Wow, I've been MIA, haven't I?

It's been a busy summer by my standards. Let me tell you what's been happening!

Let's back up to August:

Last month, I took my lovely niece, Katlyn, her mother and best friend to Erie for our second annual girls' adventure. Last year I took hundreds of photos of the girls at the water park, amusement park and beach, but this year they proved that they learned from experience by hiding each time I got pointed the camera at them.

I was lucky to get a few photos so I could remember the trip:




And the hotel room:
With all the giggling that went on, I'd say they had a great time!

Mark took a few vacation days to head up to the river, relax a bit and work on extending the deck.

He got so much work done! In three days, he took this deck:
With all it's wonkiness...and worked this hard:
With Andy to help him:
And before you could say River Rat, it looked like this...Level, with all the spindles on the rail spaced evenly and all the same length! It looks wonderful and was just the spot for a Labor Day picnic! Hopefully, he'll get a few more days off so that he can get the rest of the roof on before we call it a summer.

We had a great Labor Day picnic this year...tons of food, people and laughter. We didn't let the rain get to us, we just kept having fun. The strangest part is that I spent a long weekend and did not take one single picture!

I know, I know, I assure you I was not sick. I just never thought about getting my camera out until it was over. Maybe I AM getting old!

After he got all but the roof done on the deck, Mark graciously offered to take me on a jet ski ride. I grabbed the point and shoot camera and jumped on! I managed to shap a few photos...

View looking forward...
I held the camera over my head so I could capture the view behind us...But if I leaned waaaaaaaaaaaa to the right, this is what I saw:~sigh~ I never get tired of that river...

BUT...every year, the Sunday after Labor day, our local pool has a doggie swim. Last year we took Bill,and discovered, he was not a swimmer, but he did make lots of friends:
This year Bill decided, when we got out of the van at the pool, that he would rather not go. Winnie, on the other hand, was thrilled...until they got to the water. That's when she started thinking she'd really rather not get into the water with all of THEM...

She's such a daddy's girl...so they sat down to have a little talk...They decided to go for a short jog...
Seems she told Tony that she was frightened of all the strange creatures like this curly haired giant...And thing one and thing two...She seemed to want to go where there was more water, less dogs, so they headed to the other end of the pool where she could practice some of those dives that she had seen on TV...

But even though it LOOKED deep enough...
A girl could still dream, right...So Winnie and her dad just chilled on the side of the pool...Oh Good Grief! Look at the time! Linda is sitting here, waiting for me to get the van loaded. She and I are going to the River for a few days! I'll post from there, though, and tell you about the rest of our month!