Flashback Monday

We arrived in Stevens Point Thursday afternoon and had time to check out a few of Mark’s old ‘haunts’. He went to grad school there, so we saw the college, the place he used to live, and some of the bars that he helped fund as a student. It’s a very nice little town.

















L. decided that she would rather get right into the pool at the hotel than go hiking when we arrived, so she got some swim time with daddy before his presentation. He then cleaned up and left for his presentation, and she decided she wanted to swim some more. Nature was not my friend, and there was NO way I could enter the pool or hot tub with her. She was perfectly happy to go in by herself and have me as a rapt audience. We were in there alone the whole time, which was very nice. She ran back and forth between the hot tub and the pool, and had a blast. She alternated between swimming and doing tricks (“Watch this, mom!”, “Watch me!”, “Did you see that?”) and standing in the pool chattering away. After several hours in the pool, she finally decided to call it a night, so she still had time to watch a movie in the room.

Even though our room was paid for, we are still too cheap (smart?!!) to pay $12 to see a movie in our hotel room. We brought the laptop with some dvds from home, and since the hotel had free wifi, we also had the option to watch the Netflix instant movies. She took a long time decided between many different choices and finally chose to watch the original Pink Panther cartoons. I remember watching those when I was young. I wasn’t sure she would like them, as they are so old and there is very little talking, etc. Much to my surprise, she found them hilarious, and laughed aloud through most of them. She watched them until it was time to go to bed. When we got home, she found a stuffed pink panther that used to be her sister's and has been carrying that around and playing with it since then.

She got up the next morning and dragged M. back to the pool. They returned to the room in time to shower and pack up for checkout time.

We finally were able to go hiking! We went to Schmeekle Nature Preserve, which was absolutely beautiful. We enjoyed a few hours of hiking in perfect weather. We got to see several deer, quite close up, and that totally made my day! We also saw the typical woodland critters, including a snake, but L. did not get any turtle or frog encounters, so she would only rate that hike as ‘good’. They only get an ‘excellent’ rating if she has some close-up frog/turtle encounters.

















We got back in town Friday evening and got unpacked and settled, just in time for Anthony’s arrival. He arrived sooner than expected, but since he’s like family, we don’t have to stress about how company-ready the house is. We were so happy to get back to our babies! They were fine, thanks to my mom’s care, but we miss them SO much when we’re gone!