10 Years Ago Today

Today is our 10 year wedding anniversary! We've actually been together for 15 years, but married for 10 of those years.

How we met:

We both worked at a Ponderosa Steakhouse together when I was in high school. Joe was a waiter and I worked the buffet. We worked a lot of the same nights, and eventually we started talking a little after work. Sometimes he even rubbed my feet while we waited for the managers to check our sections so we could leave. We have a LOT of fun memories from ours days at Ponderosa. There was just something about that place...many couples got together working there and many of them are still together today!

Our first date:
I was 16, about to turn 17, and he was 3 years older than me. One night after work he asked me if I wanted to go get some soup from Denny's with him. He said, "I'll buy if you drive". So, we went to Denny's together. I was so quiet and didn't really know what to talk about, and he kept joking with me about how quiet I was. But he thought it was cute the way I ordered chocolate milk (which became kind-of an inside joke for awhile). We both agreed that we didn't want to get into a long term relationship, and we'd just go out sometimes. But fate had something else in mind, because that was 15 years ago and we've been together ever since!

(Us at one of the many football games at my high school- I was on the poms squad and had to perform at half-time every home game. That's why I have sequins all over me, I don't normally make a habit of wearing sequins! LOL)



How he proposed:


In the summer of 1994, we took a trip to Jamaica. It was a beautiful place and a wonderful trip! There were several activities during the day, and beach parties in the evenings. One night while we were at one of the resort evening parties, Joe and I wandered off to the edge of the water. We sat on some rocks that jutted out into the water to talk and watch the sunset. Just as the sun was setting, Joe turned around, got on his knee and proposed! Of course I said yes! We didn't tell anyone right away, because we knew we would wait a few years before actually having the wedding, but we did ask my sister to take a couple pictures of us by where he asked me. She didn't know the significance of the photos, but we did!

(The scanned image above makes my eye look really funky for some reason, but you get the general idea! lol)

(snorkling in Jamaica, 1994)


Our wedding day:

Our wedding took place on October 4, 1997 in a park. I wore my mother's wedding dress, and my sister's veil. We were blessed with a beautiful, sunny, seventy-degree day for our outdoor ceremony. We did have a few little "mishaps", such as...


* the photographer showing up WAY early when my hair was still wet and we were still setting up and getting ready.


* Then while I was getting ready, someone had put my veil on the halogen lamp so it wouldn't get wrinkled. Forgetting it was there, my sister walked in and turned on the light. Within minutes the veil was smoking, but luckily only the underside was burnt, so it didn't show.


* And then at the beginning of the ceremony, the music was our cue to walk down the aisle, so we waited...and waited...and waited. It was then we realized the stereo system wasn't working. Our guests, also realizing what had happened began to giggle. So, we walked down the aisle in silence, and still had a wonderful wedding.


These are all just a few unique memories to add to our special day, and give us something to look back on and laugh!


The reception was held in a building there at the park. We had a BLAST! It was SO much fun with so many of our family members and friends. Both the wedding and reception were simple and modest, nothing too over the top or fancy...just the way we like it.


The "honeymoon":


We decided not to take a honeymoon. Instead, we stayed overnight at a nearby Bed & Breakfast, and used the money we would have spent on a honeymoon to put a down payment on buying our first house.


After the wedding recap:


late 1997/early 1998: We bought our first house.


2000: Our 1st son was born


2003: We sold the house and bought our current house on 10 wooded acres. We both have always wanted some property, so this was so exciting for us.


2004: Our 2nd son was born


2007: We celebrate 10 married years together (and the additional 5 years leading up to marriage too!)

(early 2006)

(Summer 2007)

What a great adventure it has been so far. I am excited to see what the next 60 or so years holds for us!

I will end for now with the poem that was read by my good friend at our wedding.


