and now...we paint!

so we had a fairly relaxing weekend. yesterday we basically just hung around the house all day, and then after supper, abby and i painted! this is something we NEVER do because of the mess factor and the factor of she would never want to stop. so, she ended up with blue hair last night, which was cool in a punk sort of way, but we still had to take a bath to clean up.

then today, abby and i went to church, as usual. after rest time, we went to a used book sale at "the largest parish festival in wisconsin", and it was a complete bust. then we went to a farm stand to pick up sweet corn, tomatoes, and an onion for me to make sweet corn salsa. unfortunately, they didn't have any jalapenos, so we ended up getting those elsewhere. then we headed over to the west side to the huge grand opening of the new children's hospital at the UW. it was crazy busy, but pretty cool. the place is really nice, and the festivities were great. lots of free healthy food too, like strawberry-infused water (which i drank a LOT of), a popcorn/nut mix with chili powder and paprika, fruit, all-fruit popsicles, and veggies and dip. all great stuff. and abby got a little beanie bucky badger, who is apparently her new best friend.

fremont!

so we went to the annual fremont campout with brian's family this past weekend. everyone had a great time, abby had TONS of fun. we did a lot of swimming and a lot of playing and a lot of eating, so everyone was happy. :) abby discovered the joys of going all the way under the water, which managed to freak me out sufficiently for 2 days. abby really enjoyed spending time with her relatives that she doesn't see very often, and especially enjoyed meeting penny, bonnie and bruce's new pomeranian dog. even now, a few days later, she claims she dreams about penny and penny giving her kisses. :)

so now we have a couple of weeks where we don't have anything going on. it'll be nice to have some relaxation time, because august is going to be pretty busy. we're going to the state fair with my parents on the 6th (cream puff time!), and then a wedding in minneapolis that weekend. abby's got her dress and shoes all ready, now i just have to figure out what to do with her hair.

how long?

abby's favorite songs:

reach for the sun--polyphonic spree
fading like a flower (techno mix)
galileo--indigo girls
baba o'riley--the who
hips don't lie--shakira
black horse and the cherry tree--kt tunstall
the bells are ringing--they might be giants

this list doesn't include the farm songs she loves so much like old macdonald, farmer in the dell, et cetera. or bedtime faves like twinkle twinkle little star, personal penguin, or yesterday.

huh? hmmm?

abby's going on vacation! tomorrow she's being picked up by grandma and grandpa schultz and staying with them and grandma and grandpa rogers until sunday. brian and i are celebrating our 5th anniversary tomorrow, so, we're getting some time to ourselves. so, tomorrow night we're going to see ratatouille (probably), and then going for BIG PIECES OF BEEF at prime quarter afterwards. let's hear it for BIG PIECES OF BEEF!

we went to the dream park, or as abby calls it, the "dreamy park" tonight after supper and then had to have an unscheduled bath. girl was FILTHY. :) we put her in the tub and you could see the dirt floating off of her. it was pretty disgusting, but she had a blast, of course.

is it....a pickle??

so, today was the big day. we got up, ate breakfast, dropped some library books off, stopped a shopko to get brian a new swimming suit, and then headed up the interstate toward the dells. through some pretty darn heavy rain, too. we got up to noah's ark without much incident, though. abby had a BLAST, although there were many things that she wasn't sure about. she certainly did not like getting splashed, or at least she didn't like getting splashed by other kids. she was busy busy busy the whole day and was super-tired by the time we left around 4. we did the wave pool, most of the kiddie areas, a tube slide, and the 2 lazy rivers. one of the lazy rivers was actually more of an "adventure river", which didn't go over so well with her. she didn't like the fountains of water that would hit us, and i would have to agree with her. the water pressure was insanely hard, so it couldn't have felt good for her. brian and i were laying on the tube, and she laid on my stomach and buried her face in my neck the whole time we were getting sprayed. meanwhile, i got lots of water up my nose. a typical day at noah's ark for me. you know what else was typical? despite sunscreen, both brian and i got moderate sunburns. don't EVER buy the continuous spray type of sunscreen. way too easy to miss spots, apparently. so, all in all, a successful day. we still have 2 more tickets, so we'll be headed back up there at the end of august, probably.

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeBONK

so, not much new to report today. we're hoping to have a low-key week, because the rest of the summer's going to be crazy busy. brian won 4 tickets to noah's ark, so we're going there next monday, the 9th. we got 4 tickets, and abby's free, so we'll get to go twice this summer! pretty exciting stuff...i haven't been for years and years, so i'm really looking forward to it. plus, i get to get some wear out of the maternity swimsuit i had to buy. :)