Rolling on the River!

After what seemed like months of rain, rain and more rain, we had two sunny Sundays in a row...

I rustled up some grub...

or at least a crock pot of ham barbecue;

not just ANY barbecue, though.

 

I used a recipe Mr.K's mother used when she had card club.

 

Me, when it was time to make barbecue, I opened a bottle.

This time, I actually cooked it...with things I never knew were needed for barbecue sauce!

It was very good! 

Tony, the girls (Shirley and Winnie) and I headed up to the river early, before the crowd.

We have that routine, first able bodied male that gets there has to cut the grass...

 

And get the first bee sting!

 

But it always looks so nice when it's done...

 

Afterwards, he opened the boat and got it ready...

 

 

And took a break.

It was so humid and hot!

 

 

 

 Tony filled the pool for Shirley, but Shirley needed a little help figuring it out...

So Tony threw an empty water bottle in the pool for her to retrieve...

And when that didn't help, Tony took action!

 

She stayed in the water for .05 seconds!

 

 

  

We still had time before Mr.K and his family came, so we turned on the air conditioner...

and told Winnie and Shirley to wait inside...

 

While we took the kayaks out for a spin...

 

 

Ever since I admitted...on this blog...that I cannot swim,

the kids make me wear a life jacket when we do anything on the water...

We went up the river...

 

 Checking out all the docks and toys people have on the water...

 

We even saw this...

 

A bicycle ramp!

I'm not used to paddling...and by time we got back...

 

I was happy to see our dock!

We took a break and then the rest of our company came...

 

Nick and Annett, Mr.K's grandson and daughter-in-law...

 

 

Everyone was anxious to take the boat out for a ride...

I volunteered to stay behind with the dogs...

 

I guess I looked pretty pathetic, sitting on the stairs...

but hey!  Didn't they do a nice job on them?

 

The first thing they had to do was get Mr.K in the boat!

 

 

 

 

That wasn't too bad... 

 

Incidentally, don't you just love that sign on top of the stairs?

Andy found it a while ago and saved it for these stairs...

BUT

at the end of May, I took a terrible fall down the stairs in our house

and he wasn't sure that I would think it was funny...

 

I love it!

 

They finally got everyone loaded into the boat...

 

 

And off they went!

They were gone for quite a while, Tony gave them the grand tour,

 and when they came back, they were starving!

 

We got out our bare buns...

 

And had a feast!

 

Tony and Nick decided they wanted to kayak.

 

Tony showed Nick how to get his kayak down the hill to the river...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It didn't work quite as well as he hoped...

 

But soon, they both got in the kayaks and had a good time...

 

 

 

Then Tony got the bright idea to go paddle boarding...

 

 

We all shouted that he was losing his swim trunks...

 

 

And being the over achiever that he is...

 

 

But he did have success, both with his swim trunks and his attempt to paddle board!

 

 

Later, we all decided to take the boat out for the last spin of the day...

 

 

Mr. K helped Shirley get her life jacket on...and they were ready!

 

 

 

 Tony suggested Rick take the driver's seat...

 

 

 After all, he was confident in his step-brother's ability...

 

 

 

Seriously, my family and Mr.K's family are both water families!

 

 

Tony wasn't really nervous,

but Shirley?

 

 She was terrified!

 

We tried to comfort her...

 

 

 

Finally, Tony took her up front, away from the wind...

 

 

 

 

She finally calmed down, but I don't think she's going to be the water dog we hoped!

 

 

We had such a great day! 

 

We were sorry that Andy, Ashley and Locklan couldn't be there...

And Larissa, Mr.K's granddaughter,

 

But we'll be doing it again soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some things go on, no matter what...

The sun comes up, the sun goes down, ice melts in hot temperatures and my car usually starts...

One other thing happens...Annett's Annual  Ornament Exchange (and food fest).  It's been going on for years and years.  She makes it easy...bring a wrapped ornament...

And some food.  I did not photograph the food because I was afraid to get that close.  Those women are crazy!

I am not sure how many women were there, but lets just say, more than 30, less than 40.  Yes, in her living room! 

Next year if she invites any more, she'll have to rent bleachers!  Every woman gets a chance to choose a 'mystery' ornament in the first round, and can 'steal' an ornament from another in the second round.  There is much laughter, some shouting, lots of kidding and more laughter.

Every year there seems to be a 'theme' to the ornaments, this year it seemed to be snowmen.  There were more snowmen than anything else

Every year there seems to be a favorite.  This year it was a pig. A pink pig that seemed to be the favorite.

I lost count, this was either the fourth or fifth party I've attended.  The past two years, Vicky came too!

I met Annett when she was six or seven.  Her mother, Nancy is my BFF (and my oldest friend). I asked Vicky to take a picture of us together...

Vicky, turn the camera around!  That's what you get when you hand a blonde a camera...

 Okay...now that the spots have disappeared from before her eyes...let's get serious...

Of course my mouth was open...what did you expect?  Let's try again?

There, Jan and Nancy, BFFs!

The three generations of girls...

 Vicky, me, Nancy and Annett.  In front is Larissa, Annett's daughter.  

At a time when traditions are many and some are hard to deal with, a night with my girls was just what I needed..

Some traditions are broken.  I have all my shopping done AND wrapped.  Those who know me know that not only do I insist on shopping until the stores close on Christmas eve, but my Christmas eve late night wrapping sessions are legendary.  There have been many Christmas eve mishaps:  I ran out of tape and used Tupperware freezer labels and staples (not the prettiest packages).  

I have also run out of gift tags and either made my own or label the packages with a sharpie marker...or (and this was the best), trusted my memory to remember which package goes to what kid.  The results of that were many post-unwrapping exchanges...

I remember the year Tony (age 5) declared he would shake every package and if it didn't make noise, he would throw it away, unopened because he KNEW it was clothes.  I remember Mark having to retrieve most of his gifts from the trash can since Mark always got clothes!

Christmas memories...what a good thing!

Remind me to tell you about Rudolph throwing up on the neighbor's porch...

I'm so glad you are here!  

Now that you are done reading, go out and do something great!

Love,

Jan