Then and now

Happy Birthday, my sweet boy. I love so very much and I love being your mom.

Professor Allred hosts annual soiree

My little brother and my little mom.

One of our neighbor girls doing some damage on the skull pinata.
A slice of our little guests.

Ok, this is a cute picture of Brady, but before I cropped it or anything, I wanted you to look at the little girl behind him. She clearly isn't helping Brady, but she can't help herself!

Brady had his birthday party Sunday and he was surrounded by all that love him. Uncle Rich even drove all the way up from Lynnwood just to have a slice of pizza with him.
Larry slaved over making our Temple of Doom (it helped keep the yellow jackets out of the house) and we had a "Splat the eyeball on Indiana" game. I had a poster from the movie and found sticky eyeballs that the kids threw at the poster. Then we had an obstacle course. This is how it went down:
1. Kate kept the kids behind a curtain so they couldn't see out, and let them out in intervals.
2. Both Grandmas shot silly string (our version of poison arrows) at the kids as soon as they came outside and they ran towards me, where they
3. Had to jump over 2 alligators.
4. Then they ran to the "swamp" filled with snakes and had to fish out 3 gold coins.
5. Then they ran up and out our gate where Larry and my brother were rolling our exercise balls (the famous rolling boulder scene) at them.
6. Once they got past the boulders they got to excavate a diamond out of a stone, and that diamond was their currency to get to whack the pinata.

The kids had so much fun on the obstacle course (phew! And thank you to all the adults that helped with that!) they all ran it again. I think the silly string attack scared them the first time, but the second time they were ready for it.

We whacked a pinata and they filled their satchels with goodies (the goody bags were little satchels filled with a compass, magnifying glass, flashlight, jumping spider, flashing red light (just because they're fun), and chocolate.) Then they all had pizza, cake and ice cream. We tried to make everyone eat outside (to save my house and it was beautiful yesterday), but the yellow jackets are in the last moments of their season, so they're a little feisty.

We all had such a fantastic day surrounded by friends and family, it was very memorable. And wouldn't ya know it? About an hour after his party ended, Brady's tooth fell out! And he's got another tooth that will be gone in a week, I bet.

A lousy picture, but I was running up to him moments after his tooth fell out. It fell out at the top of our neighbors driveway and was afraid it was lost!


**Post Party note: As I was writing this post, I remembered that I forgot to put out the life-size cardboard cutout of Indiana Jones out for the party. What a friggin idiot! Wasn't this an Indiana Jones party? And I spent a few bucks for him too! Damn it! So now he is standing at the top of our stairs for Brady to see when he wakes up tomorrow, which is is actual birthday.

I said he's not 6 until Tuesday!!!!

Apparently the tooth fairy doesn't read my blog. At 7am this morning Brady came bounding into my room exclaiming that he has his first wiggly tooth. And it is extremely loose, it just my come out today. B turning 6 just got a little tougher for me.

Girlfriends and prep work

It was gorgeous today, so while Shu caught up with an old classmate, the kids and I met my mom at the farmers market for a quick stroll.

Can you tell Brady likes raspberries?
"Mommy, take a picture of me!"

Larry was busy at home mowing and installing our cave (temple of doom?) for Brady's party. It's looking pretty sweet, plus we're getting geared up for Halloween and this is giving us a good "test run" at what our house might look like next month.

Julie, Shu and I then headed out to Treasury of Memories (TOM for short) for their fall open house, which was loads of fun, but we all agreed we needed to celebrate our craftiness with cocktails.

We schmoozed the waitress into taking our picture...

Off to Boston pizza for happy hour and girl talk. Loads of fun.

Then before bed I figured I'd better decorate Brady's cake in case I ran into any technical difficulties I would still have time to rectify them. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Duhduh duh duhhhh... duh duh duhhh (I'm singing the Raiders March aka theme from Indiana Jones, can't you tell?)

Now, I've got to get my rest for the killer shindig tomorrow... I can't believe my boy is 6! I'm holding out until Tuesday to really let my emotions sink in on that one, when he'll actually be 6.

No Bunco.

Michelle(profile), Kate (our host), and Shu.

I rolled off for most travels (3 of the number you aren't rolling for) with who else but my house guest, Shu. Of course the newbie wins $$. Dang it.

