LietzauFamily

If you’re just joining us, go read Indiana Trip (Part 1) before you start in on this post.

After the super hot day at Holiday world, the weather turned a bit cooler, and we ended up with great weather the last couple of days.  It was cool enough we could finally hike the trails without soaking your clothing with sweat.  So Katie, Tom and I tackled the parks trail system – and we did them all!  Oh wait, *technically* we did not do ALL the trails – we did not do a quarter mile, paved, handicap trail that ran around a picnic shelter.  That trail aside – we hiked every trail (and a few offshoots) and it was lots of fun.

The trails go through some very nice forest – made of a large variety of trees – beech, oak, maples, sweetgum, redbud, sassafras, walnut, and many more.  It feels very undisturbed and natural – vines, mature trees, ferns and smaller woodland plants, and vast gullies and ravines.  Even the trails themselves were in the process of being reclaimed by the forest – trees and limbs down across them, a bridge that had collapsed, and sign posts that leaned against trees instead of standing next to the path.  Some people may not have liked that, but I thought it added to the adventure.

The last nights we were all there we had a big cookout between Katie & Tom’s and Kelly & Shelby’s campsites.  We pulled all the picnic tables (and another site’s too) in a half circle, and then set out all the camp chairs for the other half, circling the camp fire.  Lots of yummy food, and good company, made this a great night.

We got someone across the road to take a picture of everyone (which turned out really nice – I’ll replace the Myrtle Beach one on my wall with this one).  Once it got dark we tossed a lantern up in the trees and then played cards long into the night.  I’m sure the neighboring sites probably didn’t like that, but it was the last night for all us there anyway.  So much fun!

On Saturday, our last day, we packed up the cabins and campers and headed home.  Our little family, along with Katie and Tom, made a stop along the way at Grandma Nita’s.  Grandpa Joe, Travis and his family, and Susie were there too.  Grandma made a pretty little doll blanket, and her sister Marcia made an old fashioned doll for Lily.  After a wonderful supper of soup made from veggies from the garden, we headed down to the barn.  Susie, Katie, and Gabe all went for a ride on Splash, Grandma Nita’s Tennessee Walker (because Splash is such a nice horse to ride).  Susie worked out all the jitters and calmed Splash down, then led Splash around while Gabe rode.

Gabe was pretty nervous at first (”It’s so high up!”), but he settled down and loved it so much he had to go a second time after Katie.  After the horse rides, we headed back to the house, and Grandpa Joe gave Gabe a ride on his motorcycle.  Two firsts in one night for him!  We hung out and talked until way too late, then hit the road at 6AM for Minnesota.  A wonderful ending to a wonderful trip!

This June we went to New Harmony, Indiana and stayed in the family cabins at Harmonie State Park.  It was hot – upper 90’s – and it was humid.  But it was fun to see everyone, and neat to share with Gabe things I did when I was a kid, so all and all a good trip for us.  We ended up with lots of pictures, between my camera, Katie & Tom’s camera, and some Grandpa Joe took at Grandma ‘Nita’s.  I want to give a big thank you to Tom for letting me have a copy of the pictures – he was the most on the ball of all of us to remember to actually USE a camera!  So a big chunk of the photos I’m going to share are ones he took.

The first group of pictures are ones that didn’t really fit into a category.  Shots from around the campground of things that caught our eyes, or cute kids, or what-not.  Lily ended up in a lot of pictures (cute little baby!), as well as snakes, for some reason!  Kelly, I”m surprised at how few shots everyone got of baby Shelby.  I did take some – but they ended up being little blurs as he ran by, bounced up and down, or was swung from our arms on a walk.  Very few turned out!  He just doesn’t hold still anymore.  Maybe next time.

On the second hottest day (nearly 100, full humidy, and super-sticky (what were we thinking?)), a few of us explored the town of New Harmony.  Grammy K, Katie, Tom, Lily and I walked all around town.  I’m happy to report that the Labyrinth is doing really well – thicker and nicer then ever.  The town itself is picturesque with great historical buildings and homes, lovely gardens, and quaint shops.  Definately a good town to walk around (but maybe not when it’s that hot (are you sensing a theme yet?)).

Either I’ve forgotten it, or we never went across it when I was a kid, but there is a GREAT old metal bridge.  It connects the town of New Harmony to Illinois, spanning over the Wabash River.  It’s amazing – so high, and old, and kind of rickety looking.  You have to pay a dollar to cross it – but it’s so worth it.

On the HOTTEST day of the trip we went to Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana.  Yep – Santa Claus is the name of the town.  It’s next to Christmas Lake, and every store and street has something to do with holidays.

