Madeline Island Again!

 We managed to fit all of the cousins' names into a Bananagrams grid.  And, below, the results from the 100 meter dash.  Everyone ran except for Jaime (she's pregnant) and me (doctor says no running).  Even Stanley (the dog) ran and he turned out to be the fastest.  :0)  The kids had a blast and most of them ran a second time hoping to raise their scores.  Even Sophie ran the whole thing. 

 We all take turns cooking when we are at Madeline Island.  I usually sign up to help someone but not cook my own meal because I'm intimidated by cooking for so many.  I decided to be brave and do my part this year--I made a baked potatoes and toppings and cobbler for dessert.  It was really good and not so hard.  Of course, I do nothing without a list. 

 Every afternoon the kids spent a couple of hours with Grandma and Grandpa.  They did a project, went to the library, went out for ice cream, went to the beach, and who knows what else.  Grandma and Grandpa happy hour usually coincided with my naptime.  One day during Grandma-Grandpa time the kids all got to do makeovers on themselves.  Even Joe...no pics of that yet.  Later that same afternoon we did a family competition.  We divide up in teams and are given a challenge.  The challenge this year was that each team had to write a poem for "Juliet" and make a kite out of a trash bag to deliver the poem to "Juliet" on the balcony.  We had nothing to write with and were only given a piece of paper, two trash bags, and some string.  We had to use nature for everything else.  We wrote our poem with charcoal (Grace's idea) and the other team did something with a pocket knife and grass.  Here's our poem--
"Juliet, Juliet, I have a dream.  That you will provide my coffee with cream.  A soft, milky white stream flowing down from above.  Descending like a dove, down into my mug.  I will drink and drink the fullness of our love with flaky biscuits, .... (can't remember), and chewy toffee."  Lisa and I wrote it.   

 Stanley got dressed up for the family competition.  He was a Babushka.  :0)

 After the competition, we made a campfire and enjoyed s'mores.  Yum!

 The next night was the family talent show, also a tradition at Madeline Island.  There were some wonderful acts--Hannah and Grace did a dance, Joe read some poetry, Grace sang a song, Joe teamed up with Sophie for some songs, Hannah teamed up with Sophie for some songs, Kea and Corrie sang a song from their camp, Samantha played the piano, Grandma taught an Italian lesson, and Tim painted a "portrait" of Hannah...turned out to be a duck, Ellie wrote a funny pledge, and there were some other acts but I can't remember what else.  Videos to come later!  :0)

Madeline Island...

 The cousins enjoying the ferry together...

 We stayed at the same house that we stayed in two years ago and two years before that.  Above is right across the street from the house, you can see the top of the stairs leading down to the beach.  The picnic table at the top is the perfect place to set up an easel and paint a picture. 

 Joe really enjoyed the boat this time, that's him in the pic above.  He also spent a lot of time moving rocks.

 Aunt Steph did some fun nature activities with the younger kids. 

 Tim and Lisa brought their dog, Stanley.  Of course, Grace and Joe absolutely loved him. 

 Above is the view from the screened in porch downstairs.  Just beautiful. 

 Gabi is a great photographer and he set up some camera equipment and took pictures.  There are some family ones to come later but I don't have them on my computer yet.  I love the one of Joe below. 

 These two pictures are pretty funny--above is a game of Bananagrams with a sleeping grandma in the background.  :0)  And, below, Grandpa drives all the floats and boats to the lake.  You can't tell in this pic but he's also wearing a swim mask.  :0)

Hanging around the campfire circle one afternoon.  The great thing about going to Madeline Island is that it is so relaxing.  There is lots of playtime for the kids, visiting time for everyone, and time to relax as well.  We spent a lot of our time outside, the weather was just beautiful, very few mosquitoes and great temps.  We even had some rain one night and the next morning. 

Trip to Chicago and Madeline Island

We flew out last Thursday night to spend ten days with our Chicago family.  We flew into Chicago and then drove with the family up to Madeline Island on Lake Superior where we stayed for a week before returning to Chicago and then flying home arriving at midnight last night.  Yes, we're tired.  :0) We had a great week and a half though as you'll see from the next few posts.  Hannah, Joe, and I sat together on the flight out.  Ollie and Grace were together further back in the plane. 

As soon as we got to Chicago, Joe took off down the street to Aunt Steph's house and was met by some very excited cousins. 

We took two days to make the 8 hour drive up to Madeline Island, we caravaned so there was lots of switching riders and drivers.  The above pic is when I was riding with Grandma with the top down in her Mini Cooper.  Fun!  We made a few stops to break up the drive, below Sophie gives me a big smile, I think she was really happy to be out of the car. 

In keeping with tradition we stopped for some berry picking before taking the ferry over to the island.  We picked 3 flats of raspberries, they were amazing!