Painting and Peppermint Meat

Our weeks have been busy with VBS, swimming lessons, Mom taking continuing ed classes and day-to-day living stuff, so I haven't taken many pictures lately. Some people (Dad and Grandma D) really like me to keep this blog updated though, so I thought I'd better take some pictures of something...ANYTHING...to give them new reading material. Funny that the two people who see the girls most often are the two who check the blog frequently. It's so nice that they just can't get enough, I guess! So Dad and Grandma, here you go. First we have a little artist getting ready for the junior art show that will be taking place at our local fair in July! This painting has taken her a week to create, as she has worked on it little bits at a time. I love it! Good work Ainsley!

And another random shot. Today we were at the grocery store and we passed a freezer full of seafood. Ainsley saw these shrimp and as you can see, they appear to be a bit striped-looking. She exclaimed, "Oh mom! Look! Peppermint meat!" I busted out laughing and she was not amused that I was so amused. I piped down my laughter and snapped a quick shot of the "peppermint meat." Can you even imagine how disgusting peppermint meat would be? Grody.

Hillbilly Ridiculousness

Living in the region that we do, often we happen upon things that just should not exist. They are so ramshackle and so hillbilly...you don't want to look and yet you cannot look away. I have decided to begin photo documenting these things for a coffee table book, yet to be named. Suggestions are welcome! And here is the first photo I have taken for the book... What the?! This is some type of homemade pontoon/bench/paddle boat...I think? Love the orange flames on the front. Stop and think about it. Someone actually took valuable time to construct this thing, to license it, and to paint flames on the front. I am shaking my head as I type. Hillbilly ridiculousness at its finest.

Tramp-o-look-out!!!!

What's cooler than a trampoline? A dad on the trampoline! We had a super time visiting friends up north over the weekend, and at D and S's house, the kids (big and little) did some jumping. Dads and kids on trampolines almost always equals injury, and in this video you will see a close call. D almost takes out his daughter (in the black shirt) as she narrowly escapes behind his legs mid-jump. Fun, fun, death-defying times! Thanks for having us, D and S!

What is Wrong With These Children!?

The other day, it was about 95 degrees out with a dewpoint of 74. Hot. Humid. Bennett and Ainsley decided it was perfect weather for... ...hats, jackets, socks, and sneakers. What is wrong with these children? Turns out they were playing "detectives" and one must dress the part. Girls, maybe you should save your detective play for October. You are making me sweat just looking at you!

Senior Pictures

While visiting Aunt L. a couple of weeks ago, Bennett decided she wanted to have her photo taken, senior picture style, while at the Bass Pro Shops. I had my camera with me, so why not?! Ah, just lovely.
Legs crossed, so lady-like, in the gravel. Beautious!

The ever popular, arms crossed while leaning pose. So mature!

This shot was taken later the same day as we walked back to our car from dinner. The recline on the rocks shot. Niiiice!

Here's a proof that her parents won't be ordering...the shot with the backdrop of something for sale for $23,995. Maybe that's the projected cost of her book fees by the time she enters college. Personally, I'm glad the days of real senior pictures are several years away!

Mini Putt...A Trip Down Memory Lane

This town we live in, which shall remain nameless, is kind of a drag to Dad and me. I don't think it's a bad town. I just think that since we both grew up here, moved away to a larger town with more entertainment, and then moved back here, we don't appreciate it like some others might. We are thankful to be near family though, and we are super glad for the local summer classic, MINI PUTT!!!!!!!!! We many not have much to do in this little community, but we have mini putt, so we're good to go! Here are the girls taking in their first round of the season. Ainsley looks kinds of sedated. Not sure what that's about.

A few holes in, Bennett found a four leaf clover in the hole as she retrieved her ball. Did this symbolize a night of good luck on the course????

Many of the obstacles on the course have been the same since Dad and I were kids. I think that's what we love about this mini putt. It's kind of a walk down memory lane. Here is a favorite...the swirly metal thingy. It took about 512 tries for the girls to get their balls through.

Dad tries to give a resistant Ainsley some golfing tips on another favorite hole, the up and down moving pillar things.

And another favorite, kind of. This light house hole is tricky and the girls were kind of cursing it by the time we finished. This hole used to have a little moving block that went up and down as you tried to get your ball through the tunnel, not to mention water and live goldfish in the pond around the lighthouse. Tough stuff, let me tell you! They've simplified it by removing the block and the water, but it remains a challenge. As we left mini putt, the sweet little teenager working the joint gave each girl a pass for a free round of golf the next time we come. Lucky us! (I'm sure it's because Bennett found that clover.) Looks like we'll be heading back to our local summer time gem sometime soon!

Veggie Tales...You Are Never Too Old (Apparently)

When Bennett was a baby/toddler, she was a Veggie Tales FREAK. Oh, my. I cannot even express how much she loved Veggie Tales. It was alarming. By age 4 or 5, she still liked Veggie Tales, but her obsession was tapering off. For the past few years she has not really wanted a whole lot to do with the show...until last week when we resurrected a Veggie Tales Silly Songs video tape that I had no idea we still had. She popped that sucker into the VCR and what you see in the above video is what we've been dealing with ever since. Incessant belting out of Veggie Tales songs from a child who we thought was through with them long ago. I guess you are never too old. "OOOOHHH, you and me, and our sports utility vehicles. Cruisin to 7-11 for a bag of Frito-Lays!"