It was a good day to go to Holiday World because it has a HUGE water park with the longest water ride and the highest water ride in America (so their signs say).  We didn’t go on either – but we played in a fun kiddie water park most of the time which helped us stay about as cool as we could.  We ended up with a hot sticky baby though, and had to head home early.  On the way out we saw the diving show – and they had somebody who set themselves on fire, and jumped 60 ft down into a tank of water.  It was actually pretty cool!

There you go – that’s about half the photos from the Indiana trip.  I’ll add the rest soon!

Lily! Lily! Lily!

Lily’s nearly 9 months today (next week).  But we went out of town to Indiana before I got a chance to upload these photos onto the website.  So let’s take the way-back-machine, and jump back a few weeks, and check out Lily at her 8 month birthday.  The biggest change in the last couple months is how well she sits up, rolls around, and interacts with everything around her.  She’s very talkative – and more then just mamamama – she’s got some ba’s and ga’s and lots of silly growls, trills, squeals, and other “sound effects” that can’t really be described.  She’s also is getting her first teeth – the two on the bottom – so lots of drool:

Thankfully these ones are not bothering her too much.  She’s a bit more cuddly, and a bit less content to just play on her own when we are at Jacquie’s and working, but other then that, she’s taking them in stride.  She does chew everything you give her though – chomps down on spoons, ni-nights, your fingers!  Still sleeping through the night however, so that’s good.  And boy, does she ever adore her big brother.  Which – right now – he thinks is pretty cool.  I’ll remind him of that later when he can’t stand his annoying little sister!

More photos and posts to come – lots of things to catch up on!

We are so antsy to get outside once the weather warms up in spring.  As soon as it does – out come the blankets – Yay!

Every chance we get to go outside, we take.  We drag out a blanket, lots of toys, and plop Lily down in the middle of the blanket.  She’s mobile now though, so every once and while you have to pull her back onto her blanket as she’s wiggled out into the grass.  She loves to scoot around – arching her back and kicking out with her feet, or rolling over onto her side and wiggling like a worm.  Silly girl!

Gabe has been enjoying the nice weather too.  He will play with Lily (he likes to blow bubbles or tell her a story – either one will thrill her to no end) and play exploring games in the backyard.

These are all the pictures I ended up taking when Katie and Tom were visiting the week before Easter.  Tom had business training in Minnesota and we were so glad we got to play host while they were both in state.  We had such a nice visit – we bought and installed a basket ball hoop, visited Stillwater and hit the antique stores, celebrated Tom’s birthday, hit the Mall of America and Underwater World, tackled the sorting out the garage, had a fire and roasted s’mores.  Such fun!

Here is a few odds and ends that happened in March.  First – Lily looks adorable:

Isn’t she sweet?  This outfit came from Kelly.  It would make an excellent birthday party outfit with all the darling cupcakes on it.  Love the polka-dot tights.  Now that it’s warming up you’re going to see Lily in dresses a lot more.  Speaking of warming up:

Bike riding season has begun!  Yippee!  We go on long walks now, Lily in her stroller and Gabe on his bike.   We plan on doing lots of bike riding this summer.  There are nice routes of both straight roads and hilly roads in this neighborhood, so we have a variety of fun biking paths!

This is a cute little bit of Gabe’s homework.  They were working on homonyms (words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings).  This one is about flower/flour.  So funny!

We have been using the baby carrier facing out lately for Lily.  She isn’t much of a snuggler – no longer is she content to stay cuddled up against your chest (unless she’s sleepy).  She prefers to see the world all around her.  Unfortunately, she also like to grab at everything she sees.  Watch out!

Lily is now eating solids!  Yay!  We started her on solids just a couple weeks shy of six months.

She was a bit unsure at first – but has really starting to get the hang of it now.  She opens her mouth like a little baby bird when the spoon comes near, and seems to like just about everything we have tried – bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes, corn, apples, pears, peaches, squash, peas, prunes, berries and green beans!  It did take a couple of times on the peas for her to get over her initial gag reflex to the taste – but now she can’t get enough.  She doesn’t seem to know that you shouldn’t talk with your mouth full either – the whole meal she goes “mmmm, mmmm, yum yum, mmmmm!”  It’s very cute.

Lily turned 4 months old on the Feb 12th (the day of the class Valentine’s Day party).  I took some pictures the next day, but haven’t had a chance to upload them till now.

So how big is she?  She’s 13 pounds, 4 ounces (that’s exactly 50th percentile) and she’s 25 and half inches tall (or long, depending how you want to look at it).  Her height puts her in the 90th percentile!  That’s two check ups in a row she’s been in the 90th for height.  I wonder if she’s slow down, or if we’re going to end up with a tall girl?  You better watch out Gabe, your sister may end up being taller then you!  Always funny when the older sibling is the shortest – I know it – of the 5 kids in my family, I (the oldest) ended up being the shortest!

Without further ado – here’s the pictures of Lily (20 of them!) in an album.  Go check it out!