Adison-ism

Driving home from church today, we were asking Adison about the lesson in her class, which was Daniel and the Lions Den.
So I'm quizzing her through the story of what happened:

Me: So what happened when the men found Daniel?

Adison: they put him in the cave with the Lions.

Me: Did they hurt Daniel?

Adison: nope

Me: why not?

Adison: Because that guy had sprayed them with bug spray and they didn't hurt him!

Looks like we still have some work to do.... :)

Our Sweetest Girl

Today we had to say goodbye to our sweet, wonderful Bou. We knew this day was coming, but it really did not make it any easier. A few months ago she was suddenly just out of it; not moving much, staring off into space, and it seemed like something was wrong with the left side of her. A visit with our vet confirmed that it was most likely a stroke or some other neurological issue. We knew then it would just be making her comfortable. Some medicine actually turned her into a new dog, and for weeks we were so thankful to have our vibrant, happy dog back. But a few weeks ago, the medicine seemed to not have as much effect, and this week she could hardly walk, would stumble and was unable to go up or down stairs. It was time, and it was so very hard, but this wasn't our Bou and it was not a good life for her.

In Boxer years, she lived a phenomenal life. 10 years! Almost unprecedented for the breed. When Kevin and I went to the breeders house years ago, we knew we loved this dog seconds after we met her. She was so FULL of life -- a little too full, as we were the "this is what you don't want your dog to do" example in puppy class. (A class we dropped out of shortly after that). She was hyper. I thought she would never calm down. But she was such a happy, happy, dog. Loved people, loved to run. We used to take her to the dog park and just let her off the leash on the field and she was so beautiful speeding around. She came from a champion background, and we like to say that she knew this. She would let you know if she was beneath certain things.Bou loved a walk, and when she was healthier she loved going out on one. Back in the day, when it was just Bou & I, I'd take her out twice a day. Anytime you grabbed her leash she'd snap up from a dead sleep and be ready to go.

When Irbe came and the kids after that, you couldn't ask for more. She never once snapped, never growled, never showed a hint of any kind of frustration. And when Irbe was gone, she was still the same good girl. She loved the mountains. The last few times we went she acted 5 years younger. Loved to sniff around and lay in the cool air.

It is oddly quiet around the house now. When Irbe died, we still had all the dog sounds (and smells...) and now I catch myself almost every day looking outside for her on the back deck, waiting to come in. I panic when I've been out running errands and think I need to get back and let her out. I still expect her to be laying in the family room when we walk in from the garage. Kevin and I are dog people. We get attached to our dogs, and someday we'll have a (big) dog again. No matter what, though, Bou - our first dog - will hold a very special place in our hearts.

Beach Trip

Kevin saw a Groupon (a kind of coupon for local companies) for a discount on an ocean fishing trip. He thought it would be fun for he and Cole, and his brother Scott and his son, Fletcher. They bought the trip - and then it fell through. Fortunately he found another guy at Carolina Beach who could take them and we decided to make a weekend at the beach out of it.

Our condo was right across the street from the beach, so it was an easy spot for us to get to and from with the kids. Upon arriving, I soon realized I had forgotten one key piece: the kids swim suits. Off to Wal-Mart we went, where Adison's neon plaid, and Cole's blue shark shorts were truly the best they had to offer. One thing was for sure: we would not lose sight of them at the beach, you could see those suits a mile away.

The waves were pretty rough, but the kids loved running in and out, jumping waves, digging holes in the sand and the weather was just perfect.

The fishing trip was a 4-hour turned 6-hour adventure for the boys. They didn't really catch much at all, but because of the kids they didn't venture out as deep into the ocean as they normally would. Cole absolutely loved the fishing trip and Kevin is thrilled and already thinking of booking another one.

All in all it was a nice family weekend of relaxing and enjoying each other.

Dad's Birthday (61)

We celebrated Dad's 61st birthday at Mom & Dad's and it was especially fun since Dean, Chris and the girls were in town for the day. And with Emily and Michael in town again it was almost a full house. Look at how excited Celeste is to have me hold her. No really, she's totally beside herself. And if you look carefully in the mirror, you can see Rabekah made a sneak appearance into the picture of Chris and I. It was nice to have a reason to get together and celebrate, and someday soon I'm going to get Dad to use his Senior discount on something for me. Maybe at Starbucks...

Blueberry Picking

Where? Why yes, back in the mountains.

