End of Summer Update

Hey everyone :) That is, if anyone is still around to read this, hahaha... :)

It seems a few of ya'll are quite certain I've disappeared...but no... To be honest, it's a combination of being super busy this summer and gone most every weekend, and...well...I also had a bit of a stalker. You know...the kind that visits your page, and copies your pictures, and then all their pics show up looking like cheap knock offs of yours..yeah...*sigh* that kinda stalker. lol However, sitemeter is great, and I am now able to see every time they are here, and for how long, and if they lift one single picture. I was going to just stay away from posting..I guess it just didn't seem like worth the "drama" but now, my blog is protected, and I know my rights regarding copyright infringement. So, I'll be back from time to time, with some new pics here and there.

*@ the pond, on Kahne's bike*

*@ the family pond/campground... late summer 09*

*after eating/wearing her s'mores :) *

*Crazy Carlee...early summer '09 *

*first day of second grade*

*hello, Mr. Bug! :) *

*7 am morning 3 of camping over labor day weekend. She wakes up this early, and this happy, every morning without fail. I am thankful for such a wonderful blessing and sweet face every morning, because I know that this surely won't last when she is a teenager! :) *

I also really wanted to add that while I have not been posting blogs, I have still very much "been here" I still read all your blogs faithfully. I may not always be able to think of something neat to say to comment, but I am there nonetheless. Somehow, the one blog I managed to miss and not see ends up being the one Karen wrote proclaiming me having fallen off the face of the earth...eek!

Anyhow, enjoy the pics, and please let me know what you all think of them... I really like hearing every ones opinions and idea's!

Miss everyone! :)

I'm leaving, on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again....

With Love,
~S~

Instructions

How to make my friends 6 month old son smile

1) Have his incredibly tall dad wave him around up in the air.

and that is all. Short and sweet...just like him!

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Born to be Wild

Her first time on a Harley! She thought it was the coolest thing ever :)

Most people that know her in real life would have read that title, and thought, her? haha..yeah right...by no means a 'wild child'. Monkey's the biker lovin' tomboyish one, (no seriously! she is always wanting to hug them, it's so cute!) But, it was my oldest who wanted on the BIKE! Go. Figure.

So much fun that day! I found this one hidden back in my pics from the 4th, and thought I'd share! Have a fun weekend everyone :)

Wordless Wednesday

Some Questions Answered

So...recently a reader complimented my mom on her eyes, and then in a roundabout way, asked what I looked like. Oh my...Oh dear...Oh..crap. You see, I was hiding! and Karen went and blew my cover! That's okay, Karen has been around my blog almost from the beginning, and has a pretty darn cool blog herself! You'll see her in my blogs I follow list, as fresh fixins... Stop by! Actually, ALL of the blogs I follow are great, take a peek!

Anyhoo.... oh man..can you tell I am stalling? I'll just assume you said no, and...

oh look! the pretty fire from my moms outdoor reception!

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And here we've got Monkey, checking out the waves on the beach where the wedding was at! So..whose this Sadie person ya'll wanna see? I'm telling you, I have no clue who...ME you say??? Aw heck...

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Wouldn't you like to see another picture of my oldest, "hanging out" as she does a lot these days? I swear, she loves being up in the air, even if its only a tree hammock a foot or so off the ground! Procrastinating, you say? Why yes I am :) I am horribly shy, but I know eventually I've gotta show my mug...

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Oh, and here's another one! Karen also asked if my moms dad was Paul Newman, and while he's not, I assure you, my grandpa Charlie is WAY cooler! He is the BEST! I love him to pieces, and I don't think he can go three feet in public without running into a friend. I wish he woulda smiled bigger in this pic so you all could see his chin more, because me, and both of my girls all have the same one! I love that too!

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Okay, okay.... no more stalling... inquiring minds have wanted to know, so here you go!

Hey, nobody specified what size it had to be! HaHa! Well, Now that that is out of the way, I hope everyone had a GREAT weekend! We were super busy, which is now normal for this summer. But we can't complain, we have been very, very blessed this year. To say we are thankful would be an understatement. Now another hectic Monday is here, and I've gotta run! See you all soon :)

One last pic from Baby Cohen...

A world to be born under your footsteps...

~Saint-John Perse

Time is flying past this summer. I can hardly believe that it's been a week and a half or so since mom's wedding! I know I would never hear the end of it if I posted a whole buncha pictures of her, she's funny about pictures of herself, but, I am the same way too, so I'm posting just this one for now, and risking the consequences :) I'm pretty sure I can run faster than her anyhow...hehe

Today is yet another busy day, so this is a real quick post to share a pic or two, and to say that I hope everyone is having as great of a time "hanging out" this summer as our family is!

Up next is a pic or two from my friends 6month old baby's pics!

SO Busy!!

That's what we've been, for sure. The first weekend of June was graduation parties, the second weekend was a local bbq, and some tractor pulls, the third weekend was several days of camping, and this weekend is my moms wedding. I have hardly had time to breathe, it seems. But oh, so much fun. This has been the best summer I can remember in so many years. We have been blessed with friends, family, and for the most part, good health. We've been able to do tons of fun stuff as a family, and have made many many memories. That being said, Here are some pics from the second and third weekends. Pics from this weekends festivities will be up as soon as I catch my breath! Sorry there are not many from camping, but I had a camera malfunction (all better now) and ended up sending it home with my mom and Jeff when they went home that night. Anyhow, enjoy, and I hope to catch up with you all real soon! :)

This was Shorty's gear shifter, kinda cool, huh?

There were all ages there! If I remember correctly, the little boy above was 5.

