July In Pictures pt. 3

July 7

These are some of the other things July held for us...First up was more theatre fun. I think my brother has spent more of his life dressed up in costumes than he has in regular clothes.

July 15

My dad took his vacation and brought our dog up to join us at The Queen's Cottage. She had a trial run earlier this spring and it was decided that she would stay at our old house until it sold....It's the end of August and she's still here, so I guess this is her home now. I'm sure she misses having free run of the barn, creek, pastures, and property, but that's life. Her first stop was a trip to the dog wash.

She really is a city dog now. She loved it and tried to make friends with the psycho dog that was barking at everyone and that even tried to lunge at her. While we were there, my Mom and I decided that dog washes are definitely worth it and that parents need to build tubs like this for bathing their kiddos. It was sooooo nice not to have to bend over!

July 19

Every chance I got, I went to the beach with whoever would go with me. I went with my sister, my brother, my brother AND my sister, and my brother and sister and our friend Aubrey. And if it warms up again, I'm sure you'll find me there!

I didn't ever swim at 24, but I got quite a bit of swimming in at 25. :) It was just as amazing as I remembered it being!!!!

July 23

I spent a fair amount of time in my garden harvesting peas and zinnias. July 23 marked the first big harvest of both. I enjoyed cutting flowers and making bouquets each week. The peas have since dried up, but the zinnias are still going at full speed ahead! I seriously can't keep up with them.

July 24

He took the stage again. He got whoops and hollers after all of his singing. It's been fun to watch him get involved on so many different stages and with different directors. I'm amazed.

We rushed to this performance after an evening of eating and singing with our church family at one of our summer cookouts where we practice singing from our hymnal. I didn't take ANY pictures at any of them, but I enjoyed each one. I cannot sing, so singing in parts surrounded by others was SUPER helpful. I'm already looking forward to the ones we have next summer.

July 27

July 27

This was one of my favorite days from July (I've got a few more pictures to add to this and possibly a correction or two to make.)...My sister and I spent the morning playing Monopoly (she won with and I lost with ) before heading out to Panda Express for lunch. I didn't plan the day at allll. Everything that happened was totally spontaneous.

I picked my brother up from work (or maybe he didn't have to work that day. I'm not sure which now) and then we had a BBQ dinner. This summer I have hardly cooked real food and when I do, I almost always end up eating it alone. They're gone at meal times and when they come home they're ready to crash. So, anytime I get to cook food AND eat it with someone feels like a party. Just this week (as in August 22) I grilled my sister and I hamburgers one afternoon just because she was home and then I made my Mom and I fancy quesadillas with homemade salsa and guacamole for the same reason.

July 30

This was the end of a LONG day. Everyone was gone alllll day. Being home alone in the evenings is kind of the worst for me. I like our eat dinner, talk about the day, and then play a game or watch a movie routine. I have definitely learned to have a night in by myself, but I still prefer company. I had to snap a picture of this because you can see my spot over on the bench, the remnants of time at the lake hanging all over the patio, and the animals who were waiting on everyone to get home right along with me.

What's your idea of a perfect night in? I tend to put on the Early Jazz station on Pandora, eat dinner outside, read or write, putter around the garden and yard, and then go to bed early. Pitiful? Maybe, but I guess that's just how I unwind.

May 17

And one more picture from much earlier this year....Here are my brother and sister with their friends at our other house. I used to snap pictures of them like this all the time. After playing, they'd stop and just lay or sit in a circle and Lydia was always in on it. There are pictures in the yard, around their little table, draped over that swing in the background, around the firepit, and who knows where else....

On this particular day, we were back at our other house packing stuff up and they invited their friends over since it had been a while since they'd all been together. My Mom and I were sitting at our spots at the kitchen table having a break of our own. I looked out and say them sitting and got a little teary eyed...This days are coming to an end. We're moving for real. They're growing up and this yard isn't going to be ours anymore. I grabbed an iPod and snapped a picture and now I'm sharing it and making all of us cry all over again.

Our life in that small town was sooo hard a lot of the time, but it was also REALLY good. I'll always carry a piece of it with me and I expect that my brother and sister will carry an even bigger piece of it with them, because it's all they ever knew.

The Scenic Route: Summer Adventures (So Far)

I'm sad to say this, but it looks like my trusty point and shoot camera is dying. I recently uploaded some pictures from the geocaching my Mom and I did on Memorial Day along with a batch of shots I took during a little hike we took while my brother was at rehearsal one evening.

Some of them are blurry and some of them are a little wonky, but they're the pictures I took and they're the ones I'm sharing today!

 

This round of geocaching was inspired by the fact that we had a couple of travel bugs that we NEEDED to drop off. We haven't done much geocaching lately, so it took a little bit of effort to get everything together and out the door. It was Memorial Day which meant that there might just be people EVERYWHERE, so we would have to be careful.

Well, the first cache almost stumped us. It turned out that we were in the wrong area, but we looked and looked and looked. We use a GPS, but people don't always get the coordinates right which means that you put the GPS in your pocket and start looking anyway.