Fletcher called Kevin and told him about this amazing blueberry farm about 35 minutes from the mountain house one week and it was perfect timing as we had just run out of blueberries.

Ok, we had not. But it seemed like a good a reason as any to make a weekend getaway. The drive made us wonder where in the world this place could be, but we followed the signs and lo and behold there it was. We parked, picked up our buckets and watched the rain start to pour down. Fortunately they had a beautiful large, open shed for us to wait in and we passed time playing some Uno. It soon became clear that it wasn't going to stop raining anytime soon, but since there was no thunder or lightening on the horizen, we grabbed our umbrella's and went for it.

The kids had an absolute blast and were excellent pickers. Cole was on a mission to find the worlds largest blueberry. Adison was too -- except when she found what she thought might be the largest one, she would eat it. We picked and picked and picked until it stopped raining. I didn't realize how much we had until she weighed it out and we put it in baggies and we registered about 6 quarts. For $8.00. Total.

We snapped some pictures in action, including a self-portrait as I often am behind the camera and worry if for some horrible reason I am no longer here, my children will have no idea what their mother looked like. After I mentioned that little tidbit, Kevin gladly snapped a few of me and the kids.

This was such an amazing day. We finished it by stopping at a pizza joint in town and having a delicious and filling lunch.

What better thing to do the morning after blueberry picking than make pancakes, and that we did. I'm telling you, these mountain blueberries are the juiciest, most fragrant and flavorful thing I have ever tasted. We will not be buying blueberries at the store next year, I've already got blueberry season marked off on my calendar.

Cole-ism

(There was a spider on the stairs and I heard the kids attempting to move it by getting it to crawl on the fly swatter.)

I told Cole to kill the spider, because they can bite. This is what I heard moments later:

Adison (laughing): Cole! The spider is DEAD!

Cole: (angry) It's not funny!! Mama is telling me to kill nature!

Mr. Pool

Cole is absolutely loving the pool this summer, mostly because he really has gotten the hang of swimming and because he took the swim test to go off the diving board.

A few weeks ago we were at a friend's pool and they had a real high dive. After going off the low dive several times Cole asked to go off the high dive. We told him yes and went with him. I fully expected him to hesitate, look over the edge, change his mind...but he walked right off the edge, like he was walking the plank.

He watched a few of the kids diving and wanted to learn too. One (of the many) things I love about Cole is his willingness to do something right. You show the boy something, and he will carry it out precisely as shown.

This picture is of him, carrying out his little diving form off the board.

Family Game Time

This summer I have turned down the kids request to play multiple kiddie games because, honestly, they just aren't fun. So I began the hunt for a new game that both the kids could play and that Kevin and I would enjoy. UNO came to mind because the concept is easy enough for Adison to grasp.

I finally picked it up and taught the kids one day, and for be most part Adison gets it. (although she will often put down a totally random card and yell: A-HA! Or hold her cards facing out so we all can see them).

The kids love it and I love playing it with them. I am so enjoying our summer and the fact that their ages allow us to do new things like this together.

Here we are waiting for our pizza at Mellow Mushroom and playing a few rounds.

July 4th

It was back to the mountains again on the 4th, a tradition that is fast becoming hard to break. This time we brought our friends Skitch and Jenny with us. No, his mother didn't name him Skitch because she loved his brother more (although that is most likely true) Kevin and I call him this because: 1) his name is Kevin also, and that's just too confusing and 2) we think he looks like the drummer in the movie That Thing You Do, who is once referred to as "Skitch".

We met these great friends at church last year and I don't really know how or why we didn't get to know each other sooner. The four of us with our kids in tow packed up and headed up for the long weekend. The weather was perfect, as usual and we spent the days lazing around, taking hikes, doing crafts with the kids and eating.

On the big day, we drove downtown to park at the lot and watch the fireworks. Last year it seemed like days before the festivities started and once they did, it was another long time before it ended. Armed with experience we packed up, filled the kids full of cookies and waited. We heard fireworks, but didn't see them anywhere and assumed it was from some other little mountain town attempting to show their stuff. Finally, curious about the noise we walked over to the other side of the parking lot where we found that the building we had been standing next to had been blocking our view of the show - now almost over. We only saw about 2 minutes of it, but the kids were thrilled just the same.

Jenny and I went on our morning walk the next day only to come back and find that both Kevin and Skitch decided to shave handlebars that morning. I don't need to tell you how proud of themselves they were...you can tell by the wink in Kevin's eyes.

