Riley is 2!

My beautiful niece, Riley turned 2 this past weekend! She had a Dora the Expolorer theme with a pinata, games and even ice cream cake! It was a fun get together and a great day!

My brother holding his almost 5 month old son, Seth, better known as Chubba Womba! (I think I got that right) His parents have a great sense of humor. My brother in law, Mike, was making him smile.

Yes, adults have an interesting way of mingling at parties. See mostly men at one table, drinking and playing games while the women (with some kids) open the presents and play.

And the children... play toss each other into the pool. It almost looks like a hazing. But, fun was had by all!!!

Paula served (made) an excellent Mexican Menu of foods. It went well with the Dora theme. My Mom and Paula's sister in law Denise had a good time at the party too!

Scott's 11!

We came back from vacation to attend Dan and Megan's wedding and after a fun long night we awoke late the next day to celebrate Scott's 11th birthday. Yes, we did celebrate a month earlier with the extented family but none the less we had to do something on the day of his birthday. The day started when I made Scott his favorite breakfast, scrambled eggs and bacon, with toast of course. Then I quickly mowed the lawn (we had been out on vacation you know!).

I unfortunately had to miss out on my cousin Chelsea's bridal shower this day. I knew I would be in no shape after the wedding. I was right. Once a load of wash was started, we were off to Scott's Uncle Kevin and Aunt Dana's house to swim.

Scott couldn't wait to go swimming, he was so excited that he had these goggles on in the truck. He almost fell asleep with them on, because you know a 30 minute drive is just long enough to lull one to sleep. We all chuckled about how silly he looked not being in the pool.

Once at Kevin and Dana's the kids swam a bit and then after eating Aunt Dana's awesome cooking for dinner, Uncle Kevin had a surprise. He had purchased a cake to celebrate the day. He's an awesome Godfather and Uncle. We all appreciated the extra touch Aunt Dana and Uncle Kevin had on Scott's birthday. A simple day turned into and extra special one.

For those of you who don't know. Dana got a Honda Metropolitan Scooter for Mother's day along with Mark's sister Karen. They both drive to work at the local school on them. They are doing their part to be green and save a little green. Well, Mark just had to try it. That's him on the scooter. I had to laugh. He looked like a Schriner on one of those little bikes in parades. But, no joke, I tried it out and might consider one for me too! I just have to work on turning a bit. My middle name is not Grace!!!

Wedding Day for Dan and Megan!

So the day had finally arrived. Dan and Megan's wedding. This is a picture of Megan being walked down the isle by her sister Jorie. (I'm not sure of the spelling) This was a very emotional wedding, with Megan and Jorie's parents both deceased. Dan and Megan are so right for each other and had been together for so long that this day brought a few tears with nothing but joy for the happy couple.

You ask, where's the picture of the groom? Well, you see I have a camera that just would not cooperate for me this day. I have 45 pictures from this wedding and only two that came out. Thankfully, I got this one of Scott and Annabelle. Scott is dressed as Indiana Jones and Annabelle (drum roll please) is in a dress!!! She is so lovely in it too! Of course, it's hard to see past the tired, mad face she has but she was so pretty and I was so proud of how both my kids looked that day.

We're back!

People often ask our family, what we do for a two full weeks up in the north woods every year. Basically, we look at this beautiful view each day and thank our lucky stars that there are places like this still on earth. There is nothing more that I enjoy than to smell the fresh pine trees, lake water, and air. The colors in nature are breath taking. Our family even enjoys the sounds of the trees swaying in the wind, the loons calling, the woodpeckers trying to peck a medal pole (don't ask!), seeing the deer lay in the meadows and the bald eagles swoop down to take a fish right out of the lake. Not once, but several times during our stay. We've stayed only one week in the past and found anything under 10 days is never enough.



We stay in this lovely "modern" cabin. Yes, the term modern is from the 50's and means it has indoor plumbing, electricity and beds. It's roughing it to me, which is better than a tent which my sister and her family have been able to endure for many years. Of course, even they swapped out their tent for an air conditioned camper last year. So now they have surpassed our modest cabin.




In the north woods we not only sit in the sun and read books that we don't have time for at home, but we fish, go boating (rental), take the kids tubing, hike, go miniature golfing (picture of the kids with Mark), enjoy go-carting, play card games and go to "Supper clubs". Love the term for restaurants up there! Mark grills on a weber and I make big breakfasts on the days we don't sneak into town for the bakery. YES! We all gain weight on vacation. There goes some of my 20 pound success I lost over the winter. Oh well, back to the workouts.




This year we even went to the Lumber Jack show!!! It was a lot of fun.

The not so fun part of our vacation was "Accident Monday". "Accident Monday" was part of our second week stay. It started with Annabelle reaching for the boat and slipping and while she was falling between the boat and the dock she ripped off half of a finger nail. Ouch! There was blood and screams with tears. She quickly went to the dock where some other vacationers helped her out of the water since I was stuck on the boat because she was standing between the boat and the dock. As soon as she got out of the water I was able to get to the dock and out to go help her. By this time, Mark was already taking Annabelle up to our cabin.

While stepping off the dock I fell twisting the top of my foot. Ignoring the pain I got up to go to the cabin to help Annabelle. Thanks to the help of my son who came to help me get up from the ground. (Yes, once a clutz always a clutz). We got Annabelle all situated and decided just to go out on the boat to do some fishing to settle everyone down.

Before we left Scott went to use the facilities and we heard him say "Take that!" and the flush of the toilet. We looked at eachother chuckling and asked if everything was okay? He stated "Yes fine, I just had to kill a leach that was sucking on my knee". He opens the bathroom door and all over the white tub, toilet, floor and his leg was blood. It looked like a murder seen.

Scott had squeezed the leach and blood went all over. His knee was bleeding pretty hard so that leach must have been on him for a few hours. That's what happens when you wear swim suits that go down to your calfs! It took a lot to get the bleeding to stop with both kids and decided sitting on the boat was a great idea after all.

While fishing, Mark hooked himself with a lure. I joked that Mark was due to visit the emergency room up here because over the last couple of years we've been for one thing or another. He got the hook out okay but karma got me. When we got off the boat and took showers for dinner. I could barely stand on my foot. I was in a lot of pain. I thought for sure something was broken. I iced it and it was still throbbing. So off to the Emergency room.

I gave the hospital my name and they had all our info already. I told you we go everytime we are up there! Anyway, after a long wait, I was seen and x-rayed and no broken bones. They wrapped me and off we went. While I was waiting though, I overheard some man get the "Hooker" card, number 59. It's a card they give to people who come in to have their fish hooks removed from various parts of their bodies. They start fresh with a new number every spring. Those emergency room doctors have a great sense of humor.

I know this was a lot of information to process but it was a long two weeks. My family and I enjoyed every minute of it. If you don't spend time with your family like this maybe you should give it a try. I know everytime we go, we hate to leave. But, everytime we come home we are amazed at how great our daily lives are (and how big the rooms are!).