You know, I never thought I would be happy about pumping. But in this case it's in my own home, sitting in my chair with the pump plugged into the wall. The car adapter works but the suction isn't quite the same so it has to be put on a higher volume which is kind of weird. Plus it's hard to keep the flanges in place when wrangling with a seat belt. Overall, I am glad I bought the adapter. Pumping isn't so bad on vacation when you can do it in the car inbetween things.

We Thursday night we drove up to Tim's parents. Morella did really well transferring from bed to car and slept the whole way with minimal fuss. When we got there though we had a heck of a time setting up the pack and play. The side slats just never want to straighten, and I actually had to cut part of the pack and play outside to try and figure out the mechanism to get it to work. Finally we got it and both told the grandparents that they can't take it down again. After a bottle and a little settling Morella went down okay.

The next day (Friday) she got up with her grandmother, was fed and went down for her nap. While she was napping Tim and I took off for Door County. I wanted to make sure that she would survive a whole day without me. I'm sad to report that she can. :( She totally forgot who I was by the end of the weekend. Mostly. No, the rest of the weekend I was that mean lady to made her drink bottles. :P I guess I am satisfied that she will make it a whole week without me, but I know I am going to miss her so much. I started misting up before I put her down on Thursday night knowing she would have a whole day without seeing me...er vice versa. In the end though, I made it. The key is to keep myself insanely busy so that I don't have to think about it.

Door County was good. We ate breakfast in this little town called Dykesville, which I pronounced Dick's Ville and insisted that Tim had finally returned home. Ha ha ha. The breakfast place made their own bread for the toast and that was just the beginning of all kind of awesome. We both had the stuffed hashbrowns, coffee and were raring to go.

We stopped in Sturgeon Bay to visit their Target because Tim said I did a lousy packing job by forgetting his sandals/or athletic shoes. All he had was his work shoes. To top it off, I only packed short socks (thinking he would wear the Keens). So he bought a new pair of shoes (Chucks), some long socks, a new hat, I got two new hats... I decided I was going to be person who wore hats for the rest of the summer ... a fleece blanket for more diaper liners, some kid bowls (in the dollar bin), sunscreen and a package of animals. We spent at least an hour in Target before I told Tim "We didn't come all the way up to Door County to shop at Target."

There was a 4th of July parade going on in Egg Harbor so we were detoured all the way around it. We drove to Fish Creek and ended up in Ephraim before stopping. We walked into the Visitor's Information center to get some info on the town and what to do and got a brochure on the local kayak rental place. Most of the museums and historical houses were closed so we ended up at the beach and rented two single kayaks. They were out of tandem-- thank god-- because having single boats is really the way to go. No arguments at ALL!. We just wore whatever clothes we had on, a skirt for me and jeans for Tim and just took off our shoes before lathering up in sunscreen and setting out into the water. We were gone for an hour and went around the little bay. I love kayaking. It was such a peaceful thing to do and active. I'm proud to say that the sore I feel today is not from the kayaking but from all the lawn games we played yesterday.

After Kayaking we went to Wilson's Soda Fountain shop (showcased on the travel network) and got a rootbeer float before heading back to Fish Creek to look at some shops. I ran my grubby unwashed hands all over a few $6,000 dollar fur coats before Tim said we should head over to Egg Harbor to cash in our beer coupons that we got at the visitors center for some beer at Shipwreck's brewery. The only operating brewery in Door County. For some reason they are full of wineries. LAME!

After dinner on the way back we stopped to buy $70 dollars worth of fireworks. Then we headed back to Potter (where Tim's parent's live outside of) and almost made Morella an orphan when two miles outside of town a red pickup truck served across the yellow line and almost ran into us at 55 miles an hour. Tim had a feeling that was going to happen so he was ready when it started to happen and swerved out of the way in the nick of time and hit his horn. I looked back and saw that the truck braked slightly and kept going in the wrong lane before realizing their mistake and going back into their lane. I ask you, why in the middle of no where when there are no other cars around did that car pick that one moment to go into the wrong lane? That would have just been perfect for Morella to become an orphan on the one day we leave her for a full day without us.