Happy Campers

Who in their right mind would attempt to tent camp with a bunch of people, many of them young children, and a super rainy weekend forecast? Um, that would be us! And are we ever glad we acted so foolishly! We attempted our first group camping adventure with several other families from our church. Since so many were going and we all made reservations, we decided to go for it, rain or shine. Here was the set up at our campsite. Our site buddy, Cy (minus his wife and sick son...bummer!) was awesome. He had the idea to have both of our tents face his extra canopy for added rain protection. Genius! It had rained all day Friday, but once we arrived to camp and began to set up, the rain was tapering off. Sweet!

What is the very first thing one should do when arriving at a campground? Go frog hunting! Ainsley and her buddies found a few right away.

We had a great evening for some campfire smores. Interesting how all the adults were standing or sitting around and the children were working with the fire.

Cy introduced us all to a camping treat his family enjoys, the banana boat. It's a banana, cut open and topped with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips. Then you wrap it in foil and heat it over the fire. A tasty new treat!

Rain? What rain? Grant had told us all that on the Wednesday prior to camping, when the weather was great, that he was outside eating his lunch at work and God told him, "If you think today's weather is fancy, you just wait until this weekend!" Well, he was so right! It was supposed to be super rainy and stormy, and here is a picture of our Friday evening sky. It was PERFECT camping weather. A beautiful night and blessing from the Lord.

Another new campfire snack...tube biscuits cooked over the flames (thanks, Tracey!) When camping, you have to eat something with the pliers on your Leatherman. You simply must. It's so rugged.

We slept pretty well. The only misfortune we had was a slow leak in one of our air mattresses. Bennett woke up looking like she was stuck in a venus fly trap. Terrifying!

No rain Friday night, no rain overnight on Friday/Saturday....a DOWNPOUR on Saturday morning. It didn't last long, really, before the weather cleared again for a beautiful Saturday. Here are the soggy camp leaders during breakfast. Despite the rain, we still managed a hot breakfast over a raging fire.

The kids kept themselves busy during the breakfast downpour by making cool stuff out of colored duct tape.

Duct tape headbands are all the rage!

Some of us went on a hike on Saturday afternoon. It was a blast! Here is a picture of the girls getting ready to hike. You see lots of cool things on nature hikes like...shirtless trail runners?

Here are some of the hikers. Lots of great things were discussed on the hike, such as poison ivy, slugs, worms, pregnant worms, animal tracks, deer noises and Will Ferrell as Harry Caray.

Two dads, working together to push a stroller with relatively small wheels up a relatively steep incline.

Everybody, stop and gather round for a nature lesson by "Ranger Rick" a.k.a. Zach.

Is this a regular worm or a pregnant worm?

Back at camp it was dinner time! Here is Cy with his mammoth burger.

A makeshift extra rain canopy was created as rain continue to be forecast. Who's idea was it to hold this up with a large freestanding tree branch? This doesn't seem to pass any type of safety code, in my opinion.

Here is one tall, hot campfire.

The older girls wrote and performed a play for us at dinnertime. Bravo, girls! Bravo!

More campfire friends drove down to hang around the fire later in the evening. We were super pleased to see our friends, and the kids were quite excited that the very popular pup, Tank/Kisses was in attendance. Here is Tank, posing with Nick for a picture. He's obviously very comfortable having his photo taken, as he's kind of a trophy pet. Finally at about 9:30, a storm rolled through and our visiting friends had to leave, which was a bummer. But all in all, we had a fantastic group camping experience. We simply MUST do it again this summer!

YouTube Picks

Bennett and Ainsley are YouTube fans. Aren't we all, really? Here are their current picks for best YouTube vidoes. Enjoy!



First, a little Will Ferrell as Harry Caray humor. Next time you see Bennett ask her to do an impression.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haAhdtDmsOw


And now, some Double Dream Hands!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm7yAWpX1Mc


And finally, a little 80's rewind. We might like to show our kids things we remember from the good old days. Here is a commercial they love and can be heard singing fairly regularly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdNf9pvPfjI

HONK If You Love Your Moped!!!!

Grandpa C. bought a pair of super sweet '81 Honda Passport mopeds at an auction last weekend. A little history...he used to sell mopeds back in the late 1970's and early 1980's, so mopeds were part of our lives. We had some awesome Vespa scooters back in the day, one with a sidecar, some that were pedal mopeds. It was heaven. Having these "new" beauties is really fun and exciting for us moped lovers! Here is Bennett going for a ride with Grandpa!

Dad and Ainsley also did some cruising around the yard. Don't you love the ridiculously tall windshields on these things?

Aunt L. is back visiting, and the two of us have a special moped bond. We used to ride the Vespas together all the time, and once while riding double we wrecked (she was driving) and I burned my leg on the hot muffler pretty badly. Good times they were! We were excited to do some riding together last night, but before we went out we had to take a kissy face picture (my mom has several of this type of photo of us growing up...no idea why.) Who is that fool in the background on the tv??? Oh Grandpa C and his ever-present Fox News.

Aunt L. and I enjoyed a sunset ride. It was just like old times.

There was lots of horn honking too. This video clip is super short, but it will give you an idea of how annoying my sister and I on a moped can be. HONK, HONK, HONK! We were riding by the living room window, trying to get our Fox-News-watching father to take notice of us. Silly girls! We love mopeds!