Samuel and Caleb have "Blue Angels" paraphernalia on their walls after our trip this summer. Samuel and I were looking at the posters and I asked, "Do you know what a real angel is?"
"Yep" he said, with all the sureness in the world. "They're the ones that help the babies come out!"
I bet he's right too.
Priceless.
Twice this month we headed out to the lake for "beach days" with friends. Both days were scorchers – 104-108 degrees and the sand burned our feet. But the water was relaxing and the chance to get out of the house was welcomed.
LAKE LEWISVILLE on Aug 8th
The only pictures I took were with a water camera – and they turned out kind of wonky…but you get the idea (Caleb caught a fish!). We were joined by the Sivley's (who brought Lance H), the Koon's, the Risdon's, and the Copeland's.
LAKE RAY ROBERTS on Aug 17th
I organized a "last hurrah of summer" activity for anyone who wanted to come from church and we had a great turn out. Lance Hall's wife Phoebe was out of town, so he came as the token Dad – among all the ladies, it was fun to have him! And we sent his wife a text with the picture of him and all the mom's. Sivley's, Chappell's, Foust's, Price's, Lee's, Koon's, Risdon's, Thornton's, and Empey's were all there. We enjoyed hours of fun and then all met at the closest Sonic for Happy Hour drinks…a great way to end a big day of fun.
Tonight I spent about 2 hours working on importing everything from Typepad over to a new URL address for my blog at blogspot. I was fed up with wanting to make my blog "cuter" and more personal, and having to figure out all of the confusing codes that Typepad uses. Although I have now learned that typepad would be much easier if I was willing to fork out more dough (which I'm not). So I got myself a nice little spot over at blogspot and set up shop…with a brand new cute banner and everything. But then I realized that posting pictures in blogspot is a nightmare!! And I hated it!! So here I am – back at typepad with a mediocre "canned" banner (because they make me use one of their templates and I can't even change the font). But at least I can post pictures in lots of different sizes! Yikes. That's what I get for trying to be original.
More blogging on the horizon…promise.
Dinner out with our "sushi buddies" is always fun – especially when you get to sit out on the patio because it's the only day all summer where the clouds have emerged and it rains (just a little). Then when they all learned that I had never had haagen-dazs ice cream (that I can remember) we stopped at the grocery store for ice cream, went back to the Ferguson's house, and we swapped ice cream and stories for the rest of the evening. Fun times! And I'm hooked on haagen-dazs dulce de leche and peach sorbet now!
I sat across the table from them to have lunch today, and this is what I saw. They had finished their lunch, were sucking on Popsicles and reading the comics in a Boys Life magazine. I wanted to capture it because this, for me, epitomizes summer…relaxed and easy…all together.
Our friends, the Frederickson's, invited us up for a day at their lake house on Saturday. It was such a relaxing day – to get out of town, spend time with the kids and friends, out on the water and on the boat. We really enjoyed our time and our hosts…such a great family! Some highlights: meeting Derek and Taylor along the way – they biked 88 miles out there until we picked them up, the kids saving a snapping turtle from it's doomed fate stuck in a fishing net, watching Derek and Jacob wakeboard like pro's, watching Caleb try and try and finally relent (but really give a great effort) on the wakeboard, jumping off the old dock (Samuel wanted nothing to do with it, but even Zan and I gave it a go), watching our boys and their daughter, Sasha, play like they were old friends…I love that about kids, canoeing, and yummy food. Fun summer day!
We threw a surprise 40th birthday party for our sweet friend, Phoebe Hall, on Thurs night. And since she is the gourmet queen and LOVES good food, we went all out – salmon and beef tenderloin, fingerling potatoes, III Forks cream corn, salad, appetizers, homemade rolls and dessert. She was surprised! The tables and flowers were beautiful. It's such a treat to celebrate someone like Phoebe – she is certainly worth celebrating!
Family attendees: Vergie Rogers (mom), Phoebe and Lance Hall, Rainey and Tammy Rogers (brother and SIL), Heather and Doug McLellan (stepdaughter and husband), LaRonna Peeples (sister), PJ Rogers and wife (brother and SIL)
Friend attendees: Miranda Gordon, Rebecca Lee, Amy Miller (hostess), Julie Sivley, Michelle Crawford, Christi Kovach & me (+husbands!!)
Caleb's birthday was on the same day that we left for our vacation, so we celebrated with a family party on the Sunday before with a tie-dye cake and presents. He was excited to have Nana & Pops, Uncle Mike & Aunt Liv and baby Reid join us. Mike got him a cross-bow with suction cups that was quite the hit (literally), Pops got him an old car (that he once had but that Samuel broke) and we got him a Paper Jamz guitar (which makes plenty of noise). He was pretty happy with the neon cake and with the attention.
On his actual birthday we made a good breakfast and he got to open more presents (from Papa C and Mimi and Aunt Lisa) and one more present from us – Just Dance 2 for the Wii. They enjoyed playing that while I packed, which was perfect! We sure love our "middle man".
We woke up early and went to church in Gulf Breeze, FL. We saw our friend's the Garcia's from home (we ran into them at the grocery store too). I enjoyed sitting by Derek in Sunday School and hearing the stories of women who had endured Hurricane Rita in Relief Society. The boys marveled at the smaller size of the Primary, and felt welcomed. We spotted a sign that said "Meredith & Sons" on the way home, and HAD to stop for a picture-op.
We enjoyed lunch back at the condo and then headed to the beach to enjoy the water and sun.
(Why are your big boys not in any of these pictures? You might ask?? It's because they wouldn't come on shore long enough for a picture!)
That night we grilled in and played games (Headbanz) – so relaxed!
We left on Fri evening and headed for Monroe, LA for a pitstop and night's stay. Nothing to see there though so we headed out the next morning for Mobile, AL. I had heard that the USS Alabama was a fun place to see…and it did NOT disappoint. What a fun thing for my boys! You can explore the ship top to bottom and at certain places they have rooms set up just as they were when the ship was in use. Very cool part of our US history. We also toured the submarine, which I've always sworn I would never too. I'm super claustrophic, so even being on it on land was a feat for me – but I enjoyed it (just as long as we kept walking).
One of the highlights of the day was running into the author, Col Glenn Frazier who wrote a book called Hell's Guest. It's about his experience as a POW in WWII. A friend of mine had let me borrow it about a year ago, and running in to him was such a treat. I think he and his wife were delighted that I had read the book. Since I had borrowed my friend's copy, I bought my own copy and had him sign it. It was a privilege to meet him.
Afterwards we drove straight to Pensacola and took care of business…checked in at the resort, got a bite to eat and went grocery shopping. We were THRILLED beyond belief with our accommodations – the Portofino resort on Pensacola Beach…WOW!
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