the rest of the week . . .

Well, it will take too long to tell you day by day, so here is the rest of the week.


On Wednesday the girls and 19 of their cousins went white water rafting. It was an all day thing and they came home exhausted yet pleased.



On Thursday, much to the pleasure of the girls, we spent in town shopping. Yes, you will see many bags in their hands, none in mine.....such a mom. After dinner we had a "happy birthday to everyone" which included a cake. Then in the evening we had a very long talent show which even included my dad telling a dumb blonde joke....no offence to all of the blondes in our family.


On Friday the entire extended family got into our cars and drove the long ride to the top of the mountain, had lunch, then returned. The girls were exhausted and fell asleep on each other in the back of the car and being the mother always looking for future blackmail items....aren't they so very cute...I had to take a photo, of course Jeff took the photo since I was doing the downgear shifting dance heading down the mountain.


The afternoon the family went to a presentation on bird banding. They had feeders in the woods and as the birds flew away, they were caught in the pockets of the very fine nets. They were immideately removed. They identified the species, usually a humming bird, measured it, weighed it, then put the band on its leg. Did you know that a bird's leg does not get any larger around after it hatches....thus they will not outgrow the bank and injure themselves. After the humming birds were removed from their restraint, they placed them in a volunteer's hand, and it just layed there he said because the bird did not know that it was free until he gently bumped the hand and the bird flew off.


That evening we had a kickball game-Sara was the "pitcher", followed by volleyball. After dinner was dancing---square, line, chicken dance, what ever.






On Saturday it was laundry, the first to the craft shop, where Ruth finished her dog, Sara made 5 pairs of earrings...for her future pierced ears, and I made a mosaic picture frame for one of our 500 photos that I have taken. In the afternoon the girls did archery again. In the evening the extended family gathered in the cabin in front of the fireplace and told what we made, bought, or what was our favorite thing that week.

whoa horsie!!!

After family photos this morning, we went horse back riding....yes...I went too. I asked for a ladder to help me up...bad leg...but instead I just got a huge shove from a girl. I could not say that this was the most graceful thing I would have liked to have shown off!!

After horse riding, and once I could walk again, I took the girls for archery lessons. I was amazed at how good they were-no one was wounded-and they actually hit the target a number of times. We may need to look for someplace CLOSER to do this.

G0-Carts

It is the tradition that we go go-carting one evening after dinner. Today we we were not sure if this would happen because of the daily rain, followed by a beautiful double rainbow, but we were lucky and we made it. Ruth, Sara and I had a blast. Then the 20's-AKA generation 3-did some batting cage fun....only 1 injury resulted.

Settled in and ready

MONDAY MORNING

We settled in well and got some sleep. We decided to go to the craft shop and begin some projects in case we needed an entire week. Ruth began painting a ceramic dog, and Sara began a mosaic jewelry box.

Traveling time

We are heading out tomorrow at 5am for our family reunion. This first day will be about 12 hours, the second day about 7. We have packed a ton of DVD's for the girls to watch, and got a new batch of motion sick pills for Sara~~hopefully it will make her sleep too. My parents are coming into town this afternoon and staying at a nearby hotel, where I will take the kids to swim for a while and hopefully wear them out. Tonight is the ritual of the packing of the car, AKA mom's stress point will be broken-----look out world. It would be better if it wasn't so VERY hot outside. I now pay the girls to do most of the packing and thank GOD they are now old enough to really help and young enough to not know how to get out of it.....


I can not wait to sit out on the porch with a good book, stare at the mountains, and read....a little piece of heaven on earth.

Back in August.....

DOGGIE FUN

We are having fun with the dogs.

Notice all the are together...Jessie, Cooper and Puff.

Mermaid

Today Sara decided to get into our pool to cool off. She did not want to get her hair wet, so she got a red shower cap and put a rubber band around it. It worked fairly well. She is good at improvising and finding something that works for her needs.

Afterwards, she gave up and just got her hair wet.

LIGHT

Today we replaced the entry light. I guess that since I could not reach the 20' to clean the light in 6 years, then just get a new one :) We switched from gold to black. Luckily I put low wattage bulbs in or it would have been enought light to land a plane.

BRIDAL SHOWER

Yesterday my sister Lisa and I drove to Houston for our niece Jennifer's bridal shower. Jennifer's sisters Ashley and Megan co-hosted the shower. The food was WONDERFUL and Jennifer got a lot of things to begin their household. Jennifer has wonderful friends who were at the shower.

I have to admit I loved the 24 hours with adult conversation only. I do believe that every summer we will re-establish the girl's weekend out where no kids or males are allowed. We used to go shopping, but I think we will just go somewhere, probably my mom's, and visit ie-talk.

