My Little Helper

Harper LOVES to help Ross and me around the house. It's not always functional to have her help - she's obviously young and not very coordinated. But what she lacks in strength, she makes up in willingness! She likes to help us "scrub" anything - floor, end tables, furniture. She has been responsible for feeding Riley dinner for months - we scoop the food, she takes it and walks to the bowl, dumps it, returns the cup into the bag and shuts the door!  She is also very good at returning things to their original place when asked and is a big helper when running things to mom or dad. This week she added another skill - watering the garden! Harper insisted that she could do it by herself and she did a pretty great job of watering all the plants with minimal direction! She's a smart cookie!

Wisconsin Vacation 2013

We made our annual trek to Wisconsin last week. This was our first year traveling with an active toddler, so we decided to leave at 4 am in the hopes that Harper would sleep most of the trip. The plan worked like a charm and we had an easy drive. A bonus is that we arrived in Holcombe by 11:30 in the morning....just in time to meet my parents, Charlie & Char, and Annie for Bloody Marys! The weekend was very cold - in fact, the temperatures were record lows in the state - so we stayed indoors and visited a handful of resorts. Dave's family arrived on Monday....and I have to admit the rest of the week was kind of a blur of activity! A few of the highlights include....

• Kayaking. It was Stephanie's (and maybe Daves??) first time in a kayak. They did great. Abby, who is an experienced paddler, did awesome and did a 5 mile trip the next day with Dave, Ross and me. We didn't see much wildlife - a few fish, bald eagles and a deer. The river was shallow (Abby and I both got stuck on sandbars) and we faced a strong headwind so our arms were tired by the time we reached our house!
• ATVs! This was another first for Stephanie. We rented one and used mom & dad's (a big thank you!) for a full day of riding the trails. I think the only complaint anyone had was that we wish we could have ridden longer. The trails in that area are so much fun - winding paths through the woods, up and down and around, etc. I can't wait to do it again.
• Chippewa and Stanley visit. We made an afternoon visit to Irvine Park to see the animals. The kids enjoyed the petting zoo. They made friends with a hungry donkey who tried to take a bite out of Harper as we were walking away. If you ask Harper about a donkey, she will now says  "heehaw" and then quickly follow up with, "BITE!" Luckily the other animals were much less hungry and the kids enjoyed petting the barn yard animals and watching the lions and bears. After the park, we headed straight to Grandma's house. We joined her at the Stanley pool for a quick dip in the water. Afterwards she served a feast - I'm full just thinking about all the food we ate. Grandma always puts on a huge spread and this visit was no exception.
• Schneiders Camp Flambaeu. We stayed Mon - Fri at a local cabin and it was amazing. Very clean, very spacious and had amazing views. Although we saw fish jumping in the water in front of the cabin, we were unable to catch any. We have already reserved our week for 2014!
• Spending time with family. Really, spending time with our parents is the highlight of the trip every year. They do so much for us and really work to make it a great trip. Even if we did nothing but sit around the campfire it would be an awesome time chatting with one another and watching the kids play. This year we got to see Charlie & Charlie, Tom and Linda, Annie and Em's kids, too. The kids meshed really well together and had a blast playing on the sandbar, riding the atv (with Dave or Ross) and just running around the Connell Compound.

I have to admit I'm sad the trip is over...but I'm already excited for next year!

Bye Bye Motorcycle

Ross purchased his motorcycle shortly after we discovered we were expecting Harper. It was a Kawasaki ZX6R that he purchased from Kyle, one of his good friend from college. Ross loved the bike. Before Harper was born, he would go on long evening rides around town. Eventually it became a means of transportation to and from work during the spring, summer and fall. The year that Harper was born was a very mild winter so he put a lot of miles on that year! However, with family comes responsibility and also the fear of getting hurt, so this summer Ross put the bike up for sale. It was a 2003 model with only 8600 miles on it and never had mechanical issues so someone snapped it up pretty quickly. Ross was sad to see it go. Harper was also sad to see the "motorcicle" leave without her daddy on it. It was a great bike and we will miss it.

Sweet Corn

Harper has been digging the sweet corn this summer. We typically cut the corn off the cob, but occasionally let her try to do it herself. One night, after grilling the corn, we grilled bananas with cinnanom and sugar. Harper took a few bites but was more interested in feeding me...which was messy. We decided to take a picture of our messy faces....complete with "say CHEESE" faces!

Ankey's Summerfest Parade

We took Harper to Ankeny's Summerfest parade. It was her first parade so we weren't sure what to expect from Harper. She likes being in a crowd and there was a lot for her to take in....so she spent the first 20 minutes sitting and staring. When Harper is "absorbing" new things she typically looks kind of angry. Eventually she decided it was fun to be there. The parade got even better when the freebies starting coming - she got a cup and candy (another sucker!) and popcorn. She eventually kicked Ross out of his lawn chair and enjoyed watching all the floats went by while happily munching on her treats. By the time we got back to the car (2 hours later), she was beat - she asked for her blanket, threw it over head, and passed out!

Harper's First Haircut

Harper's hair was getting long and shaggy so we finally had her first haircut. We went to Lollipops - a salon that caters to toddler clientele with fun chairs, decorations and, of course, SUCKERS! Harper wasn't sure what to think about having "beauty school" done by a stranger. She enjoyed looking around the room but was fussing about being touched by the stylist. And then she got a lollipop.... It was Harper's first hard candy (hello, choking hazard!) and she LOVED LOVED LOVED it. In the end, we left without any tears and a pretty little girl without hair in her eyes!

Bikini Car Wash

Our car was recently in desperate need of a scrubbing - lots of road trips left millions of bugs and a thick layer of dust and dirt on it. So, we decided to clean it up the old fashion way - hand scrubbing in the driveway! Harper put on her swimsuit and helped, too. Eventually she decided to scrub her wagon and water table and play with bubbles, but for a while she was really making some progress on the wheels.

Harper also discovered Ross's tattoo! She was very curious about it and had to touch it.