Loads of fun, we filled the van (7 of us) and headed to Kate's. So we also did our part by removing 6 cars from the road tonight (which also meant most of my passengers got to enjoy their beverage of choice freely.)

Oh, and I found out yet another thing that Kate and I have in common. We are both haunted by the same science film about frogs. I get this horrible goose-bump sensation whenever I think about it. I've had nightmares about it. I saw it in my Senior Advanced Biology class in high school, and it scarred me. So gross, I can't even type what it is. Ok, I will. For you. But trust me it doesn't do it justice. Maybe if you're braver than me you could youtube it or Google it, but I have no interest in EVER seeing it again.
The male frog collects his little frog eggs on his back and covers them with a slime that strongly resembles his own skin. Then when the little eggs hatch, they explode out of his skin, and the skin/slimey membrane crawls as they hatch before the explosion of little tadpoles. Disturbing.

Cool rocks

Last night Larry made these Treasure Stones for Brady's birthday party on Sunday. They turned out really cool. He put gems and cold coins inside for the kids to excavate at the party. After I have another cup of coffee and get my camera out, I'll post a picture.

My friend from college, Shu (shoe), arrived last night for a weekend visit. She lives in Salem as a ultrasound tech and has a hobby farm with her fiance. The last time she saw Natalie, she was about 4 months old and snoozing in my Bjorn. I can't wait for them to meet again (Natalie was asleep when we got home, and Shu is sleeping in, she works the graveyard shift, so she's also using this vacation to catch up on sleep!) Shu also has partial hearing loss, so my children running around the house this morning have not disturbed her. There's a bonus to being able to turn your hearing "off" (aides).

My dogs are barkin

Here's a picture for ya, Erin. It's tobacco colored like our living room floors, it flashed redder than they are. And you see why I need a dust ruffle (I ironed it, but we're too tired to lift our giant mattress tonight). And the paint will change soon, I promise!

I had a crazy day after recovering from what? Another migraine. I got paint picked out for my bedroom (Larry finished our floors in there!!), bought a new dust ruffle for the bed (the boxspring just doesn't go with the new floors), cleaned my office and got my scrapbook cabinet installed, put away 4 baskets of laundry (just mine and Larry's, let's not talk about the pool table downstairs that is covered in the kids clothes), and cleaned both kids rooms as well as most of the downstairs living room! Oh, and we also had to clean the kitchen top to bottom since the countertop guy had to return to reseam our countertops (one of the seams was separating). Now it looks better than ever. And I got some great new countertop spray Method Countertop spray in Basil scent. I got it at Fred Meyers in their organic section. It smells clean. I love that.
Well, David Blaine is on TV, and he freaks my freak, so I've got to get back to watching him!

Freddie Corral

Forgive the crappy cell phone picture, but I really wanted to capture the scene. Last night Natalie and I made a trip to Fred Meyer to get Brady's birthday gift and grocery shopping done. She got herself dressed to go: Pink Cowboy boots, a patriotic striped halter dress (2 sizes too big), and her green Gap rainbow shirt underneath. Quite an ensemble.
We bought some TONKA wrapping paper ("Oh yes mom, put that is the cart right now! Brady will be so happy!) and on the way out to the car she snagged the roll out of my cart and rode it to the car. Complete with braying and galloping. Very cute.

4 weeks to go...

Long time friends: Chloe, Carly, and Ashley.

The venue for the celebration. Since we don't have Storks in the the NW, we kept teasing the little girls at the shower that this Heron was hear to check on the baby. We shooed him off as he was way to early to be delivering babies.
Carly and her step-daughter, Pearl.

I totally forgot to post about Carly's baby shower! And today I looked at the calendar and saw that she has exactly one month until her due date (Oct. 22, which is also C's birthday and Lucabella's too. And it's only 2 days after we return from CA! Ack!)

I'm getting so excited. I can't wait to meet Jimi Jr. Or Baby Boy Morris. Or whatever his name shall be. They are keeping his name a secret from everyone, including themselves apparently. I've offered to name him, but I got no response. Apparently me naming their child would be over stepping my role as friend/big sister. Huh.

Jungle Fever

Natalie tried desperately to take this photo herself. She couldn't accept the fact that her little arms just wouldn't reach.
My blue eyed girl (well bluish-greyish). And a little lip owie courtesy of her big brother. Natalie snapped this one of Gramma.
And this one is on my blog because my mother put a photo of me in my high school annual of me in a paisley sweater and groucho marx glasses on (and I was in the throws of puberty). There is a similar silly-faced shot of me that Natalie took, but I had too many chins so I'm not posting that one (2 chins is my online limit).

er... Jungle headache that is. It was grey all weekend, so I decided the kids and I would head south to Jungle Playland so they could get some wiggles out.

