Brown County Indiana - Country Resort Vacation

This June we went on a great family vacation with my mom, Jenn, Michael, Emma, and Luke.  We stayed a Sunday through a Friday (June 10th-15th).  The picture above shows the entire selling point of the place we selected to stay.  A private swimming pool right out back of the cabin.  The home had four bedrooms which was absolutely perfect.  Mom had the Master Bedroom, Jenn and Michael had a bedroom with Luke in a pack and play with them.  Paul and I had a bedroom and we were originally going to just have Ally in a room with us and Sam was going to stay in Emma's room.  However, Sam was so scared the first night we moved him into our room as well and he just stayed there with us.

The four bedrooms were on the corners of the cabin.  In the middle was an open sunroom, a living room, a kitchen, and a dining room.  It really was a good layout for the four young kids.  On the property there was a lake with a small row boat, a basketball hoop with room to play, and a huge private yard.  We really did not see any neighbors while visiting.  Here are a couple of photos from the website because I didn't think to take any of the house while we were there.

The Living Room:

The Sun room:

The Kitchen:

The bedroom that Paul, Sam, Ally, and I shared.  It was a very decent size and held us and the two pack and plays really well.

I took lots of pictures of the kids playing.  So I'll add those to the post.  But figure to be fair, and since my mind will probably forget all the details of the trip, I will post the downsides of this cabin.  Minor downside to me, but huge to Paul - there is no internet.  You can't even get cell phone reception at the cabin.  I was fine with that, however, it would have been nice to have a wireless connection because Paul could have probably stayed all week (he only stayed through Tuesday) and worked during the day instead of having to go home to go back to work.

Other random events that just happened to go wrong while we were there.  1. The water heater in one bathroom went out the second day we were there.  2. The water heater in the remaining bathroom went out (before the first was fixed) on the second to last day we were there. 3. The filter on the pool didn't appear to be working great while we were there. 4. We had mice... lots of mice.  In fact several were killed by traps while we were there and we had to call the maintenance men to come pick them up.  One mouse didn't die right away and tried to escape so that was a huge ordeal and we had to call the maintenance guy at 11:00 at night to come get him.  5. The outdoor grills did not work which was a bummer for the cookouts we had planned for meals.

I know that sounds like a huge list of things that went wrong.  But really, the water heaters were just terrible luck.  They tried to fix it immediately for us but had to call in a part from another state.  The mice are to be expected out in the woods and I think they just needed maintenance again on the pool.  The thing about renting is that you rely on the people who stay there to tell you things that are wrong, if no one tells you it can take you awhile to catch these things on your own.  But the management did comp mom one free night for all our troubles.  Which is great because she did end up picking up the cost of our stay as a family gift to everyone. 

Again, even with that list of items that went wrong, you can't beat having four young kids and a pool of your very own for a week. 

The course of the trip was pretty much we arrived Sunday in the late afternoon and spent the evening getting situated and did swim that night.  On Monday we went swimming that day and to the grocery store and out to dinner.  Tuesday we went into Brown County for some shopping and of course more swimming.  Paul had to leave Tuesday night.  On Wednesday I took Sam with Jenn, Michael, Emma, and Luke to Brown County National Park for some hiking and mom was very nice to stay at home with Ally so she could nap and because she was too small for the hiking.  Then Dad and Reva came to visit with us that afternoon.  Michael had to leave on Wednesday night.  Thursday it was only the girls with the kids so we spent all day at the house by swimming and starting to pack everything up.  Friday we did an early morning check out.  So we definitely kept busy!

Here are some photos from the hike we had on Wednesday.  It was so cute to watch the three little kids take in hiking and nature.  It was Sam's first real hike.  I have to admit it was not as peaceful hiking as I am use too :)  He spoke the entire time.  Literally held conversations the entire trip.  I am pretty sure Jenn and Michael were in shock with how much he can actually talk.  Luke and Emma were quietly taking everything in and almost one with nature.  And then there is Sam :)  He at some point freaked out over bugs.  And anytime a fly would go past him he'd scream bug and cover his ears.  Then he'd point out every rock we past and just hold his own conversation the entire time.  I loved it but it was very funny to see the differences between him and his cousins :)

It was so great to have this time to have Sam spend with his cousins.  Jenn and Michael really don't live that far from us, but with everyone's crazy schedules it is hard to get quality time for the kids to play together.  We had four set days where everyone could play.  Yes there was bickering and problems sharing, but really they were all so tired from swimming we didn't have too many problems.