Thankfully we are still alive, and now we need to think about drawing up wills. :(

We got back, watched the last episode of season one's Dexter and went to bed. Or tried to, it took me a long time because I couldn't (and still can't) get the last episode out of my head. Now that is the sign of a good show.

Saturday we got up and got ready for the family BBQ. Everyone we expected to come came and we ate good food and played yard games all afternoon into the evening. Morella had a sleepy day but when she wasn't conked out she was out socializing and enjoying the great weather with us. We played ladder golf, bean toss, croquet, washer toss, badminton and boccie. You know, it was really cool to play with a bunch of people who didn't need coaxing. I guess it creeps up on me on how sick I get of having to constantly try to convince people to do fun/active stuff. I realized after a day of playing, that I was getting tired of people constantly shooting down my ideas for fun. I have been accused of being a fun nazi on several occasions -- and that doesn't bother me. What does bother me is the real lack of anyone wanting to do something fun outside of their comfort zone. It gets old after awhile and ... well I guess I need to find more active people to play with. Or have more family get togethers with folks who want to get out there and DO something. It's gonna be so much fun when Morella and maybe Crouton are ready for outside fun and games.

The day ended with Tim, Ben, Mark and I shooting off fireworks for the rest of the clan in the church's parking lot. I think next time we aren't going to bother with so many ground fireworks that include jumping jacks and black cats -- those are so boring. The artillery shells and roman candles are where it's at. I think we shot off fireworks for a good two hours and went through many books of matches. Let that be another lesson - bring lots of fire!!

Today, Tim and I overslept until 8.33. As soon as I realized what happened I started pumping while Tim got me some breakfast and started getting ready for church. I can't believe we slept through Morella's morning wake up! To be fair we forgot the monitor and Tim's Mom said she would do the morning routine. Still, I was sure that we would get up. We always do or at least my boobs wake me up. I guess Morella has gotten up, eaten and went back to sleep for her morning nap with little fuss. In any case, we made it time - Morella got freshly blessed, we sang some songs, heard a story about a balloon and met some nice townspeople. Then packed up and headed over to Sarah and Dave's for a late Brunch, which was really breakfast for lunch.

Sarah's house is amazing! It has come along from the last time I was there and from a year ago it would be unrecognizable. It's like the fanciest bed and breakfast we ... no wait we could never afford a bed and breakfast that nice! We had a wonderful meal with little organic strawberries, veggie eggs, freshly baked cinnamon rolls, sausage and awesome coffee. Morella and Ruth spent a good portion of the time playing with each other (with a little help from their Daddy's) and working on their new band while I did my best to keep up with the action with my camera. Gosh I wish I lived closer to Sarah. If Morella could play with Ruth at least once a week she would learn how to crawl, talk, and do interior design (picked up from Ruth's Momma) in to time! Not to mention I would have a walking/crafting/book club partner.

I could have stayed longer but my pump was calling to me and Ruth and Morella needed their afternoon naps. We wanted to utilize Morella's nap for driving time to minimize on car ride fussiness. Not that Morella is really fussy in the car. She likes to go for car rides and see new places. We both ended up sleeping the majority of the car ride home. Ahh sleep. Got home, fed Morella then went for a walk. Tim fetched Pluto while I put Morella down to sleep -- boy was she ready for it! She had a HUGE weekend. Then I spent the remainder of the evening drinking strawberry daiquiris and catching on the internet while Tim did the same thing in the office.

There will be some great pictures to post from this weekend since I was out of town on Friday and it was a holiday I think we can make an exception for Friday photos being posted early this week/late last week. But for now, I want to take the shower I missed out on this morning before bed. Stay tuned!