St. Germain - Day 6

Last night was an early one - we were all pretty beat from 5 days of vacation, so by 10:00 pretty much everybody was in bed already.

Today started warmer, but still windy. After Jenny and I each had a run we ran into town to get some chai tea and a smoothie. We then ventured into Eagle River to hit the liquor store. All that took a surprisingly long time. By the time we got back it was lunch time!

After a quick lunch of leftovers, we got our swimming suits on and hit the water. Today Quin proved himself to be quite the brave kid once again. Early in the week he proved he could jump off the swimming raft by himself with no problem, but I was still in the water with him. Today he proved that he could do even that by himself. He learned to propel himself through the water by himself and hung out with the other kids without Jenny or I being in the water at all with him! It was weird with Ethan when we could leave him alone and he would play either by himself or with some other kids, but he was a bit older than Quin was today when we were able to let him do the same. Second kids…

A little later on, Jenny and I decided to take the kayaks out with the kids and do a little kayak adventure. Unfortunately Ethan wasn’t quite up to the adventure. It was a little warm, and he was wearing a black swim shirt, so after we kayaked for a little while, he claimed he was overheating and had to stop. At one point he stopped and the waterworks started up because he was too hot to go on. Quin and I drove by him and splashed him to try to cool him off a bit. I think he was really just a little over-vacationed by this point and needed to hang out by himself for a little while.

After we dropped Ethan off to recover from his heat exhaustion, Quin found himself a kayak and decided he would pilot it himself. It was beached on shore, so he shoved it out into the water by himself, then climbed in it, procured the paddle, and tried to take off. Luckily the wind was blowing in pretty hard so he couldn’t get very far, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. I think he actually kept at it for over 45 minutes before he turned his attention elsewhere.

As the night wore on, the Ziegler’s and us decided that preparing dinner yet another night was more than we were prepared to do, so we trekked into Minoqua to try out some local pizza. Neither Quin nor Tim’s kids had napped that day to speak of, so within about 10 seconds of the 20 minute commute they were all sleeping. Normally that would be OK, but we didn’t leave until about 5:30 so the 7:30 bedtime was looking precarious at best. We got some delicious pizza for the adults and spaghetti for the kids before coming home and commencing the long process of fighting Quin into bed - it was 10:00 before he finally went down for good. We will need some time to re-acquaint ourselves with a schedule when we get back home!!!