Chappell Family: 6 month birthday & first Door County trip

The past few weeks have been very busy for our little Reagan Roo. Two weeks ago we headed up to Door County for our annual Chappell-Samuels family vacation. This year, in addition to both sets of Grandparents and the aunts, Great Grandma Phyllis and Kate's boyfriend, Eric rounded out the crew. We headed up a day early so that we could stay at a hotel with a swimming pool and took Reagan swimming for the first time. Though a little apprehensive at first, she decided that it was a great time (just as long as mommy or daddy was there to cling to). It's amazing to see her learning cause and effect first hand, as she splashes in the water and then giggles in delight.

This year we stayed in Fish Creek at the Whistling Swan Hotel. It is a darling little bed and breakfast that has truly amazing food. We'd highly recommend it to anyone...who doesn't have a 6 month old child. I believe that the word that describes their action as we hauled in our own refrigerator is "cringe". We've already started scouting out houses to rent next year and continue to dream about purchasing a vacation home up there. Perhaps by the time we get to retirement! Reagan loved Door County but had a hard time getting her necessary naps in, as she was continually worried that she was missing something great. That lead to one very tired baby, who seems to fall asleep whenever she was still as seen by the evidence below...

The following week, Reagan went to her first week of daycare. So far she is the only infant in the room and eating up the one on one attention. I hope she does well when she has to start sharing attention. I guess it is a good trial run to see if another sibling (aka competition) will take! :) She has been swimming in the little pool, reads lots of books and played with playdough today.

This past weekend, we traveled up to Franklin, WI for a family picnic with Steve's extended family. Steve's cousin Mark and his family were back from school year in Australia and his other cousin Brian was off to an Engineering conference in Barcelona. We got to visit with all of the family and introduce Reagan to everyone. Again, little miss Reagan decided she was so over naps until we hit the car for the ride home.

Sunday we headed downtown to the Loop to meet an old co-worker of Steve's at Gage for brunch. We had a simply delicious meal and enjoyed catching up with Laura. Afterwards, we strolled down by the lake and played in the water feature at Grant Park. Reagan cooled her feet in the water with mommy.

Here are a couple more pictures from our Door County trip: