biking

Dan and I took Maddie for a little bike ride. We have been talking about getting either a baby seat for our bike at home, or one of those hitches that hook onto the back of the bike for both girls to sit in. It was nice to be able to try the seat out before buying one. It was a really beautiful bike trail that followed the lake and brought us to the marina. Maddie LOVED being on the bike and having Mama behind her trying to get her. I hadn't been on a bike in such a long time and it was really a lot of fun.....minus the fact that the seat beneath my bum wasn't stable and kept moving back and forth. I was pretty sore the next day, but I think it was worth it! :)

picnic

The main reason for the camping trip in Ohio was the annual family reunion. Some families stay for the whole week, and some show up on the last day for the big festivities. By the time Friday rolled around there were nearly 100 family members at the reunion. The picnic was really great! There was a bean bag tournament which when I heard about it I thought it sounded hokey, but it was anything but. People really take the tournament seriously and I found it to be a lot of fun even though my partner and I lost in the first round. I think I am gonna have Dan make us a set of bean bag ramps so that we can practice for the next reunion and maybe I'll kick everyone's butts!! lol There were many lawn chairs, lot's of beer and an unbelievable amount of food. My kind of day! The girls ran around in the grass and Charlotte kept trying to play with the bean bags while the tournament was going on......they finally got to play once the adults were done. Maybe I'm raising future champions of bean bags! I've never been to quite an amazing picnic and we had a really great time!

Charlotte was eating green beans straight from the can! :)

God peeking through the clouds at our picnic

sunset

I am a sucker for sunsets. Always have been. There is just something so magical about the sun ending it's journey for the day and the beautiful colors that it casts into the sky to light up everything around it. Like most people I enjoy an orange sky or fuchsia colored clouds, but more than that I adore dusk. That beautiful time when the sun has started setting but the color show hasn't started all across the horizon. The light at dusk is soft and forgiving. It reminds me that the day is truly ending, but still isn't done. I think I would prefer standing on a deserted beach in the calm of dusk even though it's not the flashiest part of the sun setting. It's the time of day that post cards tend to bypass in order to capture the glow of amber skies. I think it will be my personal mission to bring dusk into the world of postcard greetings. Or, a slightly less ambition could be to just start collecting post cards that depict dusk. Anyway lol.....I have a couple shots of both and I think they all have qualities that I find beautiful!







This was a really cool spider web that I found on a walk. My mission was to capture dusk and then the sunset, but what I got was crazy big spidey and web at dusk. Trippy. Macro lens would have made this an amazing shot! Hint hint for Christmas/birthday ideas! lol

beachy

The beach at Lake Erie was beautiful but a bit treacherous. There were tons of rocks from the end of the beach all the way into the water which makes it really difficult to get in and out of the water. I bought Maddie some water shoes, but with waves crashing on the shore the shoes didn't matter. Both Maddie and I fell down numerous times just trying to get into the lake. On top of the killer rocks, the water was COLD! I guess we had gotten pretty used to Jordan Lake and the ocean which feel more like bath water.....Lake Erie is a bit chilly. Once we were in for a little while it felt less frigid, but the wind definitely didn't help. Maybe it warms up further into the summer. I only took Maddie to the beach, because Dan was golfing and Charlotte is a handful and has to be watched like a hawk so she doesn't stuff her belly with delicious sand. So, it was easier to play in the water with Maddie and not have to worry about Charlotte. My oldest loves her some swimming.....just like her Mama. She also loves her some sand which is not really my favorite. Daddy is usually the one who ends up with the sand in his crotch and on his eye lashes. Thankfully Auntie Angela was there to do the dirty work and buried both Maddie and her cousin Hailey in the sand. Hailey wanted to be a mermaid and Maddie decided that she wanted to be frosty the snowman. Weirdo. She didn't stay in the sand long enough to make the transformation from Maddie to Frosty, but the girls had fun none the less. After all the sand playing Maddie wanted to go back in the water and by this time the sun was starting it's descent and the wind was getting stronger and I tried, really I did, but we didn't last more than 10 minutes before I had goose bumps all over and needed to get out. I think Maddie was pretty cold too because she didn't even fuss about it. The weather while we were up in Ohio was perfect, but I think I might like to visit a little later in the summer next time to see if it makes a difference in the water temps. But knowing my luck the water would be warm but the weather would be really hot! I'll have to do some research and see if my theory is correct. But, we will go back to Lake Erie someday regardless of the water temps or weather because it is a great place to be.

great lake

I had never been to any of the great lakes before this trip and I didn't get to see much of the one we visited but what I did see was amazing. Lake Erie is HUGE and oh-so-beautiful, but there is no way I could see all of it unless we took a drive and there was no way I was getting back into the car. In so many ways Geneva on the lake reminded me of being at the ocean. The lake is so large it looks like the ocean and there are waves and white sand that also remind me of the ocean. All that's missing is the salty water and air, and the sea gulls. One of the benefits of being at a lake and not the ocean is that there is grass and beautiful trees and flowers that grow right up to the beach. The scenery is so beautiful. I found myself taking short walks to explore and snap pictures trying to capture everything. The girls really liked running around the grassy field in front of our tent and cabins and it was nice because there really wasn't much trouble that they could get into and almost everyone there was a relative in some way or another. The only thing missing was a hammock! That would have been the cherry on top.

