Neu Family Reunion: Day 3....Madeline Island

On day 2 we spent most of the time indoors since it was raining, but on day 3 Jeff, Cohen and I busted out the paddle boat for Cohen to take a quick spin. Cohen and I arrived late on the day that everyone else played with the paddle boats and Cohen saw them sitting there and frequently told me that he wanted to ride one. I kept telling him, "another day." Well, the last day came and it was now or never. I'm really trying to not be a parent that tells my kid something to blow him off and then... blow him off. Since I didn't want to ride in the boat with him, I just put on my swim suit bottoms and pushed him around for a little while. He loved it so it was a win for everyone.

After checking out of the cabin, Jeff, Cohen and I headed over to Madeline Island for a quick look around. Two of the families went over a couple days before and weren't too impressed (Even tried to discourage us from going). They had warned me, but I felt that I had come all that way I might as well experience it for myself since I probably would never be return to the Apostle Islands. It was a learning experience for sure. I figured out that if I DID ever return to the Apostle Islands I would do it completely differently than this time. I would load up a car with camping gear and go camp on Madeline Island! We unfortunately didn't bring our car on the ferry, so we didn't get to drive around to the other side and see the park and go on a hike (Cohen also didn't have the right shoes on for a hike).  So, I don't want to rag on Madeline Island because we really weren't prepared to take advantage of all she had to offer. It's all good, Cohen loves riding on boats so the ferry ride was a total win with him.

The little town that the ferry docks in on Madeline Island is really small but it was fun to walk around. There were a few souvenir shops and a couple places to eat (ice cream and a bakery). If we didn't have Cohen with us I totally would have rented a Vespa and rode around the island.

We walked through a few of the stores for souvenirs and then checked out the local bakery. It was amazingly small, but they had a nice variety of sweet treats. The women working said they make all the baked goods on site, which is totally impressive since the kitchen in the back looked tiny. Cohen really enjoyed his donut with sprinkles.  I had the berry coffeecake (I was told it was the best seller) and really enjoyed it. Jeff had the carrot cake and wasn't too impressed (surprise, surprise).

We really only spent 30 minutes on the island and then returned to Bayfield, WI to grab lunch at the Fat Radish (AGAIN!) and of-course finished of our Apostle Islands trip with a chocolate ice cream cone for Cohen!

We then headed to Anne's (in Minnesota) for dinner and quality family time. I really do enjoy spending time with Jeff's family. They are such loving people. My sister-in-law Emilie told me that one of the things she likes about Minnesota are the amazing clouds. She was right! I couldn't believe how beautiful all the clouds were.

Neu Family Reunion: Day 1 for me....Day 4 for everyone else

After an amazing week with my family in Washington/Oregon, Cohen and I joined Jeff and his family in Bayfield, WI for the Neu Family reunion in the Apostle Islands. Everyone else arrived a few days earlier, but Cohen and I arrived late so we could be in Oregon for my grandma's 85th birthday.

We all stayed in a bunch of cottages on Lake Superior. It was lovely hanging out with family and enjoying the absolutely beautiful scenery.

For Lunch, Jeff, Cohen, and I went to check out the small charming town of Bayfield, WI with Sharon, Ben and Atticus. We had lunch at a little place called the Fat Radish. It was totally delicious! If you ever find yourself in Bayfield, WI :) you should totally check this place out. 

After our amazing lunch, we grabbed some taffy and ice cream at a little place called Sweet Sailing. Cohen has becoming a taffy fan, so he was all over helping Aunt Sharon pick some out to share with the fam. It was a lot of fun watching Cohen and Atticus walk down the street holding hands. Even cuter was watching them eat Jeff and Sharon ice cream. 

Later in the day a few of us went on a 3-hour boat tour of the Apostle Islands. I really enjoyed both the company and the view! It was a very relaxing trip and it was nice catching up with some family. Cohen seemed to really enjoy the tour too. Mostly because he loved hanging with some truly amazing cousins. He also really enjoyed eating his body weight in Cheetos!

A Cast for Cohen

I can't believe it's July and I have only posted once this year! Sad, sad, sad.  I know I always promise to be better, but I never am so I will just stop promising to post more. I have a lot of things to catch up on, so there might be a bunch of posts coming over the next week. We've been busy! I'm so glad it's summer!

I think the biggest news for this summer is that Cohen broke his elbow in June. Nineteen months old and already broke his arm! This totally makes me nervous. I hear Jeff frequented the hospital while growing up, and something tells me Cohen will be the exact same.

We were visiting Ben and Sharon in WI for Atticus's baby blessing and Cohen fell down the stairs on the last day and broke his arm. I just felt so bad for him! I just had a feeling that something was wrong, while others kept saying..."he's going to be fine." Cohen kept using his arm (although movement was limited), so we didn't know that he broke it. We gave him some medicine and put him to bed. He woke up at 2am screaming (meds wore off), so we gave him more and decided to just head to the airport early (we had a 6am flight so were planning on leaving at 3am anyways). How did I know something was REALLY wrong? Well, Cohen slept on me for almost the whole flight and let's just say he NEVER sleeps in my arms.

We landed in NYC at 10am. I dropped Jeff off at the train so he could go into the city for work and I drove Cohen home. After discovering that Brie had eaten part of a foam ball while we were away, I threw both her and Cohen in the car and drove to the vet to make sure she was ok. Well, she was ok, but Cohen's arm had started to swell. I decided to call he pediatrician and he saw us at 4pm and told us to go to the hospital for an x-ray. The hospital doc that reviews x-rays had gone home for the day, so I was told they would call me in an hour and tell me the results. So, after a lovely trip to the hospital (which Cohen HATED) I realized we had no food for dinner which meant I needed to go food shopping. I then fed Cohen dinner and tucked him into bed after a very very long day! At around 9:30pm I got a call from Cohen's doc who reached out to the hospital for the results and told me that Cohen had broke his elbow and that we needed to go back to the hospital for them to put a splint on it. Since the pediatric part of the ER closes at 10:30pm, we were in and out and had Cohen back in bed by 11pm! Jeff and I got to bed at around midnight. Remember we have been up since 2am! It may have been one of the longest days of my life!

Jeff had the honor of taking Cohen to a pediatric orthopedic the next day to get a fancy, blue cast put on! I hear it was not a fun experience for either Cohen or Jeff. While Cohen struggled initially to figure out how to get up with only one arm, he quickly got used to his new "hard" arm. He loved banging it on things and making noise. He actually got quite good at it and ended up being a good sport about the whole thing.

Luckily, Cohen only had the cast on for three weeks. The doctor told us that he could still see the fracture on the x-ray, but needed to keep the cast off. He told us to be "gentle" with it. I was like,  "yeah, right." He's a 20 month old and we have hard wood floors and tile in our house. Fingers crossed he doesn't break it again!