The Tapestry of Marriage


Marriage is a weaving together of two lives


A creation of passion, artistry and soul


Never imagine that the tapestry of marriage is complete


For as long as you live and breathe


It will continue to evolve into patterns more intricate and more marvelous than either of you could render by yourself


And so this work, this weaving, this marriage


Should never be taken for granted, but should be honored, nurtured and embraced


May your marriage be an ever-growing, ever-changing work of art


That weaves together and apart that which is true and alive in both of you.


-author unknown

This weekend, we shall celebrate! Be back soon...don't wait up for us ;)

(Watch for a new updated photo soon- we hope to get our picture taken as a couple for our 10 year anniversary within the next week.)

And if you happen to read this, Joe, Happy 10th Anniversary! I love you!

Happy Birthday to Hubby!

Wednesday is my husband's 35th birthday!

Happy Birthday Joe! I love you!

Menu Plan Monday & Pizza Casserole Recipe (for Carolyn)

Here's our menu plan for this week. It's a short/easy one because we will be doing lots of celebrating this week:

Monday= Beef & macaroni skillet dish (or wings & beer at Joe's co-worker's house if we stop by to see her pics from her 2-month backpacking trip in Europe)

Tuesday= Garlic Lime Chicken

Wednesday= Joe's birthday! Eat out at a steakhouse.

Thursday= Our 10 year wedding anniversary! We will be eating at Joe's work's fall picnic at the park (potluck)

Friday, Saturday, Sunday= Whatever the heck we feel like, we will be on a little trip (without the boys) celebrating our 10-year wedding anniversary, woohoo! Maybe a nice dinner out, maybe a nice dessert in *wink* LOL. Champagne, strawberries, chocolate, jacuzzi, candles...oh, getting off track here, sorry. heehee

And here's the Pizza Casserole recipe from a couple weeks ago that Carolyn asked for...

PIZZA CASSEROLE

1/2 lb. ground beef or sausage

1/2 c. chopped onion

1 8oz package macaroni

1 15oz can/jar pizza sauce

1/4 c. water

1 8oz can tomato sauce

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

1 pkg. pepperoni

2 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded

1 can mushrooms

Brown ground beef or sausage, drain. Add onions & sauce.Cook macaroni until tender, drain. Combine macaroni with ground beef or sausage, pizza sauce, water, tomato sauce, & garlic salt. Place in 9x13 pan, layering macaroni mixture with pepperoni, cheese, & mushrooms until all is used. Bake in 375 degree oven for 1/2 hour.

Crazy Weeks & New Additions

Wow, these last couple weeks have been a blur! Between setting up for & working a big local festival, the regular work weeks, hiring & training 2 new employees, things going on every night after work, and Adam getting sick with a fever & diarrea (sp?) things have been crazy! And to think Joe was originally going to be out of state during all of this- oh my! That would have been a nightmare!

In the midst of all of that, last week one of the guys in our department found some baby kittens that someone had tied up in a trashbag and threw away at one of the parks!!! He heard them crying and found them and saved them. They had all 5 kittens in a box at one of our facilities for 1/2 a day, and my co-worker and I just happened to go by there to unload some things from the festival. At the time I was thinking there's no way Joe would go for it since they would have to be inside and he has said before that we are never having indoor pets again. But, I mentioned them to him anyway, and to my surprise he said if noone else at work will take them we could take one. (he really is an animal lover and has a soft spot for situations like this). I emailed the lady who had them by her desk and told her if she couldn't find homes we'd take one. Well, unfortunately she didn't get my email until after she had dropped the 3 remaining kitties at the Humane Society. Then we found out that the Humane Society was only going to keep them for 5 days and then they would be killed, never even having the chance for someone to adopt them. So my co-worker and I were on a mission to save these kitties. But now that they were at the Humane Society they had to go through all the procedures and rules and official adoption, etc. They said that even if we want them, that they can't be adopted until they are fixed, and they can't be fixed until they are 2 lbs, and they can't hold them at the shelter that long waiting for them to get that big. So, unless they could find someone to foster them until they were big enough that they would be killed anyway, and they felt that the chances of someone fostering them were slim. How frustrating that a couple of us were willing to take them in and give them a home, but because of all the "rules" they were going to be killed anyway! So, my co-worker continued to email with one of the employees about it (she knew her from a program we had done with them in the past) and eventually the director of the Humane Society agreed that she would foster the kitties at her house until they were big enough to be fixed/adopted, if we turned in an application and put a deposit down. If they didn't receive that by Saturday then the kitties were going to be put down. I talked Joe into us taking 2 of them, since kittens do better growing up in 2's together anyway, and since that way the boys won't "fight over" just one, and so that we weren't leaving one to die. My co-worker was able to talk another of our co-workers who had already taken 1 of the kitties before they ended up at the shelter, into taking another. So, we think all 5 kitties have been saved now. Whew! I stopped by Friday morning and put our deposit down and turned in our application. Adam went with me and he loved the kitties! They are still very tiny (about 1 pound at most), and we will have to wait a few more weeks before they can come home. But at least their lives have been saved...again.

I can't believe anyone could tie up live kittens in a trashbag and just throw them away. How sad and awful. Thank goodness the guy found them fairly quickly before they died. Anyway, I took a couple pictures while we were there visiting the kitties Friday. See below. We are taking the one that has white and buff colors, and one of the solid buff colored ones.

Sorry I haven't been around lately, things are just crazy. I'm really hoping that everything will slow back down. I will try to catch up soon.

Menu Plan Monday

Here's our dinner menu plan for this week:

Monday= Pizza casserole

Tuesday= BBQ chicken legs

Wednesday= Pasta Crab casserole

Thursday= leftovers

Friday= Pizza/family night

Saturday & Sunday= on your own, as I will be working at a local festival all weekend long!

It's finally starting to cool down a little here this week, I'm so excited. I love fall!

Our holiday weekend & Cub Scouts

Okay, catch up time. The holiday weekend was pretty good. Brendan's school was out on Friday, so we took off work too and headed to a waterpark that we've had tickets for all summer but every time we think we're going to go, something happens. So, we headed down there only to get there and find out they were closed! *sigh* I had checked a couple months ago back when we decided to do this, and their website said they'd be open. Another car pulled up while we were in the empty parking lot, and they said they had just called the day before and were told it would be open. Crazy! (I looked at their website again when we got home and sure enough it now showed it as closed that day). So, since we were already there we decided to take the boys to do some other fun things and try to make the most of it.

So, we headed to a small children's museum nearby instead...

Then we went to a nearby state park to swim...

After that we went to get frozen custard (well, Joe and the boys did, I just watched & took pictures since I'm lactose intolerant)...

Then we went back home. Sunday we drove about 2 hours to meet Joe's family for lunch for his mom's birthday. It was nice to see everyone again.

Then laying in bed Sunday night I got to thinking that we really should try to go back to the waterpark Monday (the last operating day of the season), because Brendan had earned that free ticket at school for reading books, and it didn't seem fair that he never got to use it all summer. Joe wasn't too thrilled with the idea of driving back down again, he had some things he wanted to get done. So, I offered to just take Brendan myself, and he could let Adam play outside while he got things done outside. But, he finally decided that we should just all go as a family again. So, Monday we got in the car AGAIN and drove back down there. Luckily they really were open this time. The boys had a blast! Aside from Adam almost unzipping my swimsuit down the front in front of a lot of people (!), and the lifeguard diving in to save Brendan at one point, and the tantrum Brendan threw when it was time to leave...it was a great time! Unfortunately I don't have any photos to share yet, since I used a disposable waterproof camera instead of my digital camera.

The other news is that Brendan has joined Cub Scouts. He is a Tiger Cub Scout, and his first official pack meeting is tomorrow night. We saw a list of some of the activities they will be doing this year, and it sounds like a lot of fun! He is very excited.

