more cottage pics

Carter, Audrey & Ava playing in the sand

Aaron, Carter, Justin & Trevor riding in the boat

Carter picked Tita Amy to ride with him tubing.

Ava passed out on Aaron half way around the lake.

Uncle Brett passed out on the couch. The guys were up early to golf each morning. Anna decided he needed to cuddle with baby Stella :)

Carter trying to help Tita Amy kayak

Me, Brett, Ryan2 & Holly
This was a big deal cuz Brett normally doesn't want anything to do with tubing. This time he actually admitted to having fun.

The cottage

It's a Schmidt family tradition to spend the 4th of July weekend at Uncle John & Aunt Tami's cottage. It was so much fun to be home for it this year and get to spend a beautiful weekend on the lake with a lot of family.

Audrey was a diva (surprising, I know). She's a spoiled pool girl and didn't want to get in the lake. She kept saying the water was dirty.

Carter on the other hand was a fish. He was in the water all hours of the day. I had to make him come out for lunch & dinner. He's enjoying the water in this picture with Aunt Tami, Tita Angela, Tita Amy & Grandma Debbie

Carter, Ava & Natalie getting splashed by Aunt Linda

Sitting on the dock with Tita Amy ready to watch the annual boat parade.

Care Bear Stare!
This years theme was cartoon or movie. We chose to do the Care Bears and took first place. Way to go Angela on a job well done with the decorations & costumes!

Saturday night Uncle John set off some fireworks. Carter loved it this year! He would oh & ah and clap after every one. He was so cute to watch. Audrey loved watching them and called them sparkles. She didn't like the noise though and finished watching from inside.

Zach gave Carter a big sparkler. By the look on his face you can tell he enjoyed it.
More lake happenings to come...

still catching up

We got back from the Dells late Thursday. Friday morning the kids watched cartoons with the dogs while Angela & I started to pack for the lake.

We had to grocery shop for the lake before leaving. The kids loved the cart and made plenty of noise throughout the store "driving".

While we loaded the car the kids got a kick out of sitting in the front.

Audrey buckled Stitch in Carter's seat and baby Stella in her seat.

We finally got going later then planned. We went through a drive through and let the kids eat dinner in the car. After they ate we had a peaceful drive to the lake.

Farwell Gang invades Great Wolf Lodge

Wednesday we got in the car and drove to Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells for our annual Farwell Gang reunion. This is the first time we did an overnight get together with everyone. It ended up working out better than I think we all expected. It was so nice to have that much time together and we all had a blast. Everyone was sad to go home the next day. It has us looking forward to the next time already! Here's just a few of the many pictures I took...

Audrey & I going down one of the outdoor slides together. This was Carter's favorite slide.

We found this great spot to hang out and chat. We could sit and watch the kids play on the floating snake and tubes. in the pic-Tim, Amelia, Mel, Amy, Emerson, Maelle, Hillary & Claire

My handsome boy absolutely loved it there! The second we left he asked to go back some day :)

Audrey kept playing with these water spout things
It was so much fun to watch the 3 boys (front to back-Gabe, Drew & Carter) play together. They weren't shy and the second we were all there they immediately started playing together as if they see each other all the time. They played on these jet skis for at least an hour.
That evening we ordered pizza and had a picnic in the Bunkelman suite. The Bunkelman's had a suite then the Gilles clan, Gaerthofner clan & Aprahamian clan shared a suite.
Kids picnicking on the floor & watching a movie
After letting the kids stay up WAY past bedtime it was time to get them tucked in for the night. Here's Angela reading them a bedtime story.

Drew & Carter looking too cute in the morning. They shared the pull out couch. Drew survived sharing a bed with my wiggle worm :)
Amelia, Carter & Gabe (in the back) playingThe four mamas about to ride the tornado top-Me & Mel, bottom, Hillary & Amy
It was so much fun! The kids waited at the bottom with Tim & Angela and looked relieved that we made it back.
the group shot of the kids
left to right-Emerson-1, Audrey-2, Claire-3, Drew-4, Carter-5, Maelle(above him)-3, Gabe-5 & Amelia-6
The mamas
Hillary, Amy, Me & Mel
I love these women so much! They are like my other sisters. I'm so grateful for our friendship and the fact that it has stood the test of time & distance. I can't wait to live closer to these amazing women!

Leon's

Mon & Tue were lazy days. The kids slept in and vegged out a little. Angela and I worked on the boat parade shirts while the kids watched movies. Mon. night I taught Angela how to make dad's bbq. We stayed up til 1am putting it together! It turned out delicious! Don't ask me what's in it. It's our secret ancient Filipino recipe :)

I didn't take any pictures those two days except these from our stop at Leon's frozen custard. Our trip wouldn't be complete with out stopping at Leon's! It's seriously the best frozen custard you will ever have in your life!

Audrey was covered from head to toe in melted chocolate goodness.

Apple Holler

Sunday was another beautiful day so we decided on outdoor activities again. We tried out this place called Apple Holler. It turned out to be an interesting place to visit. The food in the bakery & restaurant was good 'ol home cooking but the service was awful. The outdoor activities didn't seem to be completely up and running and needed some TLC. It could be a really cute and fun place if it was run properly. Nonetheless, the kids had fun.

They had a neat set up for the goats. Carter loved this contraption that brought the food up to the goat standing at the top of the bridge. It was funny to watch because the goat would try and help move it with it's head.

I don't know how many times he did that thing

Audrey enjoyed feeding the goats as well.
There was an adorable baby bunny. The kids were enamored with this little guy. I think they could've sat there all day watching him.

In the cow maze with Uncle Brett. Apple Holler also had a corn maze and an apple tree maze. Carter made us try them all.

Swinging monkey
Taking a short lived break with Grandma Debbie on the swing

Both kids going down the slide with Uncle Brett

Striking a pose at the top of the slide

The kids did slide races with each other and with Uncle Brett and Tita Angela

Audrey climbing up the slide instead of sliding down it.

WI trip

The last week of the fellowship year Chuck was on-call every other night. That on top of him being busy taking over the service was the perfect time for the kids & I to take a trip home to WI. We had a jam packed couple weeks and had a fabulous time. Time sure flies when you're having as much fun as we did. I of course took a ton of pictures and will eventually get the blog all up to date. I'll start at the beginning. Here it goes...

We flew in late Thursday night. We always fly on small planes with only two seats per side. The best they could do on the way up was to have Carter sit behind Audrey & I. I felt so bad but he handled it real well. I was so proud of him! At least I was able to reach between the seats to help him out with things.

Friday was a lazy recoup day. Our plane didn't land until 9:30pm the night before so by the time we got the kids to bed it was crazy late. Angela & I did squeeze in a quick stop at the outlets that day :)

Saturday, mom drove down to spend the weekend with us. It was a gorgeous day out so we decided to go to the Milwaukee Zoo. An added bonus was that our B'ham membership got us in free so we only had to pay for parking.

The kids had fun feeding the goats. Although, I think Uncle Brett enjoyed it even more. I personally think they're kind of gross and made sure the kids scrubbed their hands clean when they were done.

Audrey & Grandma Debbie

Audrey & Tita Angela

The zoo has these machines that make plastic molds of different animals throughout the exhibits. Every time we passed one Carter said he wanted one. At the end of the day Grandma Debbie caved and let him get one. He ended up deciding on the elephant. It made his day! He calls it his trophy.

We managed to get someone to take a group picture. Audrey had fallen asleep by the time we took it though. Still turned out nice.

Carter & Uncle Brett
We had a great time at the zoo and almost saw everything. After we left the zoo we went to one of Grandma Debbie's favorites, Red Lobster for dinner.