We tried to keep them busy at all times.  Jenn had some organized activities such as coloring and board games.  Sam actually played his first board game while on vacation which made me realize he was at the age where he can actually play games.  He played Busy Town which is a coop game between everyone and absolutely loved it. 

The last day we were there we actually moved the kids out to eating outside.  There was a picnic table that the kids could eat on.  I wish we had done it earlier!  It would have saved us lots of clean up time!

And of course, the highlight of the trip.  The pool time:

 

 

Okay... I know there isn't a lot of photos of Ally.  But in my defense they either include me and this was before I had lost some weight so I don't want to post them or she was sleeping.  She was the only baby on two naps so she missed quite a bit of pool time each day!

This is a photo of poor Luke on the last day of vacation.  He wasn't feeling well or eating and it turns out he caught strep!  Look at him smiling though.  Oh and if you notice those horrible cuts on Sam's hands that was my fault.  We were at Brown County and Ally was in the stroller and Sam was walking next to us.  Unfortunately he tripped and I couldn't stop the stroller in time from rolling over his hands. 

We had so much fun just spending a week with mom and the Smitley's.  I hope we can make this a yearly happening.  The kids were so tired they didn't even stay awake the hour ride it took us to get home.

Growing way to fast...

Ally is 14 months old now.  I know I say this all the time, but seriously she is growing up way too fast.  She is now a toddler.  She officially started walking on Saturday, September 8th.  She was taking a step or two in August but it wasn't consistent or with any frequency.  However, when we hit labor day weekend, she was off and running.  It was great because Paul and I were both there to see it.  She just took about 7 steps and hasn't looked back since.  I need to figure out how to post video on here, because we have some adorable footage or her just walking around.  It's about the cutest thing ever because she frequently has something in each hand, sticks her belly out, and walks around a little bit like a drunken sailor.  But an adorable one at that!

She is eating so well now.  I remember all the struggles we had with baby food and I think she just was a late starter with eating.  She just is a girl who likes things on her terms.  Now that she is eating real food, she'll eat it all and loves it all.  We also finally got her over to whole milk.  For awhile she refused even that unless it was in a bottle and warm or would only nurse.  Now, we finally have her drinking milk from sippy cups.  Again, it was all on her terms.  We just kept offering until one day she actually took it.  I always kept offering the alternatives for her, because I knew she'd switch over when she was ready and she did.  And actually, we have Ally off the bottle way before we had Sam.  He was still getting a bottle of milk at nap and bedtime until we was about 16 months old.

However, the one thing that will be a big change coming up for her is that over my fall break (in two weeks) I am going to cut out the nursing.  I am still nursing her at night (it was morning and night until late August) and finally feel that we are ready to stop.  I have absolutely loved nursing her and the bonding we have had together.  I also haven't been in any rush to stop because in all honestly she could be our last child and in a strange way I will miss it!  I think it is such a great bonding time I have had with her and that it really is this miraculous thing that your body can do to provide such great nutrition for you child and I will miss being able to do that.  Not to mention the extra points I was allowed to eat each day because I was still partially nursing on weight watchers...  Oh well, my goal is to stop over fall break, so we will see how it goes!  However, even with the nursing sessions ending at night, I will still rock my baby girl to sleep until she no longer wants us too.  Here is a photo from tonight:

Ignore the tired look on my face.  It was really dark in her room and the flash on the iphone is not flattering at all!  Paul and I have a different way of putting our kids to bed then a lot of our friends, but it works for us, and it works for our kids.  Sam got nursed to sleep every day for 13 months.  Then he got rocked to sleep until he was about a year and a half.  He finally got to the age where he just wanted a book and then go to bed on his own.  We will keep the same thing up with Ally.  Even when we finish nursing, I will keep rocking this little girl until she no longer wants me too.   There is something so calming and so great about watching her fall asleep on my shoulder every night.  I need this snuggle time with my baby girl because I know it won't last forever.

Her sleeping habits have also returned to the way it was when she was little.  Ally loves her sleep.  We start the bedtime process around 7:30 to 8:00.  And she is asleep by 8:30.  If you let her sleep in she'll go until about 8:30 every morning.  When we have to wake her up during the week, we go in her room at around 7:00 am and she looks at us, then rolls over so she can go back to bed.  She definitely loves her sleep.  She is also usually on two naps a day.  During the weekend when we let her sleep in we can do only one, but when she has to get woken up early, we really need her at two naps so she can make it to her bedtime without being extra cranky.

