Smith Lake

Thursday night was supposed to be backpacking with friends, but the HUGE drop in temps from mid 60's to 41 had me rethinking that plan!  They ended up getting a campsite with power nearby and we went and hung out for the evening toasting things and chatting.

Making our fall travel plans!

Monkey See and Monkey Do over there taking photos.

I threw in a can of croissant thingies and we wrapped a few hot dogs before toasting, that was yummy! 

Friday, we went to the lake to FINALLY get Matt on a kayak.  He's so convinced he will love kayaking that he's already mentally purchased several.  I even dreamed the other night that he bought so much outdoor stuff (including a truck to haul the new trailer FULL of kayaks) that he had us making $1000 a month payments for the next 10 years!  hahaha  There was a 4-wheeler, some JetSkis and of course 6 kayaks with all the gear because-who doesn't need 6 kayaks?  hehehehe

See the log in the lower left?  See the baby beaver?

I dragged these three along behind my kayak a while.  THAT was WORK.

We met up with the Chan and Alex on their boats and all floated a while.

Chan has some trash in the back of her kayak.  She fished out plastic from the lake when she was out, every time.  Then put it in the dumpster!  Go, Chan!

Emma decided they could swim faster than they were being towed, so we abandoned them in the lake to make it on their own.

It took a while!

Emma and Ben and occasionally Alex spent a few hours making and revising 'boats' to float down the small creek.  Ben's design above held up the best.

See that brown bump straight in front of Matt's foot?  Baby beaver again!  It was eating sorrel.

Matt out again!

We had burgers, portabella mushrooms and hot dogs on the grill.

More boat revisions!

I tried a cheese stick/hot dog wrapped in dough.

Chan did dough, precooked bacon and a hot dog

Matt came along with a little packet of food stuffed in his dough pouch.

We toasted starburst-YUMMY
sour patch kids-a little gross and sticky
circus peanuts-like hot plastic

After everything was packed away and the sun was down, we hung out and chatted around the fire for a bit and Ben, Alex and Chan played.

Lovely relaxing couple of days!  

New Camera!

Picked up a used Olympus Tough camera on eBay for $50.  Yay!

We have an older model that is smaller and looks more rugged.  This one did NOT look like it would survive being under water, it's clunky!  It has a slightly better zoom and the video is in HD.

But it did!  I kept it in my pocket the whole hour I swam, Chandler used it while, too.  :)

Back at the house, the dogs were at the window.  SO cute!  Do you see little Nia?  Awwww!

Today was different, not only a new camera to play with, but I spent the night last night at our house to wait for the meter reader who, for the first time in 18 months, wanted me to put the dogs up.  She said she would be there before noon and I waited until nearly 2.  I hope they did not eat her.  (I heard back, she lived.)

While there, I cleaned out shelves and cabinets and bagged up stuff and dropped it off on the way through town.  I plan to do more of that tomorrow when we head back for the kids to mow before dance class.  I am in a 'clean' mode, Katy's house has SOOOOOO much light, the whole east wall is solid glass.  Our house is dark, it's always been not just dark, but light disappears in it, the cedar walls and ceiling absorb it. In an effort to at least make it more open I moved some things around, it's practically empty because the music stuff and computers are all up here!  Just beds, dressers and empty desks.  I can't make a glass wall, but maybe we can get some bright lamps, help with that gloom!

April Rocks!

Okay, so BARELY into the month, but so far it's been behaving VERY kindly and I am appreciating every moment of it!

We started the month off on an overnight camping trip that whet everyone's appetite for more ASAP.

Late night gaming!

AMAZING moths!!

Swimming with da fishes.  And otters!

Hanging out

With friends!!

We took one extra kid with us and came home with a different extra kid, spent Thursday in a lazy fashion before heading to dance.

Friday, Chan and Brit got to spend the day taking art classes and checking out the new art institute over in Decatur.  Since it was a long drive, Matt and I opted to kill time in town until she was done.  We bought herbs and veggies and picked up a couple magnolia trees and had lunch at Bob Gibson's BBQ.  So yummy.

On the way to pick up Chan, we popped in at a music store and they had not only the tiny gig bag for her uke, which we snatched up, but also a Fisher mandolin on sale with ALL the stuff-book, tuner, strings, gig bag, strap and picks for less than I had just priced JUST the mandolin. To make it an even better deal, he assembled the bridge and tuned it and tightened the...I call it an arm rest, but it's a metal thing that keeps you from resting ON the wood of the instrument.  Maybe arm rest is close enough.

I was SO excited! We met her at the art thing and Matt ran around and burst after 12 seconds and ran to the car to show her.  I had told her I was getting her a gig bag, so she was not amazed.  Then she showed us her painting and while I was oooing, Matt hauled out the new mandolin.  She looked at it and then looked back at me and said, "I don't feel you have admired this enough." about her bird painting.  So I had to oooo some more!

Now you, too can ooo.  Brit's on the left, Chan's on the right.

She decided at that point to stay with Brit-we could have been back home by 10 and saved a few hundred bucks to boot!  We took the girls to get some pictures, but the place I wanted to go was full of prom girls, so we went to the art museum instead and then dropped them and the mandolin off.

Matt's photo, I was driving.

Today I got up and did nothing for a while, we got an advance copy of the new Hobbit movie last night and had been up late.  That was a LONG movie and then it just stopped.  BAM.

We watched Odd Thomas today, which was good.  Though I love Anton Yelchin, I have since House of D, so I may be biased.  We also saw 47 Ronin, which I really liked!  I don't know why so many people were griping about it.

When it finally warmed up, I put plants in pots and trees in holes and I planted my new jessamine vine.  I thought I killed the old one trying to move it, but 2 vines lived that we discovered, so I should have an impressive showing in another couple years.  I want it to cover the front fence from end to end.  It won't take long, that stuff is CRAZY.

Yarden, phase 2.

Look at that light, amazing!!

Something is a little off in this one.  Not quite as sparkly as I recall...

That's better!

I thought the hyacinths had come and gone, it's late.  But looking over the small patch, not only are they not gone, they have spread!  I planted 5 bulbs when we first moved in here. 

These did not like the cold or the van ride or the wait to get planted, they are kind of droopy now.
I hope I did not mow through part of my gardening budget only to learn I jumped the gun!

I wandered around and picked a few things to go in our nachos last night.
I have had a hankering for nachos, certain nachos with certain things in them.
We have had nachos three times in the past couple of weeks trying to get what I want, last night was SO close.  Black beans, Spanish rice, tofu, turkey bacon, yard, queso and salty chips.

Finally, this rare event.
All three of my kids and only my 3 kids!
They quickly dispersed and regrouped, but it happened for a moment.
Okay, I had to call Jake over, but there they are!

Off now to smell my amazing hair (Suave is making this stuff called...Natural...well, it's macadamia nut oil and white orchid.  It smells SO GOOD).  Anyway, to smell my hair, drink some Angry Orchard hard apple cider and read more of Switch Bitch.  It's a series of naughty adult stories (nothing explicit, more of 'then it happened' if sex ever actually comes up) by Roald Dahl.  You know, Fantastic Mr. Fox and James and the Giant Peach, The Phantom Tollbooth.  Cracked me up when I found it in the adult section and even more so when I saw they had all been published in Playboy first.