Vacation -Day 15 -Rhinelander, WI

Don't you just love that?!

We said good-bye to Grandma this morning. She was on her way to a spiritual retreat. 

 We spent most of the day playing on the water again. The girls went out in the tube. I took one of the jet skis out for a solo ride. It was a lot of fun (when I didn't have to worry about being thrown off). I also took a turn in the tube. I did not like that. The water kept pounding against my bum. It hurt. I was numb for the rest of the day. The next day it just hurt to sit down. Michelle said she had a visible bruise from it.

 That afternoon we drove back to Minocqua for the Lumberjack Show.

 At the end of the show the kids got to try out the 2-handed saw.

Vacation -Day 14 -Happy Birthday Emma!!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl!!

We started out the morning by playing balloon toss with Grandma -it's a tradition.

Emma wanted to open her presents right after breakfast. We invited the Kings over to help celebrate. 

There were a few things Emma wanted to do on her birthday, but none of them could be done in the cold rain outside. So we decided to go out Hodag hunting. There are several Hodag statues around the town. We had seen some. Now we were going to go out and find them all! We started out at the Visitors Information Center to get a map of the Hodag locations.

 The sun finally broke through the clouds. We headed back to the cabin for lunch and birthday cake. I talked Emma into an oreo ice cream cake for her birthday. I didn't want to try making a cake for her in a small electric oven while on vacation. Nor did I want to cart all my decorating tools with me. She was very happy with the ice cream cake. 

One of the things she most wanted from Wisconsin was a Cheese Hat. No, we are not Green Bay fans.  She just really likes cheese.

 The kids went out on the lake for a swim.

 For dinner Emma wanted to go out for pizza. We went to Clay's favorite pizza joint just outside of town -Pizza Haven. They gave her a birthday cheesecake for dessert. She thought that was great for a cheesy girl!

Vacation -Day 13 -Rhinelander, WI

We went to the Rhinelander logging museum. The kids had lots of fun looking at things and playing inside the trains. They even had a cool miniature train set of the town.

Rebekah did not like being up on the bunk.

The museum had a whole section on the Civilian_Conservation_Corps or CCC. That was neat to learn about and neat to have Deanna with us to see. Her father came to Chandler, OK with the CCC. It was there that he met and fell in love with a young lady named Flora Mae. The rest is history!

That afternoon Clay took the ladies out in the row boat while I had some quiet time in the cabin by myself :)

We tried to go to the Water Ski show on Boom Lake that night. It was cancelled due to the rain. However, I did get another loon siting.

Vacation -Day 12 -Rhinelander, WI

The cabins that we were staying in had a pontoon that you could rent for the day. So we did.

Kyle and Tallin

Rebekah driving the boat with Clay. Caleb enjoying the sun.

Clay's mom, Deanna joined us the night before. This is a great shot of her and Emma. 

Then you see Ethan in the background. I cracked up when I saw that. So perfect!

I continued my search for loons while on the pontoon. We lucked out finding a small family of loons. I'm a little fascinated by loons. When I was in high school I worked in a store called Northern_Reflections. It's a Canadian clothing company (they no longer have stores in the US). Their logo was a loon. We had all kinds of loon decorations in the store. While I was at work they played music that was similar to Yanni mixed with loon calls. Being in southern California I had no idea what a loon was. But lots of people who shopped there did. So it's kind of exciting for this California beach girl to see loons in real life.

Clay and the kids jumped off the boat into the lake.

Clay took the kids on a fishing trip with the kids. Emma caught 4 fish and released them. Rebekah caught her very first fish. It swallowed the hook so we couldn't but it back. Look how proud she is.

That evening Nana took us out for a "couples' cruise" while Grandma put the kids to bed. I didn't get a picture of it, but we were surprised by three bright stars in a triangle just over the horizon. It looked liked a mystic portal waiting to suck us to another world or dimension. We later found out its was Mars_Saturn_and_Spica. I like my version better. Either way, we enjoyed a peaceful sunset on the lake.