I kept waiting for a hobo to pop out of the bushes. We did run into two kids who were on the way to "a cool place to hang out", but other than that, we were all on our own. We probably spent most of an hour circling around and around on this trail before giving up and moving onto the next one.

 

As you can probably imagine, this spot was a little prettier and we did run into quite a few people who were out enjoying the day. We walked around trying to get the GPS to show that we were within 10 feet of the next cache when we realized that we were pretty sure a family of four and their dog were RIGHT ON TOP OF IT.

Thankfully, their dog kept running around trying to visit with people, so they decided to head home. As soon as they were on their way, we went over to where we thought it was and were stumped for the second time that day. We think the cache was discovered and removed by whoever found it. So, we moved on to the next cache which turned out to be the first one we were looking for.

After that, we found the rest of the caches and I stopped taking pictures. We were moving quickly and were eager to finish up and get home for some lunch. The day got off to a rough start, but we found three of the four caches on our list, which made us both pretty happy!

Our hike consisted of a short walk to a historical site that we had tried to find one other time. The last time we tried to find it we were short on time and gave up before figuring out where it was. Before my sister left for her trip to SC she said that she really wanted to find it this summer, so with a little extra time on our hands one night, my Mom and I decided to scout it out to save us all the frustration later.

I'm not surprised we couldn't find it. It was NOT where you would expect to find it at all. An apartment complex and little strip mall have gone in convincing tourists that they are in the wrong area. We followed the directions and sure enough, there is history buried behind all of our modern eyesores.

So far, so good, right?

What have you been up to so far this summer?

April Picture Walk

My sister and I have this thing that we like to do. If we have a few hours where neither one of us have anything that we have to do, we'll choose a spot and go for a leisurely walk with camera(s) in hand. One of our most recent walks happened back in April and I've had the pictures sitting in my draft folder ever since.

The day came in the middle of a stretch of surprisingly warm days. The promise of summer was in the air and the sun on our skin reminded us that spring was quickly coming to an end. We started where we always do. Then we meandered to the ice cream store where we bought a cupcake (which happened to be pumpkin) and a scoop of birthday cake ice cream with fudge sauce to share. We took our treat down to the water where we sat on the rocks with our spoons and a couple of napkins.

We stayed close to the water throughout our walk and it made for some great shots. We talked and laughed and watched the geese and the seagulls and the dogs and it was just another day in April. We ran into my old science teacher on the docks and visited for a few minutes before continuing on our way back to the car. He and I didn't always get along back when we saw each other every day, but his face was familiar and seeing it seemed to be a little more of what I needed.

It's June now and my sister JUST got back from another trip to South Carolina. Spring turned into summer while she was gone. I can't wait to see what's next.

What's something you and someone you know like to do together?

Spring Spring Spring

You guys, summer is just around the corner. I keep forgetting that all this rain and the warm days are signs of the shift into the next season. I think moving/not moving really messed with me. I keep thinking "there is no such thing as normal", while wondering if it will come around again. Everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) seems to have been on the brink of change.

Not normal has been pretty fantastic. Explaining it again and again is a constant reminder that what we've been up to since the end of August is strange and unusual and something that I should probably be really grateful for.

Summer is going to be more of the same. Until then, I pulled some pictures off of the computer to share with all of you! 

 march 20

We spent the first part of the spring taking part in my brother and sister's DREAM show. They got cast in Seussical and couldn't have been happier about it. The cast itself was truly amazing. Their first rehearsal sounded as though they had all been singing together for YEARS. It was the first time that most of them had ever been in the same room. Not only did they sing well together, they also became such good friends that all of them wished they could take everyone with them to their next show.  

march 23

Next up was spring break. My brother and sister spent most of it filming and editing a movie. It was so much fun to see them plan it and design costumes and then spend every spare moment heading outside to get the shots they needed. I even got called in to be the special effects master (okay, it consisted of throwing a stick and running out of the shot as quickly as I could, but it was a very important part to play! ;)). 

 

march 28

We love watching cooking competition shows. Anything Alton brown, Chopped, and Food Network Star are three of our favorites. I'm trying to get us into Guy's Grocery Games too. Anyway....If the food I make is extra pretty my brother and sister will sometimes take pictures of it. They do all the "plating" and staging, and I usually won't even know about the picture until I'm putting the pictures onto the computer from my camera. I THINK this masterpiece was created by my sister. I guess the burritos were a hit! 

april 18

And...For my brother's next show, it was time for a haircut. He hasn't had a REAL haircut since last summer, so it was a long time coming. People were ALWAYS commenting on his mop, but that didn't stop him. It came in handy for his role in Suessical!!!! All that hair meant not having to wear a wig. But...The time to chop it off came and we were all wondering what he would look like...

Pretty sharp, if you ask me!!!! I took a few pictures while we were waiting, so I'll share them too!

I could add pictures of my sister's birthday, the actual show that the haircut starred in (ha!), my sister's graduation, and work around the house....but, I'll stop for now!

What have you been up to?

Do you believe in "normal" these days?