She absolutely loves mac and cheese and peanut butter and jelly.  She is also pretty sure she is a big girl and will take the spoon away from you when we try to feed her applesauce or yogurt and want to do it herself.  Here is a photo of what she normally looks like after dinner:

 You can just see from the look in her eyes that she is going to be a stinker.  It's crazy how much personality has come out in the last few weeks.  She climbs onto everything, wants everything she can't have, and has already learned her fake cry.  Sam will knock her over (sometimes on accident sometimes on purpose) and she'll stop, look at us to make sure we see her, then start crying and scrunching up her face.  It is so stinking adorable.

She still only has two bottom teeth, but I am sure any day now the others will come in!  She so far loves balls.  She is happiest when she has a ping pong ball in each hand.  She also loves pushing her shopping cart.  She is still so content to play by herself, but unfortunately that doesn't happen very often.  Sam is in the phase of taking what she wants.  However, she will usually just find someone else to play with until he comes over and takes it from her again (more on that later...). I can't wait to see what the next few months bring with her.

  

Sam is now 33 months old.  He is getting so big and talking so much every day.  We can literally hold conversations with him now on car rides and over the phone and know exactly what he is talking about.  His favorite things are cars, trains, and anything outside.  His new favorite food that just shocks us is cheeseburgers and pickles.  He has never had an interest in them before now, but now that's what he requests.  

It is getting so much easier to eat out now as a family.  Sam and Ally will split a meal and if we can get a table outside during nice weather it is a very pleasant experience.  The above photo was from Noodles and Company and Sam and Ally ate an entire bowl of mac and cheese.  All we have to do is bring a fruit side and the kids are set.  

Now on to our concerns for Sam.  He has had a really rough adjustment to going to daycare two times a week.  First, he has been sick constantly since enrolling.  I know this is to be expected but a week and a half ago we almost took Sam to the ER for his breathing.  Paul worked from home that day and kept Sam with him to keep an eye on him.  His breathing was rapid and shallow and he wasn't moving very much at all.  Also, we knew he was really sick when we asked him if he would want to go outside or go for a car ride the night before and he asked to stay home.  We got him in for a doctor's appointment at 11:00 on a Tuesday and when he got there they checked his oxygen levels and found that they were really low.  He got a breathing treatment there and it rose a bit which was good or else he would have been admitted into the hospital.  They think what happened is that he just kept having a sickness after sickness and his lungs started building up drainage in them.  So we had to start him on an antibiotic, steroids, and breathing treatments.  It took about a week and a half to get him better but he is finally back to normal I think.  If he gets sick again they might run blood work just to make sure there isn't anything more serious going on.  I did stay home last Wednesday and they checked his oxygen levels for me again at a follow up appointment and it was at 99/100 which makes me feel so much better.

Another  problem with daycare is that he just has such a hard time going.  We had been so fortunate to keep Sam with family for the first 2.5 years that us leaving him is just throwing him off.  Poor Paul drops him off at daycare and Sam starts crying saying Daddy don't leave me, daddy don't leave me and holding his arms up in the air to be picked back up.  I think this week we finally had some progress with him being there, and I believe there were a few less tears then normal, but still, it is so hard and makes me so jealous of all those moms out there who get to stay home with their children.  

Sam switches each day where he goes.  And I know that is hard on him.  On Monday's he is with Paul's mom, on Tuesday he's at Goddard, on Wednesday he's with my mom, Thursday is at Goddard, and Friday's are back with Paul's mom.  So it gets confusing for him I am sure.  He has started waking up at 5:00 in the morning and I really think it is due to stress.  He has also started biting his nails which I am hoping we can break that habit soon.  He was doing it today at the dolphin show at the zoo:

I know that school is important for him.  He is with other kids his age and learning things that I don't think to teach him.  For example, they all drink out of regular cups, not sippy cups.  I never would have thought he was ready for that at this age.  He gets to paint and do fun activities with the other kids.  I know it's good for him I just really pray that things start to go more smoothly and he stresses a little bit less about being left there.  It is so hard that when we ask him what he did at school that day, he answers "I cried at school".  