I'm Still Here

Wow, all the days of school letting out early for heat and then the holiday weekend really threw things off. I'm still here...still kickin'...just trying to get back into the routine. We had a fun holiday weekend for the most part. Will post more w/ pics soon! Hopefully tomorrow. Hope you all are doing well!

Wordless Wednesday: Me and My Boys

Survived 1st week of school & Menu Plan Monday

Well, we successfully survived the first week of school. Well, sort of, not sure it counts since Brendan's school let out early 4 of the 5 days last week due to the heat. But, he is still loving 1st grade. Adam is still doing great at his new preschool. He's a little clingy and cries some mornings when I drop him off, but the rest of the day he has a great time.

Somehow Adam managed to get a whole line of chigger bites on the under side of his legs this weekend, right along his Pull Ups line. It looks just horrible. All red and irritated, and when he walks, his Pull Ups rub right on it making it worse. He's been walking around with his legs spread out real far, which would be hilarious looking if it wasn't for knowing he's in pain :(

Today Brendan brought home a notice from school about joining Cub Scouts. The joining meeting is this Wednesday night, and he is all excited about joining this year. They had a joining meeting at the end of last year, but at the time he didn't want to join and we didn't force the issue. But now, he is SUPER excited about it, so I guess in a few days we will be the proud parents of a Cub Scout. I'm already a little worried about all the driving around I will be doing this fall, between swim lessons, Tae Kwon Do, and now Cub Scouts too. Hopefully it doesn't get to be too much of a hassle. Luckily there aren't sports games mixed in too (yet).

I've been trying to get back on the menu planning habit. I was going good for awhile, but the last couple months I haven't done it. So, this weekend I sat down and planned out the dinner menu for this week, and all of Sept and October. It's so much easier for me to just do a bunch in advance, because it's the sitting down to plan that I always seem to neglect. And, I have certain meats or kinds of meals assigned to each day so that I'm sure to work in a variety...otherwise I'll fall into a rut of pasta all the time. lol

So, here's the basic plan I follow:

Monday= Beef
Tuesday= Chicken
Wednesday= Soup/Salad/Sandwich or Seafood
Thursday= leftovers
Friday= Pizza (family night)
Saturday= Pork
Sunday= Chicken or Turkey

Having a basic idea like that to always start with is a big help to me, and then I just fill in the meals we like on printed calendar pages for a couple months at a time. I've seen on some other blogs that people do something called "Menu Plan Monday" or something like that...maybe I should look into that and join in. Hmmm.

Okay, I talked myself into it. lol I just searched and tracked down the originator of Menu Plan Monday (OrgJunkie) and even though Monday is basically over now, I'll just jump in anyway. LOL







Here's our menu plan for this week...

Monday: Goulash
Tuesday: Joe's microwave chicken/potato/carrot dish
Wednesday: BLT wraps
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: Pizza (family night)
Saturday: Pork Stir Fry
Sunday: Oven "fried" (baked) chicken

End of Summer & 1st Day of School

Well, the boys are officially back in school now. Brendan started 1st grade Monday and Adam started preschool. Both boys did fine, and had a lot of fun yesterday.

Going backwards a little...Joe made it back safely from his Iowa/South Dakota trip for work. He got back Friday just in time to see the skit/awards night at the end of Brendan's summer camp. Brendan won about 5 awards, which were made of circles of wood and rope. To which he said he had "cedar bling". I died laughing. I'm guessing that must have been the joke among the counselors to call it that. heehee.

The weekend before that (I forgot to post about) we did a visiting trip. We have been so busy all summer that we had not seen any of the boys' grandparents for a long time. We knew that it would be difficult once school started, so we took the day to go visit all 3 sets of grandparents. None of them live by us, but luckily they all live fairly close together.

We started at my Mom's house where the boys had fun playing games and with all the toys in her basement. We ate an early lunch while we were there, and had a nice visit with mom and her boyfriend.

Next we headed to my dad's house to visit with him and his wife. They have a pool in their neighborhood, so the boys had a blast playing in the pool. They also had a ton of fun playing with all the toys in their basement.