Just as we were putting our shoes on my mom called and decided to join us (I love having her in town). We hit the Burger Me drive through on the way out of Bham and played at the jungle for a couple of hours.

We didn't leave on a high note, but the kids had a great time. They have this vacuum that sucks ball pit balls up into a holding tank, and every so often the tank dumps the balls back into the pit and they rain down onto the children. You always know when it happens because the rest of the play area clears out, then you hear collective shrieks of joy. Brady spent the majority of his time in here since he insisted on wearing shorts and subsequently kept burning the backs of his thighs as he tried to go down the slides.

And Natalie finally got up enough nerve to go down the slides on her own. You could hear her screaming as she would come down, and then she would pop up and pump one fist in the air.

But she soon tired of the slides and resorted to taking photos of me and my mom (and many of my elbow).

We hit up Value Village on our way out of town and my mom picked me up my very own punch bowl for $4 (thank you Stefanie for the offer!).

Natalie snoozed all the way home while Brady alternated from asking me if we were close to home and arguing my answer and talking to himself.

The kids had so much fun last night in the hot tub that Brady actually woke up this morning and told me so (that just plain doesn't happen. Neither does a spontaneous 'I love you' come from this kid. I can count on one hand how many times he's told me that on his own free will.) So what did we do tonight before bed? Hey, if we all say goodnight in good spirits, I'm all for a nightly hot tub.

Wash your cares away

When I got home from my first PTA event (signing people up for a rewards program), my son decided he needed to have a toy taken away. Then he decided he needed another toy removed. Then he decided that he wasn't going to have a time out in his room, so I chased him in there. Then my mom remarked "how do you not smack the crap out of him?" and I said... well, I don't want to say what I said, because it sounds awful, but it's the truth. Just know that I have never harmed my son physically, but somedays it's all I can do to not.
Anyway, his antics chased my mom out of here, and the downward spiral was continuing (my mood and his behavior). So I looked up the pools hours. No.
So I heaved our waterlogged hot tub cover off (note to self, go to Barron Heating and just buy another goddamn cover!) and the three of us got in. In the pouring rain. Which really isn't a factor when your sitting in 101 degree water. We played in there for well over an hour, I was giggling madly, the children were in hyterics and screeching with delight. It was just what we all needed.
I'm telling ya, if you're about to blow a gasket, head to a body of water. It works every time. Seriously.

Then I had a great talk with a college friend of mine, Jacqueline. She had a little boy, Sebastian, on the 15th and he joins his twin (2 1/2 year old) brother and sister. Jacqueline now has 3 under 3, after 4 years of trying to have children without success, her family now is bursting at the seams. Er, bursting at the pampers!

Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman around the house.

Wonder Woman is crafty.
Wonder Woman deflects bullets and suggestions for nap time.

We popped into TJ Maxx today looking for a punch bowl (does anyone have one that I can borrow?) since Bed, Bath, and Beyond doesn't carry them. And Natalie found the costume display. Low and behold, she declined all of the Disney princess costumes and desperately wanted the wonder woman one (yippee!). So I've been singing the only line I know from Wonder Woman "Wonder Wo-mannnn!" and so she's been using her cuff shields as she sings it now too.

I think she looks so cute, but was a little worried she would look like a miniture drag queen, and am certain the minute we walk into Disneyland she is going to want to be Tinkerbell. I'll pack that costume just in case!

I had to walk my mom through her house (over the phone) to find her chest hair, it probably would have sat there for days until she noticed it. She almost fell on the ground laughing (me too) and said she'll wear it tomorrow to test run it's comfort. I love her sense of humor. I mean, how many women appreciate it when you buy them chest hair?

Tee Hee

Years ago (like the late 70's) my mom was really into Jazzercize. Our family is REALLY into Halloween.
It just so happened that my mom's weekly Jazzercize class fell on Halloween one year. It's hard to wear a costume to work out in, so my mom decided to glue some "chest hair" on so it poked out from her leotard. Funny, right? Yeah, nobody laughed. Nobody said anything. But everyone stared.
Larry and I went to the bookstore after his birthday dinner (Big Fat Fish Co. Yummy) and I saw this for my mom. I thought it would look great under her postal uniform this year, don't you?
I snuck it into her house today, we'll see how long it takes her to find it and call me!

