Michigan Vacation Day 4: Making Our Most of Our Last Full Cottage Day

Today (Sunday, July 7) was the start of Toddler Tales Week 2 and our last full day at the cottage so we did our best to enjoy it to its fullest potential...

The day began with a calm lake.  It seemed that many people had already gone home for the weekend, as there were few boats out making waves, which made the perfect opportunity to introduce Asher to fishing.  Eric cast out with Asher on his lap and immediately caught a little fish.  He reeled it in for Asher to look at and although Asher was interested in it, I think Emma was much more.  After a few minutes Asher lost interest (his attention span is still very small), so we took turns fishing and keeping an eye on our little guy as he played in the mud.  I almost caught a small bass (which isn't real common to do on this lake), but lost it about 6 feet from shore.

Video: Fishing with Daddy

After fishing, Eric took the jet ski out to get my bobber (which flew off when I casted).  Asher was pretty interested in it, so Eric gave him a taste of what it is like to ride/drive.

Video: Jet Ski Practice

The day continued with overcast skies, naps for the babies and wake-boarding/water skiing for the adults.  After lunch, we got dressed in our picture clothes again to finish our photo shoot with Jen.  Then, we changed to do another photo-shoot with the rest of the Migrin family (our Mother's Day/Father's Day gift to Eric's parents along with his siblings.)  Considering Asher's low attention span he did alright, but I am not sure I'd ever ask him to sit through two shoots in one day again.  By the time that the second shoot was done, both of the babies were hot and ready to relax.

Emmett chilling down after the photo shoot

When all of the pics were done, we got back into our water play clothes to enjoy the lake.  Then (before dinner) we piled onto the pontoon for a ride to the ice cream store...Yum!

Eric's dad, his cousin Jenny & her son, Jamerson fishing on the dock.

We decided to take Asher for a real jet ski ride (VERY slowly)...

...he wasn't a fan...UNTIL Eric let him sit in the front!

Asher, Emma & I enjoying the floaty.

Jamerson driving the boat!

Asher entertaining the crowd! :)  ..Thanks Pat for making sure he didn't wipe out!

Asher's turn to drive.

For those of you that don't know, ice cream is one of my favorite (if not favorite) foods.  I love it and have as far back as I remember.  Because of this, the ice cream store on Marble Lake (the lake next to the lake the cottage is on) is one of my favorite places to visit.  It is a cute little store right on the lake with delicious ice cream for very reasonable prices.  In the past, Eric and I have made it a habit to go there every time we visit the cottage and often we would visit several times in one weekend.  With Asher, that is now a bit more difficult, since we now live by his schedule for eating and sleeping.  Thus, when we visited the cottage for Memorial Day, we never made it to the ice cream store (it does have a name, but I never remember what it is).  On this particular day, we had already been at the cottage for four days and had still not gotten any ice cream.  Since we were leaving the next day, there was NO way I was going to miss getting ice cream this time.  Not even the dark clouds passing overhead or the thunder roaring to the South was going to keep my away.  So, as I already told you, we headed North to the store.  Asher did great with his lifejacket and didn't fuss at all this time when I put it on and zipped it up.  When we got to the store, I picked out my ice cream and then waited outside with Asher and Emma until everyone got theirs.  A few minutes later, Eric brought out a waffle cone filled with strawberry ice cream.  I had specifically picked that flavor so that I could share it with Asher (I didn't want to give him chocolate or anything with nuts).  Now Asher, had had a small bit of custard on his birthday and also about a spoonful of ice cream the day before when we celebrated all of the family summer birthdays (Mine, Eric's, Asher's & Negin's), but this was his first time having an ice cream cone and first time that he was able to have more than a spoonful...

Video: Asher's 1st Ice Cream Cone

As you can see, he thought it was pretty good.  I wasn't surprised.  He is, after all, my kid.  What I was surprised about was what happened next.  He did NOT what to give up the ice cream cone and he really did NOT want to share it with me!!  Every time I would let him have a lick/bite off my cone, he would try to grab it and take it from me, and every time I would take the cone back to enjoy some myself, he would start to cry and throw a fit.  So, here I am, sitting on the ice cream store's dock, trying not to give myself brain-freeze as I attempt to eat my ice cream cone as quickly as possible to keep Asher from getting to much (just a little bit before his bedtime) and to keep him from pitching a fit.  It was a stressful, yet funny, moment.  Silly boy.  I wouldn't have thought he would react that way, but at the same time when I think about it, I would never want to share my ice cream either...in fact, you can tell that I love him a whole lot since I even offered him my ice cream in the first place!

Video: Asher's Ice Cream Meltdown (at least part of it)

When the ice cream was all gone, Asher was not happy.  I showed him the empty napkin and again he began to cry.  At that point, we knew it was time to head back for a quick dinner and bed.  He wasn't happy for the first part of the ride, but eventually he got over it.

We got back to the cottage and had dinner.  We thought Asher would be immediately ready for bed as he was looking quite sleepy on our boat ride home.  However, the sugar must have kicked in because he ran (walked quickly) around the cottage for about an hour before we finally said goodnight and goodbye to Uncle Rob and Negin and sent him to bed.