Fish Stories

Everybody has a fish story, right? Well, now Julia has her first. And when you ask her to tell it, she'll gesture with arms wide to show how big Papa's fish was, saying, "Biiig!"; and hold her fingers close together to show how big Mom or Dad's fish was, saying, "Baby". Classic.

Anywho, we spent July 15-19 in Wisconsin at the cabin Tony and Marlene have rented every year since John was little. It was Julia's first trip there and we had fun. It turned out to be record cold that week, which put a damper on some activities, but we braved the weather and Julia went out on the boat once and to the park a few times. Marlene even spent time with her so John and I could go out on the boat without her and we even went to the local casino to have all you can eat crab legs one night. She wouldn't have been allowed into the buffet, so we were very grateful that Gaga, with her willing heart, stayed back with her. All in all, it was a fun mini-vaca.

Julia read some books to pass the time. She does really well in the car, I'm proud of her.

Checking out the fishing pole. Look at that concentration!

Drivin' Papa's truck.

Reading the Bible with Papa. If Julia finds a Bible, she will bring it to you and want to read. Priceless.

Feeding the fish some bread off the dock. There were lots of minnows there, and those were her favorite fish because they were so small she thought they were babies.

Practicing with the pole.

She liked to go fast and make big splashes!

Papa plucked a flower out of the water for her.


Reeling in her first fish with Papa.

She was brave enough to hold the string, at least.

She looks a little apprehensive in this one.

Marlene plopped her down on the swing and set a fish next to her to take a picture. She scooted over right away and would not take her eyes off of it to look at the camera. I love this photo.

Here I am, wearing a parka in July for cryin' out loud. Good thing Marlene had brought it with her because the heaviest thing I had was the fleece I'm wearing underneath. It was cold out on that water, and the wind could cut right through you.

At one point, we thought John had the biggest fish ever on his line. It was definitely swimming and pulling like a fish, so we knew he wasn't just caught in the weeds. We thought his line might break though, he had such a tough time getting it in.

Turns out it was an average size northern pike that had got itself caught in the weeds after it took the bait. We're still proud of you babe!

A close up of some of the teeth in a northern Tony caught.

This would be why Julia says, "Big!" when referring to Papa's fish.

John called this his "I hate scaling fish" face.

Well, we caught one as big as Julia!

In about half the pictures of her with a fish, she would stick her tongue out as if to say, "Ewww!"

Watching Nemo on the ride home. We borrowed a portable DVD player and that really helped pass the time. Shortly after that trip, we upgraded vehicles so now we have a DVD player built in. It is so nice on long trips!

Overall, we had a great time. It was a whirlwind trip, with two days spent travelling and really only 3 full days there, but it was worth it. Hopefully it will work out that we can go again next year!

Tick Tock

Yipe! Has anyone else noticed how fast those tickers at the top of this page are ticking?! There must be something wrong with them, because I highly doubt that my "baby" is almost two and I'm in my third trimester. I'll have to email tech support about this problem.

You Reap What You Sow

These were taken on May 2 at the Mehok Homestead. Gaga changed Julia into some play clothes she had at her house and plunked her down in the dirt. She handed her a spade and a few tomato plants and Julia went to town. Marlene told me that in the days after their planting adventure, Julia wanted to climb into the dirt and dig every time they walked by to check on the plants.

She must have gotten the green thumb from her Gaga, because it certainly isn't from me! She looks like a professional I'd say, and you can't argue with results...

Taken on August 19.

"Whoa! Look what I found on my tomato plant!"

"I've got an idea... these look an awful lot like apples, and I love apples, so maybe I'll try a bite."

"Hmm. Not bad, but something isn't right."

"Yeah, this tastes nothing like an apple! Oh well, they look pretty enough!"

Adventures with Gaga

I copied pictures off of Marlene's camera again, so here are some of the August highlights.

This was taken in Marlene's sister, Lurlene's, barn. Julia is all about animals lately, and who doesn't love a cuddly little kitty, anyway? And it's funny, she even gets that high pitched voice you use for talking to babies. "Awww... tat (cat)." I thought this was the most precious picture, though. I can only hope she will be so admiring of her baby sister!

Lovin on Anya, the Mehok's dog.

Two eggs for breakfast today!

Hmmm... Julia, have you been berry picking or berry eating?! Marlene said Julia Julia could put them in her mouth about as fast as she could put them in the bucket. Then she would look in the bucket and say, "Julia, where did the berries go?", and Julia would say, "Ah know?" (which means, "I don't know", with that inflection) Silly kid.

Well, that's all for now, but I have so many tomato pictures that I want to devote an entire post to them, so keep an eye out for that soon!

Moooo Cows

At the beginning of August John and I took Julia to Fair Oaks Farms to see the cows. I thought she'd be old enough to get a kick out of it, and I couldn't have been more right. John had never been there either, and it really is a neat place. If you live in the area, I highly recommend it. I think it was $10 for each of us to get in and Julia was free. Not bad. And they didn't charge more for all the extra little things there are to do like some places do. We did have to get grilled cheese sandwiches and ice cream, of course! It was a fun day. I think for the next week Julia would wake up every morning saying, "Cows" or "Harm (farm)" because she wanted to go back.

This train was right up Julia's alley. She would have ridden it all day if we let her.

Petting the fake cow. When you go through the barns to see the real cows, you stay on a bus so the cows don"t get your germs. So this was the closest she actually got to a cow. And it's funny, the dairy farm is surrounded by corn fields because they grow their own feed corn to support the cows. So Julia learned that cows eat corn and what a corn field looks like. Well, just yesterday Marlene was telling me that when she takes Julia over to her sister's house and Julia sees the corn fields, she always says, "Cows?" Marlene said she couldn't figure out why she'd be saying "cows" when they were there to see the horses. I even had to think about it for a second before I remembered the corn fields at Fair Oaks. I almost died laughing. My child is so smart.

She put these on herself, if that isn't obvious. They have a cute little 3D movie that also sprays water at you when a cow sneezes and puffs air at you when he farts, it's pretty funny. And it was short enough for Julia to sit through, so that was her first experience with a big screen.

You're looking at the cheapest souvenir in the gift shop... a $2 cow that's made like one of those squishy stress balls you're supposed to squeeze. But hey, a toddler is easy to please! She didn't put her cow down for a week, even slept with it. Goofy girl. All in all, it was a fun and educational day, what could be better?