We are also really needing to work on sharing and not needing to be the center of attention.  I know it is normal two year old behavior.  But he really is taking toys from Ally left and right.  He gets upset if she takes something from him.  We really have to work on getting on him immediately when he does this and making him give the toy back to Ally.  He also has issues with Ally's personal space.  He sits on her constantly, pushes her over, and pretty much squishes her onto the floor while laying on top of her.  Ally usually just laughs and thinks it is hilarious which doesn't help Paul and I teach him that this isn't appropriate behavior.

Because Sam has been sick the past few weeks he has gotten a lot of one on one time with my mom.  He has absolutely loved this.  He gets very excited to go to Grandma's house.  He also has gotten picked up early from daycare the past two weeks and gets to go to my mom's house for lunch and nap.  Mom has had to pick up my dad from radiation treatment and take him home a few times so Sam has gone along on errands with my mom, and she has stopped by my step-brothers shop with Sam so he can see Reva.  Sam got to sit on some big machines there and had a blast.

So he's had some really fun days, we just have to work on getting the drop off at daycare less upsetting to all involved.  We are thinking about making a picture chart that he can move a magnet each night so he knows where he is going the next day.  I really do think he is starting to get up at 5 from the stress of not knowing where he is going even though we try to tell him several times a day.  I never thought I'd be wishing for a 7 am wake up time again, but even 6 would be better then 5 am!

I am hoping to attempt the potty training with Sam over my two week fall break.  So... maybe I'll have another post in a few weeks about how that is going.  I have already decided that if it doesn't go well I'm just going to try again at Christmas Break.  I'm not going to force the issue on him with all the other things he has going on right now that are stressing him out!

Goal Updates

Wow it's been a long time since I have posted.  I follow several blogs and I am always impressed with how they can update several times a week.  I am just hoping for a couple of posts a month for me!

Time is just flying by for us and there is so much I want to post about and just haven't had the time to do it.  So I figure I'll start small and once I get back into this blogging thing update to our summer and Ally's first birthday.

I guess the easiest place to start is to update my goals post from awhile back.  I had two goals - 1. go back on weight watchers and 2. organize.  Well... I have succeed partially at one and am really lacking at the other.

I did go back on Weight Watchers about 2 months ago.  I am down another 10 pounds from when I started but have unfortunately stalled the last few weeks.  I am back on from this weekend and hope to keep going towards my goal.  I really need to lose another 15 pounds.  I would love to lose another 20 but I am not sure that will be possible with my post-baby body.  I am starting to feel a lot better about myself and I have finally started exercising along with trying to eat healthy.  I am doing the Couch to 5k program with a few friends and so far it is going really well.  The program has an app for my iphone that tells me when to run and when to walk.  It's great because when I do it with friends the time passes quickly.  If I am running just by myself I can listen to my Air1 app and while listening for the other app to tell me when to walk and run.  I'm only up do the 4 minute run so far... next week is the 5 and 8 minute runs and it is a bit intimidating!  However, I need to keep this up because I need to get back into shape.  I can already feel a difference in my energy level just in exercising three times a week.  I also feel better about myself because I finally cut off my hair.  My hair had gotten ridiculously long and I just didn't have the time to get it cut.  I woke up last Saturday and figured I had a few hours until Irish Fest let's just chop it off.  Unfortunately, the downside of this plan was all three major salons around me that I trusted were booked.  So... I called this random place that I found a coupon for and they had an opening.  I walk in and see all these young stylists who are dressed incredibly in fashion with adorable hair and figure this should go well.  My lady however walks out and she's older, her hair is wet and pulled back in a banana clip and she barely says two words to me through the whole thing.  I really thought I would have to go to another salon later to get it fixed.  She also took 2.5 hours to highlight and cut my hair.  And I never got to see the mirror once so I had no idea what was going on.  However, she did do a great job on it and I love the new cut.  She also donated my cut hair to locks of love which I really appreciate her doing.  Here are my before and afters:

That was from the same day.  However, I can't get my hair that straight so this is a more accurate look of what it does each day now.

As for goal number 2... organizing... well it's a work in progress!  I have a two week fall break coming up and I really hope to make some serious progress on this house during that time.

Maybe I should post before photos of my whole house and it'll help me feel accomplished to post after photos as I organize and deep clean each room in our house.  I also want to paint, but I can't convince Paul to help me paint the final few rooms until we have them completely organized.