After that we headed to Joe's parents' house, and most of his brothers and sisters came by too to see the boys and visit. We had dinner, hung out, visited, and the boys played outside for part of the time too. Adam kept going from aunt to aunt asking them to take him outside. (he has 4 aunts on that side, 3 were there). So one of them would take him out for awhile, come back in, and then he'd go to the next. It was cute. Each time he came back with tomatoes from the garden, so he was helping in the garden while he was out there too.

Then we drove the 2-1/2 hours home, and got to bed pretty late, but it was worth it for the boys to get to see all of the grandparents and some of the aunts and uncles. They had so much fun!

So, now summer is over (even though it is still so HOT) and school has begun. We will have one last hurrah for the summer next Friday though. Brendan's school is off that day, and we still have tickets to a nearby waterpark to use up, so we'll go there next Friday. Then, it's on to my favorite season, FALL!

Hope you all had a great summer!

"Traffic" on My Morning Commute

Ahh, yes, the morning commute to work. You city slickers have to deal with rush hour traffic, road rage, idiots cutting you off, stop and go traffic, etc. Me...well, normally I have very little traffic, if any, but this morning I did have to slow down on my morning commute for a different kind of traffic...

Not something you'd expect to see standing in the road, eh? I expect the deer shooting out in front of my car once in awhile, but I still laugh every time I come across a cow standing in the middle of the road. This is one of the roads I travel along on my way to work every morning. A few times per year a lone cow will get out of someone's fence and be *in* the road. This morning I think the whole herd was loose! Adam was in the car with me and thought the cows were great. "Put my window down, Mommy, I see cow" he kept saying. heehee. They were *right* by the window as we drove by. Who needs to pay money for a drive-thru zoo? If you're in the right place at the right time, we've got 'em for free out in the country :)

Oh yes, and once in awhile a free petting zoo too. A week or so ago I pulled up our driveway to find this standing in our yard...

And no, it's not ours. Brendan was with me that time, and he stayed outside for a long time watching and talking to the horse. He said something to the effect of "well we could keep him if the neighbors don't want him anymore". I tried to explain that I didn't think the neighbors knew that the horse was by our yard, and that it didn't mean they wanted to get rid of it. lol

First Overnight

Well, this morning I dropped Brendan off at camp for his first overnight. He's been having a BLAST at camp all week during the day, and tonight they stay over all night. It will feel strange to not pick him up and bring him home after work today. I'm sure he will have a great time. He has stayed overnight at the grandparents' houses before, but never overnight on his own with no relatives there. He is really excited about it. He looked so cute all loaded up with his backpack, sleeping bag and pillow. (that is the lady that runs the camp in the background of the photo).

I'm not worried at all about Brendan, it's Adam I'm worried about tonight. He and Brendan share a room, and tonight Brendan will not be there when he goes to bed. I hope Adam isn't too lonely or sad. He loves, looks up to, and follows Brendan everywhere. And, Joe has been out of the state all week for work, so he's missing daddy too. But, on the bright side, he won't have to fight over toys tonight.

The "meet the teacher" night is tonight at Brendan's school. Since he is at camp all night, I will just go up there without him and try to find out what all he needs to know. I'm anxious to find out which teacher he will have this year. He is starting 1st grade. Hopefully it will be a smoother start this year than last year. There is a new principal too, so I'm crossing my fingers that communication and such between the school and parents will improve this year! But considering I was not informed about the meet the teacher night (had to track down the date/time info myself) and still do not have a school supply list, it's not looking too hopeful for much change. But we'll see.

Wordless Wednesday: 1st Lost Tooth!

Feels Like Home?!

Perhaps I've been working at my job too long? I am way too comfortable, apparently. I just returned from my lunch break, walked into my office, kicked off my shoes, and...wait! What am I doing?! I kicked off my shoes completely out of habit without thinking, like I do when I walk in my front door at home. lol There is something seriously wrong if my office feels like home to me.

