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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Fishing Trip, Part 1

Toward the end of our fishing trip with friends yesterday, my friend reminded me when her birthday was, and that she wanted prints of whatever "close ups" there were of her kiddo's. I told her I would try, but that by September, if I didn't have anything in that days pictures, I would for sure have something by her birthday. Then once I got home, and loaded pics on my computer, I came across these three that I love. I really hope she does too! There are several other pics from the fishing trip, that I will be sharing later in the week, as well as some super cute ones of faith getting off the bus her last day of 1st grade. I wanted to put these three up separately, as a "set" of sorts. Hope everyone will take a peek, and let me know what you think, as the new camera is still quite a learning process :)

He cooperated SO well! Most boys see a camera, and have equivalently the same reaction as they would to a girl with cooties, or a request to practice make up on them or something. They tend to scoot...and fast. No sneaky photography required with him, yay!

See his eyelashes? They go for *miles* This one's my "buddy" I don't have any boys of my own, but he's special :)

and this one...shoot...She'd sit and pose all day I bet! Don't you just love her freckles? I was originally going to put this set as black and white, but I remember giving her momma a quick run through the pics while we were still fishing and they were all still in the camera, untouched, and how she said she loved her freckles, and well, I do too! So, I gave the set a whirl in sepia, and l*o*v*e*d it!

Hope everyone is having a great week, and I really hope some of my visitors will come out of hiding, and let me know what ya'll think, or at least say howdy! I see all these visitors across the country, and globe, and can't help but wonder who everyone is :)

Wordless Wednesday, and Fishing Trip pics peek!

Garden, Critters, and Last day of School!

She was *definitely* excited this morning!

I *must* be becoming a total sap over the years... I look at this picture, her last day of 1st grade, and her first and last days of preschool, and kindergarten flash thru my mind... and it's all I can do not to cry. My baby is growing up. Some how, being finished with the preschool and kindergarten was easier, you know... at the end of preschool, well, it was the end of PRE school. Then came the end of Kindergarten, and that was easier also, I guess somehow I convinced myself since it was kindergarten, and not really a official "grade" like first, second, ect, she was still *little* in a way... So.... here were are, the end of first grade, and there's no way around how much she has grown this year, and though it's hard in a way, to see her growing up so fast, I am SO proud of her! She's several inches taller, more confident, a ton smarter, and we are now scarily close in shoe size. *eek*

I was happy to catch some early morning sun before the storms move in today :)

I was also very happy to have some friends show up on Saturday! They moved several hours away 3 months or so ago, and it was nice to get to hang out awhile :) Then we bombarded the ice cream truck, and even the puppies had some! We were even able to get some night fishing in. This is their dog, Max, he's a lab mastiff mix, and is a big baby. He missed DJ :)

Here's Dixie too. Her ears can't seem to make up their mind. They go up, they come down..... whats funny is they seem to change with the weather. In dry stretches, they lay down, when air pressure changes and wet weather is ahead, they come up!

Got some stuff coming up in the garden here and there :) Here are some pics I took last night. The sun was setting and there was some pretty light. Not all my flowers are white, they were just the ones getting the best light at the moment.

Extra points if you can identify all four plants above!

Busy week ahead here, and a weekend full of graduation parties coming too! Hope to take the camera along and have lots of pics to share!

Have a GREAT week everyone!!