On the road

We are finally home after what feels like forever but in actuality was less than a week. It is hard work doing so much driving with kiddos. On Wednesday we were on the road for 12 hours and drove through North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and ended up in north, west Ohio. Our destination was Geneva on the lake.....the lake being Erie. The girls were actually really good for the drive, naps were dismal, there was a lot of whining and by the end my nerves were shot, but for 12 hours in car seats they did well. We went through many snacks and cycled through all of the toys we brought many times. By the time we got to the lake the girls were completely DONE being in the car and thank goodness there were aunts and uncles and grandma and grandpa to run after them and keep them entertained. Boy, was I glad when bedtime came around and I could just relax a little. Dan and I decided that we won't being doing such long car rides for some time.....at least not until the girls are a little older and can entertain themselves a little better. And that in the future we will be breaking up long car rides with an over night stay.....for everyone's sanity!! I have a lot more blogging to do, and an insane number of pictures.....I filled up a 2 mb card and even had to delete some. Who knows when I'll have time to get around to all of that, hopefully soon. So, check back.

breathing

I am still among the breathing, just chaotically busy. It seems like we have been going and going and going and I just can't seem to make time to blog. Not that I don't want to, I just lack the minutes. It doesn't help that Dan downloaded season 3 of Dexter. Not one little bit. I have some great photos I am excited about editing and posting but currently they are still on my camera so I'm not even close to doing that. At least I'm taking pictures as the days pass by. I always feel depressed when I forget, or don't have the opportunity to capture at least a few (if not many) pictures of our happenings.

I have been diligently packing all day today. We are leaving tomorrow morning to go camping at a lake in Ohio. No, I am not very excited about a 9+ hour car ride with the fam. I would actually really enjoy a nice long car ride with the hubbs, but 2 little girls trapped in car seats for that long is going to be torturous. I went out and bought some new toys that might keep their attention for a while since they are new and shiny, and some delicious (probably not very nutritious) snacks to bribe them with along our journey. We'll also be making frequent stops to get out and stretch our legs and let the girls get some energy out. We'll be gone for about a week and on the way home we're stopping for 2 days in Baltimore to visit a friend. I have never been to either state and I am getting excited to spend the days at the lake and nights around a camp fire and to explore downtown Baltimore. That will be the largest downtown I've been to since moving from San Diego. It should be fun! Once we get back from this vacation we should be settled for a while. We have talked about going to the beach again for a couple nights towards the end of summer and once it starts to cool down we'll probably camp a little closer to home, but other than that our summer plans will be home based.

It is gorgeous out today! This morning there was a chill in the air that reminded me of fall. It made me yearn for the crisp air, colored leaves and cozy fires that fall brings. I am having a good time this summer, but there is nothing like fall. I'm sure the lack of humidity was due to the buckets of rain we received and I'm also sure that by tomorrow the humidity will be back and not so far from today we'll have ridiculously hot and humid weather. I'm just thankful for the little taste of fall we got today.

I really need to write a blog about Charlotte, and soon. She is growing up so fast, and I need to get these moments out in writing before I forget about them. She is turning into such a kid and SO quickly! I don't remember it happening so fast with Maddie. Charlotte has a ton of words, can repeat almost anything you say, can point animals out in books, knows almost all of her body parts, and has been playing with toys appropriately. Today she picked up toys and put (threw) them into her shopping cart and then pushed the shopping cart around and then walked around to the other side of the cart and unloaded it. Then she did the whole process over and over again. I guess that is probably totally normal for her age, but it amazed me. She learned how to do that without me showing her how. The shopping cart stays mostly in the closet because Maddie isn't into it right now. It truly is amazing to watch a child grow from infancy, where they can't do anything, to mimicking human behavior. It gets a little less awesome as they get older so I'm trying to savor all of Charlotte's first experiences. Well, that almost turned into a blog about needing to write a blog which I think makes me officially done here.

I doubt I'll be around for the next week or so. I look forward to life settling down so that I can get back to my pictures and blogging. As much as people (all two of you lol) enjoy reading my blog I do it more for myself and for my girls. Won't this be an amazing chronicle for them to look back on when they are older? I've always wished that I was a journal-er, but I think that for me the romance is more in the actual journal, the binding and the pages of words than actually in the process of putting the ink on the paper....if that makes any sense. I way prefer blogging, and thus far in my 29 years it is the only thing that has stuck. I have countless journals that I started and abandoned after a short period of time. I blog because it calms me and clears my head. Oh, that and it's a great way for the people I love to know whats happening here in our little corner of the world. Anyway, I will eventually be back in full force....soon.