Good thing I didn't take off my bra...that's the 2nd thing to come off when I walk in the door at home! LOL

Heat, Wind, and Summer Camp

OMG how many days is this 100+ temperature going to last?! I am dying here. The humidity makes it so much worse too. Joe laughed at me because I said it was too hot to let the boys swim in our little backyard pool, but it's true! I'm sure as heck not gonna sit out there to watch them. They didn't even ask to go out, so I think they agree.

Last night we had terrible wind. I woke up around 11pm and laid there listening to the wind. It sounded really bad. I even got up for a few minutes to turn on the tv and make sure we weren't having a tornado! LOL (we can't hear sirens from our house, so we have to check ourselves). This morning our patio table was on its side, and a big limb had split off from one of our trees into our driveway. The huge antenna on top of our house had been blown off...I noticed as I was backing out this morning that part of it was dangling off the back of the house. I didn't have time to go look closer and see how bad it was, I'll have to do that when I get home tonight. But we could have had much worse! Joe was driving to Iowa/South Dakota yesterday and drove through the storm there, and they were hearing about cars being blown over on their sides and such. Luckily we didn't have that problem!

Brendan started another camp this morning. I spent about 1/2 hour waiting in a high school parking lot for the camp bus to pick him up...it never came. There was one other family there looking for it too, but we both decided to drive the kids to the camp (making me very late for work) to see what happened. Turned out that the info about the bus picking them up was accidentally left on the website from last year, and that there was no plan for a bus this year because they had fewer kids enroll. So, I will have to drive him to and from the camp every day this week. It's not too terribly far (about 40 minutes from our house but only about 20 from my office), but still a little inconvenient. Especially with Joe out of town and me having to drive Adam to and from the babysitter too. So, the mornings will be pretty hectic this week! I just hope Brendan has a lot of fun. This day camp is more like a "real" camp than the other one he's been going to for the last 5 weeks. They even stay overnight Thursday night. And wouldn't it just figure that Meet the Teacher Night at his school is Thursday night too! Ugh! Doesn't it just figure. So I guess he will have to meet his teacher the first day of school. Crazy that school starts next Monday! This summer has flown by! I'm sure he will be let out of school early the first week though if this 100+ temp continues!

Doing the Happy Dance!

Just got back from this week's weigh-in, and had to share that I have now lost 20 pounds since May! Yippee!!! 12 more pounds to go to reach the final WW goal for me (but I am going to try to keep losing a little more after I reach that too). I'm excited, so I just had to share. lol

Not-So-Happy Camper

Ha! Reading my post from Thursday is very comical to me now! More like I could hear the drunk idiots splashing in the river til 3:30am...birds?! No, the birds were scared shitless and nowhere to be seen or heard, but I could hear the lovely sounds of guys puking, people yelling, car alarms going off, and coolers being drug on the ground as above mentioned idiots went by my tent several times all night long. Fire crackling, yes, I did get that, thank goodness.

If you can't tell, our weekend didn't exactly have majestic relaxing qualities that I had hoped for. LOL

Six Flags on Friday was fun...hot, but fun. We actually weren't there all that long, maybe 3-4 hours. We rode the Scooby Doo ride first, there was a big line but we were afraid it would only get longer, and Brendan loves to watch Scooby Doo, so we thought he'd love it. We got in line and the sign said it was a 30min wait from there. An hour later we finally made it on the ride. About 45 minutes into the line Brendan decided he was scared and didn't want to ride. I'm thinking "we've waited this long in the beating down hot sun, you're gonna ride!". lol Luckily after a few minutes of him saying he was scared, the boy behind us told Brendan that he had been on it before and it wasn't scary. That helped. Then we rode a few other rides, had a pretzel & beer break for Mommy and Daddy, let the kids play in the play area, rode the huge ferris wheel, took a couple pics with Sylvester and Scooby Doo and then Brendan wanted to leave.

