Ride 'Em Kitty!

So I've said it before but Hunter LOVES his kitties!! He actually really loves any animals but we only have cats right now for him to play with everyday. Our cats have also become surprisingly tolerant of his "love." Lately he has been really into trying to "ride" the kitties. He tries to straddle them when they are laying down and then will bounce a little until they escape. He also "superman's" over them a lot either when they are laying down or trying to walk away. Here's a few pics... Doing the "superman" over Max.

On Carter, who has really given up running from him and just sort of accepts the attention as it comes.
He's being "nice" in this pic. Scratching the kitties head... ahhhh
He really gets so excited to see the cats everyday you would think he's never seen them before. It does keep him busy and I don't think the cats really mind the attention (although a little rough at times) too much.

Side note: I realized in all these pics he's not wearing shorts or pants and I really do dress him better most of the time. But it's been hot lately and sometimes it's easier to just to get a t-shirt on and let him go!

Another Zoo Trip

Adam was home last week which is why we tried to go swimming a lot. We got some stuff done around the house while he was home. We also went to the Madison Zoo on Friday. Adam hadn't been yet with Hunter so we wanted to go. I think Hunter was a little more into it this time. He was pointing at all the animals and getting excited to see them. We tried to go in the morning when it was cooler but it still got very hot & sticky towards the end of our day. He did really good again especially considering he was way overdue for a nap by the time we were done.

Hunter and Daddy checking out the bear.

Pointing, he did a lot of excited pointing. I think this is at the lions, which he called "kitties."
Pointing at the penguins. He liked this glass exhibit he could go up to and touch and look through.
Riding the turtle.
It wasn't too busy that day (probably because of the heat) but there was lots of Amish family's there that day. I always find that fascinating. Especially because they are all walking around in long sleeve button down shirts, pants and boots, the women in long sleeve, long dresses. Oh my word! It was so hot! The little boys were all so cute with their straw hats. Here you can see all the women watching all the men and most of the kids ride the merry-go-round. I love all the bonnets and hats all lined up.
We didn't take Hunter on the merry-go-round, it's only $1.00. But I wasn't sure if he'd sit still for the whole ride and it was getting towards the end of our day when he was getting really tired. We'll try it next time. I think he'd like it, you can see from the turtle picture he loved riding that! They also have a cute little train ride too we'll have to try. Hunter does the "choo-choo" for trains now. He just loves animals so I think each time we go he'll enjoy it more and more.

Not Like A Fish

I was so excited for this summer and the summer heat, playing in the water and splashing in the pool with Hunter. Sigh....... he has other ideas. So far he has not enjoyed the big pool at all and refuses to sit and play in his froggy pool. He'll stand in it for a little bit and likes to splash around a little. He will not sit in it and really can't wait to get out and prefers to play with the water from outside of the pool. And the water is warm and it's plenty hot outside, so there's no excuse! Here he is standing in it for a minute...

Time to jump out, I've had enough!
We've made several attempts at swimming in my parents pool. Sometimes he refuses to get his feet wet, holding them up as high as he can. He'll tolerate the water for a minute but quickly starts saying "done, done" and pointing and leaning to the deck to get out. Here he is in his turtle from last year having so much fun.
With Mama's shades...something to distract him helps a little : )
It was high 80's almost 90 and very humid all last week so we tried swimming several times but never lasted very long. We'll keep trying though... maybe he'll start liking it : )

Vacation

Ahhh we made it, a little over 10 hrs in the car with an 18 month old to and from Ely, MN. Before we left we bought a portable DVD player for the car and I have to say Adam & I were both so thankful we did! It really made the car ride very manageable as long as we were watching Veggie Tales, Curious George or Baby Praise. Shut it off and watch out! And of course we stopped lots and Hunter would run around like a little crazy baby.

We had good weather...started out a little cold but really warmed up by the middle of the week. We stayed at Garden Lake Resort. We've stayed their the past 5 years. Look close at their fishing picture section and you might see some familiar faces.
Of course, the obligatory fishing pictures....Adam with a bass picture, I choose this one because he looks funny with his mosquito netting on. This was when him and my Dad took a canoe into the same lake he camped at 2 weeks ago. And yes the mosquitoes were terrible!

Me holding my own fish ( I usually make my Dad hold them for me :-) )

We all hiked one morning to the Kawishiwi Falls. We only found out about them last year and ran out of time to check it out so we wanted to make sure we went this year. It was very impressive and much larger than we all were expecting. Hunter was a little tired but he did really well for his 1st hike. It had rained the day before and in the mud on the trail were great big cat tracks.... and I'm not talking kitty cat. Like mountain lion or bobcat or something large! And they were pretty fresh. I took some video of them but no pics.

It really was very beautiful and worth the hike. This is a view looking down and it all goes into a great big lake.
Hunter saying "hi" or "bye." This became a funny little theme of the trip. He "bye's" everyone and everything now, including when you are just going into the other room. He waves his little arm and wiggles his fingers back and forth... too cute. He's starting to put a couple words together like "bye dada", "bye dog" or "bye car."


Adam blew up our tube for some tubing and Hunter thought that was great fun the rest of the week... just playing on it not actually tubing! I have some funny video of him dancing on it.

We took him for 1 boat ride... he sat still one way across the lake, not on the way back and that was all the boating he got! He did love to walk down to the boat and sit in it in the water, we would do this several times a day when he would see it and say "boat!"

Adam, my dad and I went canoeing/fishing one day. Mom stayed back with Hunter. Adam caught a huge walleye, his biggest ever. I caught one right after him that was my biggest ever, although not as big as his. We snapped one picture and the thing wiggled free from Adam and back in the water. We were going to release it anyways it was just so tough to hang onto so I'm glad we got 1 picture to remember it.
We did other fun things like feed the chipmunks.. a vacation tradition. Hunter would call them and throw peanuts at them. They were very tame and ever tolerated Hunter's excited screaming pretty well. I didn't get any pics of that, just videos, I'll have to get some posted.

On the way home we shrunk the baby... or just put him in a giant chair. Can you see him?

Another good vacation come and gone. Crazy that's it's July already now... June really does go by way to fast!!