FINALLY RAIN

Today we had rain--after almost a month













do you see it? There is a drop! That's all!!!!!!!

Today we rose again early and headed for our destination. The 4 carloads of family, along with too much luggage, stopped in Loveland at SAM's to purchase the food for 41 people for a week. My sister made separate lists and we were off. It took 3 flats and one shopping cart at SAM'S to get it all, and now.......it needed to fit into our cars. I really wish I had a picture of this! We rearranged the luggage, stacked it up, sat on it, held it in our laps, just short of strapping it onto our hoods.....we looked like a bunch of back hills folks.....maybe like the Beverly Hill Billies, without the mansion, or the dog.

We arrived and there were a number of family already at the cabin who gratefully helped unload everything and the girls took all the luggage upstairs to our room.

We have used this cabin many times over the years. Upstairs is 4 bedrooms, sleeps 14 with 1 bathroom. Downstairs sleeps 6 with 1 bathroom.....of course this is the main house and everyone is there all day.....1 bathroom downstairs. We did fairly good.

JULY 4TH

God bless America!

We are having a quite 4th at home.

new member of the family

Today we were driving around town doing a few chores, and ended up at the SPCA and brought home a brother for Cooper. His name was Louis-now it is Jessie. He is 6 months old and cross between a Chihuahua and a dachshund. He is already neutered and micro chipped. He gets along VERY well with the cat, basically ignores her. He follows Cooper around and loves to run. He is kenneled for the night until I trust that he does not cause problem....like I caught him carrying off my slipper.

SIX FLAGS OVER TX

This morning Jeff fixed everyone omletts to order. Everyone took a turn on the trampoline, mostly so Mark and Jennifer could prove to themselves that they still have it....and they do.

Being 6'6", Marc had a hard time sleeping in Ruth's bed-a double-too short for him. This is funny to those of us who are just barley over 5'2".

After breakfast and a quick trip to Wal-Mart, Marc & Jennifer are off to Six Flags with with the girls.

Company in town

This evening Marc and my niece Jennifer arrived for the weekend-they are the ones getting married in Nov. The girls were angels and helped clean the house all day and it does look good now---maybe I should take a picture to remember what it looks like clean LOL!!!

After the house tour, there was of course a game of Phase 10. I begged out and read some and visited with them during the game. Let it be known to all near and far~~~~MARC WON THE GAME~~~~and he is VERY proud of it too :) That is his winning score sheet close pinned to his shirt....what a ham!

MEDICAL RELEASE

This morning we had our last appointment with Sara's neurosurgeon, Dr. Honneycutt. He said she is a go. We just need to watch when she goes back to school and make sure her short turn memory and ability to concentrate is not affected. So far she is showing that there is no problem.
She is now one VERY VERY happy camper and already running, throwing the ball, and on the trampoline. We will still wait one week before she is back into gymnastics and let her practice at home, having been sedentary for a month, do not want her to over do it and land on her hear :( Maybe I will see if she will wear her bicycle helmet for gymnastics LOL!!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

This morning Jeff got breakfast served to him, along with one large coffee. The girls each made him a card. Jeff also got a gift card to Border's and a new shirt-one that will not show coffee staines too much-it's brown.

BACK HOME

We had a great time with my parents. We saw my sister Chris and her dh and worked on furthering plans for the big family reunion later this year. She has a wonderful garden in her back yard too.

We spent the day with my sister Kathy and two of her daughters Ashley and Jennifer. First we went to a bridal shop and decided on a dress for the girls that complenent the other girls. They are quite grown up looking. After they we went to a pottery place and the girls all painted a piece. They will be fired and ready next week. Jennifer will bring ours up in a few weeks when they come to town to take the girls to Six Flags....mom doesn't do hot and long days well at all ;)

WE played LOTS of games of Phase 10-our new favorite. It is a long game and after about 5 times, I am done for a while.

We went to see my long time friend Ruth and her family. They are on year 2 of ? of a home renovation. They have an acre lot with many large oak trees...it is like being on a vacation, with the pool and all. Richard and Ruth cooked a wonderful dinner for all. Her boys taught Ruth how to play some zombie killing game, and Sara found something less violent on the other computer.

We did some shopping with my mom, but came home almost empty handed....making the men in our lives happy :)

Grandpa had the girls helping in the garden--check out this huge beet! It is getting almost too hot for tomatoes.


My mom showed Sara how she makes spaghetti. At first she thought it best not to, but then found that Sara is a good help in the kitchen.