There were also varied levels of modification. Some were pretty basic, some looked right out of grandpa's garage, and some were scary lookin' :)

and some were pretty well souped up!

and Shorty, was serious :)

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This was our campsite from the very front right. It was the perfect size, definitely our little piece of heaven on earth. I miss it already! We can't wait to go back later in the summer, too.

From the very front middle (we had a little circle shaped mini woods about 6x6 right behind me). It was cool, the girls ran circles around it for the longest time. Also made it so we had two exits to our site. Very nice :)

The site from the very front far left. You can see the "mini woods" to the right of the pic. You can actually follow the picnic table from shot to shot. It was next to impossible to get it all in one picture I told DJ I ought to stand on the car to get it all in one picture, but then I remembered my totally irrational fear of heights, (this girl won't normally stand on a chair cuz it makes her knees shake) and thought otherwise.

This was some of the ground cover in the "mini woods" Jeff called them May apples, or something like that. I'd never heard of them or seen them before.

Speaking of Jeff, look who I found a picture of :) He is marrying my mom tomorrow, and that, is pretty darn awesome. So is our tent by the way, but that's another story for a different day.

This was a tree near the front of our site. We booked a site in a much different area of the park this year, and I must say that we were all very glad we took the chance. Our nearest neighbor was quite a ways away, far enough that their kids, and our kids could all run around being as loud as they cared too, and nobody heard any one's kids other than their own. We were in the middle of a large heavily wooded area, but there were clean bathrooms and hot showers within a reasonable walking distance. They have all kinds of nature programs for kids, as well as a 1,500 ft. beach all within the park area. We will definitely be back there again this year :)

Hope everyone is having a great summer! See you all again soon, another busy day ahead... :)

Hey everyone! Greeting from East Harbor State Park! We had sooo much fun camping the past couple days, we have decided to stay forever! Haha... just kidding :) We had to run home quick to grab some more gear, and we are back on the road! We have found the BEST site ever, if your ever in the area, and like to camp, get in touch, I can give you site directions.
I am the proud new owner of several 'skeeter bites, and my legs are pink from the sun today, but we are having the best time, the girls even went down the 25ft water slide!
Gotta run! I'll be back in a day or so.... Miss ya'll!


p.s. pictures to follow in te next few days!

Peek~a~Boo!

This picture was actually an oopsie, but I got it off the camera, and thought it was cute! Hope everyone has a great weekend! We are super busy here again, and then we are going camping too. I can't wait! See you all soon!

Jasmine

Last week, presumably in either a random act of kindness toward my sister, or a moment of plain old not thinking, I agreed to watch the two little girls my sister was keeping an eye on while she had a Dr's appointment. I must confess I had ulterior motives though... I needed new camera victims. The girls, ages 3 and 4 had other idea's, as their response to "pretty please smile for me, just once..." was always "no" and running. So.... I had to be sneaky and such :) But, I did get a few shots of the oldest sister I like! She's gonna be a heart breaker :)

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Graduation.....

Weekend before last, we had a few graduation parties to go to, and one of them just happened to be Dj's little sister Katie, so I took the camera along, and got lots of great pics! I forgot to ask her if I could post her pics on my site, so I decided to post some of the candid's from her party, just to share a few :)

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The light reflecting off of the curl of the ribbon on one of the gold and blue balloons

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Self Explanatory..... I hope so, anyhow :)

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I saved my favorite for last. This is DJ's grandma with monkey, she was giving her a see you later hug. This is who raised DJ, too. Could you imagine having ten children of your own in a 13 year time span, then just as your youngest two are 14-16 or so, and you can *finally* see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, taking in your one year old grandson? The patience and love for children this woman must have are beyond my comprehension. Not only did she take him, she joyfully jumped at the chance to do so. I am so very thankful for her, there are not words :) She is the best!

East Harbor State Park

We went out to East Harbor State Park a few days ago, the girl's had each gotten a new outfit from our friends that were visiting last week, and I wanted to try and get a few pics of the girls in them! I love this park, it has beautiful trails you can walk, and camping, and beaches... it's a family favorite! So, here are the pics, and a big thank you to Tim 'n Tracey for the cute new outfits :)

Yard Sale Find

Found this at a local yard sale, along with two other blue glass peices. This one is my favorite, it's 4 Quarts, it doesn't seem it in the picture, but this puppy is huge! I've tried, but I can't find anything about it anywhere online. One side says Mills Bakery 4 Quarts Air-Tight Seal, and the other side says Home Style Brand Cookies. It sure is pretty, and I got it for $3!

Fishing Trip, Part 2

Did I tell you there were Geese there, with babies? They were everywhere!

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Hmmmm..... Who's this I see? Oh yeah... it's the whole group! Well, minus me. You see, I have this way of avoiding the camera...hehe... *whispers* it just so happens, it's incredibly difficult to be caught on the camera, if you just so happen to always be behind it! :)

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There were also lots of pretty plants here and there....

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Lots of cute kids as well!

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and yes, we did actually fish too, haha....we even caught a few, mainly catfish if I remember right.

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*Gasp*!!!!!! What have we here? Could it be? It is! The elusive Monkey species. Native to northern Ohio, and fond of chocolate, playing in dirt, and generally avoiding moms camera, this species is a hard catch, but has the cutest darn smile when you manage to snag her! Oh, and if someone could please explain to me, how on earth my baby is now 4 and a half, please let me know. I've done the math, and such... but it still just doesn't seem possible!.

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We were getting ready to leave, and had some nice sun from the sunset off to the side of the beach... I kept saying, I love this light, just one more...just one more...thankfully, I had two in particular, that probably would have stood there for "just one more" till the sun set. I was thank full for their patience, and the practice! :)


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