Happy Birthday, Baby

Mother's Beach, Long Beach, CA circa 1966-67. The original Coppertone baby.

Love you, Lar!

Our boy is growing up

Tracy and mine, that is. She emailed me tonight and as soon as I read "Senior Pictures" I started to cry. I cannot believe Josh is a Senior in high school. Wasn't I just a senior at SWHS? Oh wait, that was 15 YEARS AGO!!!
Anyway, click on the title of this post to link to view some of Josh's shots. Tracy, I DO expect a giganto photo you know. And some extras to scrapbook ;)
Today seemed like a pretty wonderful day. I got a terrific haircut today (if it wasn't 10:30 at night I might take a picture of myself for your viewing (dis)pleasure).
My son and I had a nice bike ride home together after school.
I had a nice visit with my friend Chris and her 3 children at Bloedel-Donovan park (with a surprise appearance by my mom).
I had a fun evening scrapbooking with my friend/co-worker Julie (and HI Stephanie!)
I found out my friend(maid of honor at my wedding) is coming up for a visit at the end of this month.
My BFF Jackie had a wonderful visit with her "estranged" sister. So wonderful in fact, that her sister is going to move out to the mid-west so they can be closer. She is thrilled. Jackie doesn't get thrilled by stuff like this, so I know this is a wonderful decision for her. Jackie called me while I was at Haggen tonight and my snarky side came out ( I can't help it when I'm "with" her). This lady, who clearly wasn't a parent was shluping around the grocery store in her red plaid flannel pj's and slippers buying 4 boxes of Kraft mac-n-cheese and about 6 jugs of cranberry juice. It was weird. And I had the urge to giggle at her. So I ran over 2 aisles to I could describe her to Jackie. She appreciates my love to laugh at people. I think she cultivated this quality in me, to be honest.
It's my DH's (does that mean Darling Husband in chat talk? I don't speak that language) 43rd birthday tomorrow! My neighbor gave me some apples from her tree, so I'm going to make Lar his favorite dessert: apple crisp. And then his mama is coming over so that he and I can go on a date. It's been awhile since we've gone anywhere together without children. I mean he's gone out and I've gone out, but we've not been out. A little dinner, maybe a move (Burn After Reading), and maybe a little sunset stroll on the boardwalk... Who knows.

Sunny Sunday

Larry went out and rode 62 miles this morning (don't you do that every weekend?) for Whatcom Hospice. We met him at the "finish" line (Boundary Bay Brewery) and had lunch with him. Brady had me pose for an impromptu photo shoot and then the boys headed home while we girls went to Isabella's 4th birthday at the Jump Zone.

A sham (but I'm still believing)

Several times a day my daughter showers me with love and admiration. "I love you, mommy" "You're the best mommy in the whole world" "I love you ever time, mom" and so on.

This morning she was playing in her room while I folded laundry and I hear her doll "Chou-Chou" (we pronounce it Shu-Shu, like my friend. I don't know if it's correct or not but I don't care). Chou-Chou is a talking doll. Sometimes she even talks en espanol. Then I hear the words (en ingles) "You're the best mommy in the whole world", "I love you, mommy", coming not from my daughters mouth, but from Chou-Chou's. Then Natalie quickly catches her faux-pas and says "You're the best mommy in the whole world too, Mama".

Man, it was like busting your parents being the tooth fairy or something. It took the wind out of my sails that these words of admiration weren't original, but I know she believes them to be true, so I do too. I mean, who hasn't bought a Hallmark card to express emotion? Who hasn't sung lyrics of a song to a loved one? Who hasn't quoted great literature? So why can't Natalie quote Chou-Chou?



No picture of Chou-Chou, but here is the obligitory photo. Natalie appeared out of nowhere and told me to be quiet, her baby was sleeping. Upon further investigation this is what I found: Natalie dragged her cradle upstairs and into my closet to put her AFLAC duck to bed, using a kitchen towel as a blanket.

Ferndale Firefighters

As I was enjoying my morning cup of coffee and The Bellingham Herald this morning, I saw that there was a Firefighter competition today in Ferndale. So I asked the kids a dumb question: "Do you want to ride the bus downtown to the farmers market or do you want to go see the firefighters?" Duh, mom.