A Moment in the Day

This old girl has found a favorite spot. She's not allowed upstairs, and is so obedient, that she refuses to come up even if she is coaxed and coo'd and called...

10 Years

This year marks our 10th Anniversary. We were just brilliant to get married in the year 2000, it is so easy to remember how many year's we've been married.

We decided on a relaxing but still fun celebration this year and spent the first part of our days away at Lake Lure. Kevin's brother, David, has a house there that we stayed in. Lake Lure's claim to fame is that the movie Dirty Dancing was filmed there. Don't worry, we didn't do a re-enactment. The first morning (after searching HIGH and LOW for a coffee shop, any coffee shop) we went down to the lake and decided to sign up for one of their Pontoon Tours. They told us they thought they had room but had a senior group coming first thing and needed to get them loaded first. We shortly decided to rent our own Pontoon boat. It was so peaceful driving all around the lake and there were lots of big houses to look at. It reminded me a lot of Cour D'Alene. We also did some hiking at Chimney Rock. Our hope was to go to the Rock itself, but they had some elevator issues and so it was closed off. While that was disappointing, we found a nice hike with a waterfall. We spent the next day doing a whole lot of nothing, which we both needed at the time.

A few days later we drove to Asheville to continue the celebration at the Biltmore. Kevin has a high school friend who had connections at the Grove Park Inn and we were able to stay there for two nights. The land the hotel sits on is simply gorgeous. We checked in and had lunch out on the porch and you just couldn't ask for a prettier setting.

The Biltmore House was what I think we were both most excited about and it did not disappoint. I had been once, shortly after we moved to North Carolina and Mom and Dad took us there around Christmas Time. We got parked, made haste into the house where we rented our self-guided-tour headphones and were off. It is such a beautiful and fascinating home, and the history of the family only makes it more so. The big treat on this day was two-fold: It was some kind of special promotion so we got to see the basement and another floor that are not normally on the standard tour; we also purchased a Roof Top Tour pass for that afternoon.

The Roof Top tour was I think my favorite part. I am fascinated by anything 'behind the scenes' or that is off limits or left in its original state. We started the tour by seeing several guest rooms that were currently being used as storage. We couldn't take any pictures but it was amazing. At one point we saw a suit of armor from Japan. But the best view was from the top, and when they say roof top, they literally mean you are going to stand on the roof. We were allowed to take pictures here and it was a beautiful view. I think both of us enjoyed the extra history during this special tour almost as much as the tour itself.

On a mushier note, I can hardly believe it's been 10 years that Kevin and I have been married. I'm married to a man who accepts me just as I am (not an easy task), has exceeded my expectations as a husband and a father to our kids, has roped me into country music (and I love it), likes to travel and have and have fun, and is still the guy singing on stage that made me swoon 10 years ago. What better way to celebrate than with cake? So I had one made up, and we DID re-enact a little wedding tradition.

Mother's Day at Nana's

The whole gang came in for Mother's day and it was so fun to see everyone at Fletcher & Nancy's place. Somehow it is always beautiful Mother's Day weekend. We all migrated outside and the kids and men had fun playing ball, and launching (what else?) a rocket! We got some group pictures of everyone together and I got my annual Mother's Day picture of me and the kids in Nancy & Fletcher's beautiful garden.

Mother's Day Tea

Adison and I thought it would be fun to take Grammy out for a Mother's Day Tea this year and what better place to do it than the Tea Room in Wake Forrest. I can't remember if Adison had been there before, but this was the first time she was old enough to act like a lady and enjoy it. It's such a fun place to visit, we all got dressed up and ready to enjoy some good food and good dessert.
Adison loved getting a real teacup to put her lemonade in. The three of us enjoyed some special girl time together and I love the picture of the three of us at the table. This might just need to be our new tradition. I'm so thankful for my Mom and for such a fun way to celebrate together.

That's a Lot of Books

Cole's school has a Read-A-Thon every year where kids keep track of the minutes they've read, families pledge cents per minute and there are prizes given at the end of the year. This year Cole read over 3,000 minutes and got a little plaque and a certificate for a cookie. I am so impressed with my little boy. He's so dedicated and enjoys learning, and will spend countless hours on whatever subject interests him the most at that moment. He's so happy for his prizes, you can see him pointing to it afterwards while he's sitting down and we couldn't be more proud.