Sam, the (Kosher) Ham

This was the fourth summer that we were blessed to visit our friends who have a house in Green Lake, Wisconsin. It is truly amazing to be with them, especially now that these friends have moved away from Chicago - we hadn't spent time with them since last summer! My kids love their kids and vice-versa, and it is always a wonderful couple of days together. We spent a lot of time out on their boat, and it's been really amazing to watch, as over the years, my children have become more and more comfortable with the various boating activities. In previous years, Yael loved to watch but would not go on the tube. This year she was so excited to go with the "big boys" (and she had them wrapped around her little finger, let me tell you). But the real star of the show was, in my mind, Sam.

He was fearless, taking turns on the tube and also the knee board (like a stepping stone toward water skiing). Here he is, showing off his skills... "look, no hands!" And we could hear him shout, "is that all you got?" and flash the "faster" sign. He was singing to himself and smiling and clearly enjoying every moment of this experience. The kid is a (kosher) ham. He could tell that we were having a great time watching him and that fueled his fire.

 He looks so little and far away when he's out on the board, being towed by the boat. It's such a moment of release for me, to put my kid out there and watch him, huge grin on his face, so far away. (Of course, I really have no worries in terms of safety - our friends are incredibly safety-conscious and take very good care of our family and theirs!) To see my little boy growing up into a funny, daredevil, fun-loving person is so remarkable. Here he is getting a big hug on his return to the boat. We all laughed with delight at his antics. I think the kid is truly ready to leave the nest for kindergarten. He'll be the class funnyman for sure.

Of course, not everyone was impressed with the whole experience.

See more Summer Stock Sunday (which I haven't gotten around to much this summer!) over by Robin's place.

What I did on my Summer Vacation

We spent four days in Wisconsin Dells last week. I'm embarrassed to tell you that I've never actually spent more than an afternoon there in my whole life - and I grew up in the state of Wisconsin!

It was a great vacation. We hardly ever left our resort and we visited only half the water parks available to us! We're already making plans for our next trip. (And of course, making lists of things to do differently or not to forget.) We did such a nice job of not over-doing it - we ate most of our breakfast and lunch meals in our room (it had a full kitchen) and we didn't buy into all the hype of all the attractions that we really didn't need. (Even though some of them sounded pretty darn cool.) We also had Uncle Harry with us - he was visiting from Israel and it was great for the kids to spend time with him and just hang out. Yael definitely had him wrapped around her little finger!

The hardest part was taking pictures - I didn't want to drop the camera in the water and I couldn't figure out how to leave it with our shoes without living in constant fear of it getting stolen. So I only brought it to the water parks one day. Anyone have any good tips on how to make this work?

We stopped in Madison on the way home, and had Babcock Hall ice cream on the Union Terrace. (No one wanted to order my favorite flavor - Orange Custard Chocolate Chip - but it tasted just as good as I remembered from my college days.) It was too hot to do anything other than eat ice cream and take a few pictures, and then we were on our way back...

And that's what we did on our summer vacation!

See more Summer Stock Sunday over at Robin's kitchen island.

Restful Vacation

 

 

 

 

We are absolutely blessed to have amazing friends with an incredible house on a lake...and they invited us to join them for a couple of days. Hundreds of pictures later, here are a few of my favorites.

August does seem to be the rabbi-vacation-month, and we were no exception. After this restful trip to North-central Wisconsin, we then took a trip to New York and New Jersey...those pictures are a later post.

Too bad I'm too late to join into either Best Shot Monday or Summer Stock Sunday. Oh well...that's the way the vacation crumbles:-)

What I Did on my Summer Vacation (or...13 Reasons I'm not Blogging)

1. Reading Daniel Silva's newest book. And the new Artemis Fowl.
2. Catching up on the books I'm supposed to be reviewing on my blog!
3. Fishing

4. Watching my kids spray each other with the hose.

5. Being silly

6. Teaching David Hebrew.
7. Working on the PTA newsletter
8. Watching crazy silly television with Ellie.
9. Meeting donkeys.

10. Painting

11. Hanging around

12. Snacking

13. Napping. (Maybe that was just the kids. Naps for the ima!?)

What are you up to this summer?

See other lists of 13 here. (Although I'm way early, aren't I, for Thursday 13. Oh well...)

After the storms...

Our Florida trip in review:

eating
cousins!
eating
beach
eating
pool
eating
hanging out with family
eating

It was fun and warm and great to get the whole clan together.

Here are some cute vacation pics...







And, perhaps most importantly(?), I kept up with my blogging and it only took me 3 days to read through the 400+ posts in my GoogleReader!