Week 106: Go pack go

I'm writing to you this week from the unincorporated village of Dyckesville, WI, located just to the northeast of Green Bay (as in Packers).  We've been up here for a few days, enjoying our first little vacation as a family of four.  Going on a vacation with a newborn and a two year old with CF requires a staggering amount of gear.  We have a Subaru Outback and I literally filled it to the rafters the morning of our departure: crib, Rock'n'Play, booster seat, stroller, clothes, toys, books, shoes, travel nebulizer, and yes, the vest, which we decided to take in the end.  Add to that some basic food supplies, diapers in two different sizes, and the all important water bottle full of bourbon, and the car was completely full.

We left Madison after dinner on Thursday night, and arrived here at close to 10pm.  The drive itself was uneventful, although Lemon found it so exciting that he stayed awake the entire time and passed out as soon as we got his crib set up in our cottage here.  Lime, on the other hand, succumbed quickly to the vibrations of the road, only to feel so revitalized by the long snooze that he stayed up until midnight.  Our vacation got off to a somewhat inauspicious start on Friday morning, when we took Lemon to the beach on Lake Michigan that's at the end of the driveway of the little cottage and his ball blew into the water.  Papa Bear executed a heroic rescue, but Lemon couldn't be consoled and ran screaming back to the cottage, begging to go back inside.

He's warmed up to the whole concept, though, and we've done a lot of fun things including a visit to the National Train Museum:

A wildlife sanctuary, where the main thrill seemed to be climbing things:

and a wonderful farm/historical museum with many friendly, corn-motivated animals (and seriously, if you've never watched a toddler jump around trying to imitate a 6-day-old goat, you should some time):

Even the beach finally started to grow on Lemon, especially after we devised a new use for the boat ramp:

We also really came to appreciate the small town America feel of our little vacation destination:

The days have flown by, and we've felt the constraints of our schedule even more so while being on vacation--it's really hard to squeeze in the fun activities between the essentials of daily living in our household.  Also, although I hadn't thought of it at the time, it's a really good thing I rented a free-standing cottage for this trip: we are a noisy bunch!  Between the vest twice a day with the videos blaring at full volume, the usual hullabaloo of a toddler in full cry, and the nighttime shenanigans of a newborn, we can disturb people at pretty much any time, around the clock.

Sadly, our bourbon is now gone, and it's time to drive home tomorrow to resume our regular lives.  Lemon has his pre-school orientation tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.  I haven't quite managed to find the time yet to draft a letter to his teachers and the parents of the other kids in the room explaining what CF is, but I'm hoping I'll get to that on Wednesday so it will be ready in time for the real first day of school on Thursday.  And then it will be fall--this summer sure went by in a hurry.