So we headed up and arrived just in time for the jaws-of-life exhibition, always impressive. Then we all had temper tantrums, so we went to Starbucks and we all got some refreshment (iced americano, vanilla bean frap, and a strawberries & creme frap). Feeling better, we came back and Natalie participated in the kiddie bucket brigade, it was very entertaining. Brady sulked on the bleachers.

To finish off our firefighter fiesta (I mean, besides the mandatory truck tours) we watched a former Costco employee - turned fire lieutenant race a 22 year old rookie in the obstacle course. Now, John is 47. And he held his own (we won't mention that the rookie had already done the course before, or that he slowed down several times to let his boss catch up. It was very tortoise and the hare.)

We attempted to enjoy the new library ceremony, but with several children (mine, Elizabeth's, and Rebecca's little one) and librarians addressing the crowd in library-level voices (meaning, couldn't hear a damn word they said) it just wasn't that... ceremonious. We met up with Julie and fed the kids a cookie and let them pee in the new bathroom, then decided we'd check out the books another day, like when there aren't a hundred or so people milling around in 1500 sq. feet.

OK, the September birthday rundown

Jen D: 3
Me: 4 (along with my old co-worker Carson, xoxo!)
Our neighbor's son Jack: 6 (cutest little red head!)
Dad: Sept 12
Terra: 13
Isabella (Natalie's fren): 14
Brenda: 15
Larry(and Victor and his twin Norman): 17
Jackie and Tim's wedding anniversary (had to throw this in there!) 18
Nicole (Brenda's daughter): 25
Jackie(Victors wife) 26?
Brianna and Joseph (Larry's cousin had her two children 10 years apart on the same day!) 28?
Brady:30 (he came almost 2 weeks early just to be a September birthday!)

And a fun fact about Larry's birthday:
He was born on the 17th at 5:17pm (which translates into 17:17 military time). Pretty cool, huh?

Glutton for punishment

Have you ever had a day like this and wondered why the hell you are doing what you are doing? Today is (was) my dad's birthday. Last night I recorded 102 minutes that changed America. Today I sat down while the kids are outside playing and start to watch it. Mournfully crying from the very beginning. About 14 minutes into it, my mom calls just to say hi and she snapped me out of it. I cried on her shoulder and griped all my gripes out and felt much better. But then I wondered aloud "why the hell was I watching that documentary today, of all days?" Not healthy!
But it's also a reminder of how much September 11 still impacts our lives. I live on the other side of the country and mourn still; watching this documentary made me ache for the people who were witness to it all.
Ah, tomorrow will be a fresh day. It's my longest (not oldest!) friend Terra's birthday (September is dripping with birthdays in my circle) and the newest branch of the library is opening down the hill from me, and we plan on attending the ribbon cutting!

Fill 'er up

Just a reminder to top off your tanks in the next day or so, IKE will be jacking up prices to about $5 a gallon by next week (or so says my ConocoPhillips source). I filled up at Freddie's for $3.49 today (that included my 10 cent discount).

Crazy day.

"Ouch"
Natalie's pushing up her hair like a pinup girl (how else would you describe it?) "Smile, Mei-Mei (Daisy)!" I'll try to get a better pic of poor Daisy. She does, however, love her new hairdo.

We woke up lazily enough this morning, but by 10:30 Brady was complaining about his dog bite on his knee, it was itching and it hurt. It was a little inflamed, so I called and made an appointment for him to be seen by a doctor later that day, which meant he was going to miss school today (it also meant I was forced to either report the dog, or subject my son to a series of Rabies shots. It was an obvious decision, but no less pleasant to make.)
Of course, this appointment was made after I made an appointment for Daisy to get groomed. In her older age, it is getting more and more difficult for her to groom her long hair, so I took her to NW Kennels, where Katie did a marvelous job, and they were all very friendly.

Oh, and Natalie has school at 11:00 too. Time to call my mommy.

Luckily (I musta done something good this week), my mom had just gotten off early and was home for the day.

I: loaded everyone in the van, drove Daisy to the groomer, took Natalie to preschool, did my grocery shopping at Costco and fed Brady lunch there (we even got to eat with daddy), picked up Daisy from the groomer, took Brady to his doctor appointment (it's healing fine), dropped Brady off at my mom's house, picked up Natalie at school, and drove to Fairhaven for MY doctor appointment (that I kept trying to forget).

