Family Outing Pt. 2

I took a slew of photos at the cottage, but when I got home, I weeded many of them out, deleted about half, and only need to post a few on here to convey the idea.

That being said...

The very first thing that Jennah asked to do when we got to Turk Lake ( actually before we even left the park ) was to go fishing.

Since it was too early in the day for a catch, she opted to join her brothers in an hour or so of splashing and shell hunting.

While I snapped photos and hung out inside with Chris' dad
( we were the smart ones, I think! ), Chris and his mom
played deck chair bunnies and soaked up some rays.

Eventually, Jennah coreced her grandfather into taking her out in the boat, and Chris scooped up the boys for a ride around the lake

in the paddleboat. Perfect way to keep everyone busy.

Everyone except yours truly, of course.

After a week long marathon of planning events for work,
spending most of Friday outside at Taste of GR, drudging out
afterwards to wait in line for hours at Toyr R US for the Star Wars figure release hoopla, and prepping for other weekend plans,
I was ready to have a few moments of just doing nothing, even if it was along side a weed infested, snapper turtle haven of a lake in a cow town.

If nothing else, the view is nice, and when we can duck out, the Turk Lake Bar offers up some damn tasty cheeseburgers.

Truth be told, I'm happiest just watching the kids do this stuff.
They love spending time at the cottage, and Chris is rather

attached to that place himself ( I think we'd be up there nearly

every weekend if it wasn't an intrusion on his parents ), whereas

this princess is NOT a lake swimmer if I can help it.
The muck and mire I can live with, but I hate feeling fish brush against me, and the incessant nipping... hello!! I am NOT your dinner, bub!

Plus, this way, I get to take the photos to preserve the memories

for when they're grown and I'm long since dead ( not intended to be

as morbid as it sounds, I assure you ).

Grandpa brought the boat in to the dock to round up the rest of the willing troops to go back out for a ride around the lake... as you can tell from the photograph, Iain was ready to go, whereas Miss

Jennah was most displeased that her brothers and father were

intruding upon her fun.

That went quite well, until Braeden decided to give us all a scare when the boat came back to shore.
Instead of waiting for Daddy's help to exit the boat properly, he tried to do it himself, resulting in slipping and falling between the boat and the dock.

I though for sure he'd come up floating face down, unconscious and bleeding.

Hands down, THE fastest I'd ever made it from the inside of the cottage to the lakefront.

By the time I got down there, Braedy had righted himself and was happily dog paddling towards shore. ( mere seconds, amazingly )
I scooped him up, and immediately started looking for lacerations and goose eggs. He didn't seem the least bit concerned, justifying his maneuver with "I wanted to swim back instead of walking on the dock, Mom".
Thankfully, upon inspection, all he got out of it were a pair of scrapes on his arm, no biggger than a nickel apiece, and a small bruise ( which two days later, is now gone ) on his cheek ( and a swatted behind from his father for scaring the bejeezus out of everyone ).

I swear, that kid has nine lives. Between that, two near misses with autos out front before he learned to stay away from the street, and almost falling down the dumbwaiter shaft at the Lexicon... well someone, somewhere, is watching over him, that's for sure!

After things quieted down ( somewhere in the midst Chris'
grandparents arrived as well ), and the kids were fed, we
headed back outside to clean up the beach toys and start packing for home.
As we were doing so, a family of swans came paddling up.
Apparently Mrs. Purdue next door feeds them almost daily,
so the show up at dusk, looking for dinner. ( this time with a duck along for the mooch )

The kids thought that was neat - after all, swans don't usually come within twenty feet of people, let alone less than ten, but they soon found out how incredibly sour the disposition of a swan tends to be, especially with cygnets in tow.

Somehow I managed to get within swatting distance of the male for a decent photo.
What I didn't get was how he flapped, hissed and freaked out
as soon as the flash went off ( I was too busy backing up
to avoid being throttled ), thus learning that seven feet between myself and a very large, very cranky bird is definitely NOT enough!

