Stories to Tell

I am getting ready to work on the story of how Bill and I met (as part of Ali Edward's class at Big Picture Scrapbooking). So I was looking at the layout I did of our wedding from 1998 and I scanned in the photos. I didn't have a lot of photos from our wedding, but the ones that I do have pretty much tell the whole story. So I created a storyboard to show some it and to get in the spirit of the story. More information coming later on the story and our weekend. Happy Monday!

Jake's Birthday!

Checking out the scenery.....

Enjoying the Zinnias

Checking out the impatiens

Celebrating this guy's 26th Birthday

Giggling at Mom with her hood on.

Visiting with all of these ladies.

Good times over the weekend. It was great fun-except for the rain. I am finding this raincloud that follows us around to be a bit of a pain. But we are making the most of it. Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Golf Day!

Every year we golf with my brother and his wife for Jakey's Birthday!
I love the view of the Illinois River from the first tee. I see that Jake wore his "Victory" t-shirt to help him play better...We messed around taking photos for about 20 minutes before we finally teed off.

This year-Sari joined us too! It was great having her with us this year. She didn't make it last year. We were sad :(

My husband could go for 10 years without golfing and I could practice everyday and he would STILL beat me.

We were so glad you could golf with us this year, Sarah! It was great seeing you and just hanging out as a family.

I love you even though you are a better golfer, honey.

This was a great day to go golfing. It was hot, but not too hot, and hardly anyone was out on the course. We let one couple play through, but other than that, no one was behind us until we got to the 8th hole. It was great times golfing this year. I had so much fun seeing Jake and Patricia and Sarah. And I DID have a pitching wedge, honey. HA! See how it helped me....

Hitched

I wanted a photo of us in front of the hitching post before we left the ranch. Bryan took this photo. I love it!

Mt Evans-14,270 feet

Here we are on top of Mt. Evans with Sarah and Jeremy on Tuesday. Butch carried the tripod so that I could get a photo of all of us up at the top. I have a TON of photos to sort through {I am SOOOO glad that I can digitally sort through them rather than having a ton of photos developed and then throwing half of them away} but here is a brief summary of our vacation:

*over 2,000 miles driven

*1 emergency prompt care visit for tons of stitches

*1 mom relieved that it wasn't more serious

*many delicious dinners

*1 waterlogged camping trip

*6 Gb of photos taken

*1 trip to Mt. Evans

*a couple of celebratory beverages

*miles and miles of beautiful scenery

*lots of animals

*tons of fun

I totally missed my puppies while we were gone, but we had a wonderful time! It was great to visit family and friends and see both extremes of Colorado-the flatlands and the mountains. They were both beautiful and I will try to get it all organized so that I can post what we did. In the meantime...we need to get some groceries. There is NO food in this house. Happy Saturday!

Grilling Out

Clear and Sunny Skies Time together!

Pepper Jack and Colby Jack Cheese

Toasted Buns

Shadows of Togetherness

I am so loving summer right now. Happy Thursday!

More Strawberry Jam

Bryan and I made more strawberry jam on Sunday morning. Yum! Strawberries are so beautiful-I love the bright red color. Happy Wednesday!

Football In the Yard

Football! So excited that things are back to normal a little bit. Now that Elizabeth has her driver's license, she has calmed down a bit. She is not nearly as stressed...which means...well-a non-stressed teenager means crazy, loud, happy, shouting, swinging, playing. As opposed to angry, yelling, tears...you get the picture. And Mom-I know you know EXACTLY what I am talking about. Especially after having 3 teenage daughters! And the car made it through all of the drives. And she even took a football to the hood...

Anyway-glad things have calmed down a bit. Happy Weekend!

10 Things I Loved About Today

Picnic at Pleasant Creek in Palo, Iowa.

1. William helping Bryan with word finds in the car on the way to Pleasant Creek.
2. Bryan quoting a previous conversation,"We have a Monicals...oh no that's Wm: "Grandfathers." ...he he....Godfathers....
3. Me: Periodic table of the emelents...
4. William's story about making up bad words with Weston using the symbols for the elements in the periodic table.
5. no complaining...well....except for me...and William...

6. Wiliam working on word searches instead of eating his KFC.

Play wrestling at the park.

7. Bryan powering the canoe sitting in the back while Daddy was in the front.
8. William getting mad at me for changing sides with my paddle.

William is catching up, Daddy!



You can't tell these 2 are related....not at all...

Photo by William-actually both boys took photos of us and they both turned out great! But I like this one because we are laughing. A piece of my hair blew in Daddy's face and William took the photo. The resulting picture looked like he was picking his nose.



9. Taking photos afterwards. (I LOVE how grown up you guys are getting!)

10. I FINALLY got to go canoeing!

We missed you, Elizabeth! We will have fun on Vacation though!

Musicians-Trumpet (Cornet) Lessons

Bryan is taking summer trumpet lessons. Below is the excitement that followed. Above is the last time that I saw the clarinet at home making noise {circa 2004!!!!!} Normally, the clarinet stays at school. But this story is about Bryan. No one else has been showing up to Bryan's trumpet lessons. So he is basically getting one-on-one lessons. Like 10 of them-for $30. It is sweet. I hope he sticks with it. And the best part is that he can walk to his lesson! He is sounding pretty good. I LOVE LOVE LOVE having a bigger house for this practice. Because that little house was NOT good for practicing.
So on the day of Bryan's first lesson-Elizabeth actually got her clarinet out to play some tunes with him. She even played some Pep band tunes. I was impressed.

Bryan is kind of liking the one-on-one lessons.

He says that he can buzz his lips really well and that was one reason why he chose the trumpet.

The fact that there are only 3 fingers needed helps a little too.

Anything that gets the clarinet some air to the real world is a good thing!

Despite herself, Elizabeth said she misses marching band and is looking forward to starting back up very soon.

Surprise!!!!!

Check it out! The saxomophone even made a special appearance. It hasn't been out of the CASE since 2007 when William said one year was ENUF!!!

But he looks soooo cool playing it....and he knows....

I love you guys-and I love that you at least TRY to love music! Happy Friday!