will be many of those as well.