Everything calmed down and on the way home I stopped and got Natalie's haircut at the Cuts Plus (or whatever) next door to Trader Joes. Oh, and since we're there, we did a little shopping at TJ's and found the Yeti.

Back to mom's to get Brady, literally was one car ahead of Larry coming home from work (the kids thought that was the greatest, having daddy following us home), made dinner, made an unpleasant phone call, put my feet up and enjoyed my lemon drop that my hubby brought me, tag teamed the kids to bed, and now... I'm blogging.

I'm a glutton for punishment!

Oh, and I have to get up EARLY tomorrow since I didn't work today to make up the hours!

My Little Epistle

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Even though we aren't religious, I love the name of Natalie's preschool, it reminds me of "little pistol" which is what she is.
Brady chose to wait outside while I brought Natalie in to her classroom, it seems they've added/subtracted some features in the playground and Brady felt he needed to investigate (mostly the gigantic sand box that got installed over the summer). Brady was also kept company by a squirrel that kept trying to enter the foyer of the school.
Natalie was such a champ, she marched in and sat down next to Mrs. Ho (Oh, Natalie! It's so good to see you!), and did a quickie art project, suspiciously eyed the huge dollhouse (that a baby was playing with. Babies are not cool to my kids, they "suck on their toys") and then we were joined by Brady (who made nice comments about Natalie's classroom to her and was very much a nice big brother. Knock me over with a feather.) We headed over to the "Noisy Room", where Mrs Thompson was reading a story. Natalie snuggled right up in her lap and joined in.
The only shaky part was when two boys (isn't it always the boys?) were having hysterical fits when their parents left, it kind of unnerved the other children a little bit. And I saw one mom (who was VERY pregnant) having a really good cry over dropping of her child for the first time. Oh, if only I could be that sentimental.
NOPE.
After I dropped Brady off at school, I headed straight over to my favorite scrapbooking mecca, Treasury of memories and made myself some greeting cards. I didn't have quite enough time for a pedicure, so I went over to TJ MAXX and browsed. I haven't browsed in a long time. It was nice.
Maybe Thursday I'll get that pedi...

On having a girl

Our neighbor gave us some shoes that she had outgrown. Natalie has fallen in love with her high heels. I was admiring her outfit when she instructed me to take her picture. This is how she posed for her shoot.

I was never the little girl who put on productions, or truly believed I was a princess. I never tap-danced for strangers or made up my own songs (lyrics and melody). I was never the girl who could strike up conversations with anyone. I never felt it was appropriate to ride around a lake in a pink tutu. I never went to a new place, saw strange children there and exclaimed "Look! My friends are here!". Natalie is all these things and more. And I love her a little more each day for who she is, and how full she has lived her life so far. She is one of those personalities that knows no boundaries, and I love it.

She's off to preschool today... I remember last year how worried I was for taking her to toddler school at such a young age, and when we arrived in her classroom she had this expression like "I HAVE ARRIVED!" It was like she had been waiting her whole life (all 2 1/2 years of it) for an outlet to release her imagination. And watching Brady get to go to school for the past 2 years, she finally had something that was just for her.

Lake Padden

I call this one "Tutu Two-wheelin"
Guess who doesn't have a bike?
Lar, B, and Lucas taking the first spin around the lake (and B's first time in a small watercraft, can you tell?)
Lucas, Natalie, and Doug take their turn (you see, Maggie and I went out with Natalie before this photo was taken. I handed Larry the camera and suggested he use it. Do you see a photo of Maggie, Natalie, and me? Me neither. I swear there will be no documented proof of my existence, people will think I died during childbirth, there are so few photos of me).

This was the first time this year that we made it out to Padden, it's always very crowded and they kids were never up to going all the way around the lake, so it's just not been on our list of "go-to" places.

This morning Maggie called me (not her husband Doug, like 2 weeks ago. ha-ha, long story), and invited our family out for a little adventure. We met up with them and my family did a lap around the lake (B on his bike and N on her maiden journey on the tag-a-long). When they made it back around, we all took turns paddling around in the canoe.

It was loads of fun, especially when just the ladies (Maggie, me and Natalie) took our turn out in the boat. We got out a good ways and put our paddles down and just enjoyed the scenery and company.