So, we headed down to the river for the camping part of our trip. It was so dang hot and humid, I had sweat pouring all weekend. Overall it was fun, but there were definitely many frustrating times. And the campground was very crowded. We ended up in the middle of several big groups, and one in particular was obnoxious! They were so loud, and partied until at least 3:30am. They were across from us, and the river was behind us, so they had to walk through our campsite to get to the river. And they did all night long, dragging their coolers, making lots of noise, splashing in the river and yelling in the middle of the night. They would once in awhile give a really loud yell and it set off a car alarm (which they then cheered loudly). I laid there awake until 3:30am. Joe was awake most of that time, but then he fell asleep and I had to listen to him snoring too on top of everything else. lol Then our boys were awake by 6am.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for hanging out around the fire drinking and such with friends, we've done it many times, but this group was beyond obnoxious and didn't even pretend to care that anyone else was there but them. And, this particular campground calls itself a "family resort" and has a "strict" quiet policy and signs posted saying to please be extremely quiet after 11pm.

The next day was fun playing in the river though. We have a 2-person raft that we put the boys in and we pulled them upstream, floated down, swam, splashed, and watched (laughed at) all the hilarious drunk people who couldn't manuever their canoes right, and were tipping over and running into each other. heehee. Oh, and then there was the large guy who decided to just lay on his back and roll down the shallow stretch of the river...yes, a log roll on the rocks in the water like he was a 4 year old rolling down a grassy hill...only he was more like a 44 year old and rolling big belly and all on rocks. I'm guessing he was feeling that one the next day! LOL

We also went by Johnson's Shut Ins, to see what it looks like now, after the dam break and all. Last time we were there was right before it happened (we were there in Sept '05 and the dam broke in Dec '05). I was really impressed with their clean-up efforts! We could tell the park looked different, and there are a lot less shut-ins, and the deep swimming area where people used to jump off the cliffs is no longer water, but a big pile of gravel, but they did have it open and you could get in the shut-ins that were left. They have a display of photos in the office with before and after pics of all the destruction and mess. They still have a big part of the park fenced off with restricted and caution signs and such, but the parts they have cleaned up look great.

Here are a few pics I took while we were there:

I took all the pics of playing in the river with a disposable waterproof camera, so I don't have those to share yet.

All in all it was a fairly good weekend, but we've decided it will be a long time before we take the boys tent camping again. Or, at least we will not go on the weekend. A cabin seems to be the better choice until Adam is older.

So now we're back...tired, and sunburnt. It's one of those weekends where you need a weekend to recover from the weekend.

Happy Camper :)

I most likely won't be at my blog again before we leave tomorrow morning, so I'll say "See ya later!" now. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

We'll be HERE Friday,

followed by a weekend of playing in the river,

sleeping in this:

and sitting around this:

AAhhh, yes. I can almost hear the river flowing, the birds singing, and the campfire crackling.

Wordless Wednesday

How Many More Days 'til we Go Camping, Mommy?!

Yes, this is the question I've been hearing every day for the last several weeks. Followed by Adam's reply of "I go camp too". And now, finally, it is almost here. "Only 4 more days, Brendan, 4 more days" was my response this morning. What's interesting to me, is that we are going to Six Flags on Friday before we go camping, yet all he asks about is the camping part. That's our boy for ya. Definitely inherited his mommy and daddy's genes on that one! We love camping. Joe and I used to go camping and canoeing several weekends a year when I was in high school and college, and up until we had kids. That was our favorite thing to do together. And we're going to our favorite river this weekend again too. The boys have been there with us, (those who have been around awhile know that we baptized both boys in the river too) when Brendan was a baby and then again a couple years ago when Adam was 10 months and Brendan was 4. We didn't attempt the tent that time, with Adam being so young. But this year, we are going back to the tent camping, because that's what we enjoy...and now the boys are 2-1/2 and 6-1/2, so we're thinking they can handle it now. Our site is on the river, and I can't wait to be sitting in front of that campfire again. I have missed it greatly!