Lake Superior #2

We had a wonderful time on our week long vacation with the Whitcomb clan on Madeline Island. We were all in the same house and got to spend a lot of great quality time together. Claire certainly enjoyed being with everyone and talk a lot about riding the ferry from Bayfield, spending time with Grandma Jackie and 'going into the deep' with Dad.

The shores on Madeline Island are remarkably sandy and Claire took advantage of all that great sand. She wanted to be just like the big kids and go down to the beach nearly every day.

She also had a blast 'racing' with her cousins. The kids would line up and race each other. They were kind enough to include Claire on several occasions which she totally loved. On more than one occasion I heard her say, "where are my friends?". It was too cute.

Some firsts for Claire on this trip:
1. Her first shower. She's been hesitant before and I'm not sure what made the difference this time but she didn't skip a beat and even took another one to clean off the sand the following day.
2. Her first hotdog. I know, can you believe it? It's taken her until she was three to try a dog. She had zero interest in them and may not have eaten it had we been at home. But the cousins...
3. Her first 'swim' in Lake Superior. I had her at one point and she jumped into the water and had part of her head go in (nothing to worry about) and on another occasion her dad took her out farther. The waves were quite high that day so she had a great time. You could hear her saying "whee" when the waves rolled on through.
4. She fed the ducks. There were several female mallards on the south shore of LaPointe and she had a blast giving them bits of bread.

It seems as though all the time with her cousins has made her grow up right in front of our eyes. She just seems older after interfacing with them all. Her cousins (and their parents!) were fantastic with Claire. I'm really glad she had the chance to be with them for longer than a day and to get to know them all a bit better.

Pictures to come - we tried to do a bit of both. But here are a couple of videos from the trip.