From there, we packed up and headed out, made a Wal Mart stop so that Iain could spend some of his well gotten gains, and Chris could inspect their crop of Star Wars.

There are undoubtedly worse ways to spend a Sunday, but I can't help feeling like I need a weekend to recover from our weekend!

Family Outing Pt. 1

This will be posted in two or three stages, depending on how many photos I can get to fit into one blog...

Firstoff, there will be little to not photos of Jennah in this. She was having one of her days where nothing made her happy and heaven forbid we ask her to particpate or aim a camera in her face. ( so very much my child... horomones will be a delight in a couple of years.. )

For the start of our Sunday, we forfeit the ulster fry of the normal
weekend routine, and packed up to head north to Greenvile, for the Cook / Olsen family reunion.

Much food was consumed ( I was very good and only had one piece

of cherry cheesecake... and a most unusual citrus hinted cake / bar thingy, sprinkled with choclate chips and and tasted like heaven.
Could've eaten a dozen of those and been quite satisfied. But I didn't. Yay willpower!! )

As you can see from the photos, Iain was rather pleased with his
desert selections ( I think he had four in total ), though his eyes
were bigger than his tummy.
Grandpa offered to lend a hand with the 'making room' process.


Limited amusement to be had for the small children, but the

playground, though a bit of a hike away, offered some solace.

The boys, of course, had to con Grandma into coming over to play with them. She didn't seem to mind, however.

From there, it was on to the monkey-0lympics ( as I call them ).
Money hunt, sack races, water balloon tosses, bean bags... kept the kids busy for about an hour.

At the end of the day, Iain came away quiet successful; he found nearly six dollars in the sawdust pile for the money hunt ( all but a buck was in change ), won the bean bag toss and came away

with playing cards and another dollar from that, and was quite

pleased with himself.

All the kids get something for playing to keep it fair, so Braeden had quite a haul himself, being most proud of his new train book and hislovely new sunglasses.

By 4:00 the kids ( and I! ) had their fill of frolicking in the sun

and felt the need to retire to someplace with alternative options -

for them, it meant water and me, shade and a roof!

Since Chris' mom had phoned that morning and invited us back to the cottage for a post reunion weenie roast and swim ( and it's literally around the corner and down the road from the park ), it offered the perfect solution...

...more mundane rambling, along with photos Family Outing Pt. 2

A couple of things that I whipped up

The first one was for a Halloween swap. Again, still dinking around with my Bellas... not entirely happy with it, but I DO like how Tinkerbella came out.

Laura Jean ( another SCSer ) sent me some Witchybella images to play with... if I'm content with that one after it's colored, it'll probably be added to my 'want' list.




This coaster is for an SCS swap as well, and the more I look at it, the less I like it, but I am my own worst critic.
All in all, I think it came out well, but now I see the places where I could've - and should've - done something differently.

It's received rave reviews, which of course, doesn't hurt my feelings ( even if some of them are just to be nice, a little geo stroking is good for the soul ).

I'll probably be making sets similar to this ( varied colors, etc ) and nesting them in with holiday cards and mini goodie packages.

With a set like Sleigh Bells Ring, half of the work is done for you.




So, that's it in a nutshell. I've made a slew of other stuff, but I suck about snapping photos and some of it hasn't really been photo worthy anyhow.

The last thirty days... a summary.

After peeking over here, I realized that it'd been nearly a month since I last posted anything.

Rather than ramble on for pages and pages, I'll offer up a photo montage with brief summary.

In the past thirty days we:

Celebrated the birth of our Nation. With fireworks!

Had lunch when Rachel and Jeremy when they came to Michigan for an all too brief visit.

Showed support for Chris' union chapter by attending the Local 174 picnic.

Dontcha just love the faces Iain makes when asked to smile for the camera?

Mixed in with the events has been much work, a week of layoff for Chris - and a new employer - and small personal crises that have, for the most part, rectified themselves.

And much crafting. But that'll be for the next blog.

For now, in the words of Porky Pig ... th-th-th-the-that's all folks!!