4th of July 2012

Our trip back to Ferdinand for the weekend before the 4th of July was so much fun! On Friday, June 30, we left St. Paul for a midnight road trip down south. Our thought process was to have Olivia sleep through the drive and wake up in time for Grandma and Grandpa Potter. She ended up finally falling asleep around 9:30pm but woke up when we switched drivers at 2:30am....not good. She never cried but just sat there - in a daze. She ended up falling back asleep but woke up around 5am when we arrived. Thankfully - she was awake and literally hit the ground running!

Went for a walk with Papa, Grandma and Alex so we could sleep a little bit after our drive...

Back from the walk and ready to run through the yard

It was so HOT and by 9am, Liv was in her swimsuit, as you can see above. Shortly after their walk and Duane and I woke up, we headed to Patoka. My mom and I drove separately and we were not even 5 blocks through town and Liv was asleep in the car! Her initial reaction to Patoka wasn't exactly stellar but she quickly warmed up and enjoyed herself in the sand/mud!

That night Olivia and the rest of us were in bed pretty early - it had been a long, hot day! On Sunday, Duane and Olivia visited with his parents and I relaxed on Patoka Lake with my family. Liv was treated to a good ol' Dubois County activity - 4-wheeling.

not sure how this happened but she fell asleep while riding with Duane!

Riding with Grandma Kathy

Later that evening, we had dinner with my family. Olivia was seriously wound up and entertained us all! She even got an early birthday gift from Uncle Alex and Aunt GG - her very own balance bike! Here's the story behind that: when Alex was up here in May, we went to REI and he saw Liv's reaction to a bike like that. We had to pry her hands off it while she screamed, "MINE!" I wonder why they got her that?! What a lucky girl!

fresh Betz blackberries

"Is that for me?!"

blowing a good-bye kiss to Great-Grandpa Kraus

Papa blowing bubbles

We had talked about going to Holiday World on Monday but I was not in the mood for 3-digit temps and the HW crowd - so we headed back to Patoka Lake! Olivia wasn't in the best of moods but she kept it mostly together so we could all enjoy ourselves. She took a nice nap in Grandma's arms during a drive on the lake - which was much needed!

breakfast with the boys

Back at my parents' house, she and her buddy Alex threw some popping fireworks and she played in the backyard.

she LOVES Papa's Harley!

I went in the house for 5 minutes and this is what I found when I came back out - someone was "watering the plants"

Since Olivia didn't sleep too well during the night drive, we decided not to torture ourselves and do that again. So, we left Ferdinand around 8am on Tuesday....14 hours later, we were back in St. Paul. Liv actually did really, really well and didn't fuss/cry at all during the drive. I take that back, she would fuss after we had made a few stops and had to put her back into her car seat. Once we were driving, though, she was fine. It could have been the 12+ hours of Elmo and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD's....I think I can recite each episode. Ugh - Elmo.

On Wednesday, Duane went into work for a few hours and Liv and I just putzed around the house. She was trying to catch up on lacking sleep from her wild time in Ferdinand so she was a little grouch most of the day. Thankfully the weekend is quickly approaching again!