game on

Family game nights always seem to heat up in the summertime. More family. More games. More challenges to see who is going to be named champion. Not that we have any kind of competitiveness in our family or anything but bragging rights are everything 'round here. Pass by our house on the weekend and you might hear, "Oh yeah, it's ON now" accompanied by a lot of screaming and/or cheering. Don't worry, it's all rated PG. Okay, maybe it's more like PG-13.

What's that?? I thought I heard someone challenge me for a game of Wii bowling. All I can say is, "bring it!".

Can you identify some of the games we were playing? There are 5 distinct games being played within all of that silliness.

family reunion

Last weekend was our family reunion on my mom's side. In addition to the aunts and uncles and cousins, some 2nd cousins and a great uncle were present and accounted for, as well as my soon-to-be aunt (Jo from NC). OMG, and the FOOD...oh yum!! We've got some talented cooks in our family, that's for sure! My Uncle Mike and Aunt Rose graciously volunteered to host the event at their house...which worked out fabulously...lots of space to run around and do different activities.

Like visiting and catching up with everyone...


Playing cornhole (Uncle Danny and Uncle Tim, a.k.a. Colonel Sanders)...
Golf/chipping practice (Uncle David {all the way from NC!}, Uncle Mike, Great Uncle John, and Gary)...
Walking around and visiting (cousin Mallory and her mom, Aunt Suzi)...

Gabfest (2nd cousin Colleen, Mom, Michael, G.U. John, and 2nd cousin Kristie)...


Cooling off in the pool (soon-to-be new cousins Julia and Bugga, and cousin Maggie)...

More coolin' off with Michael and Mom in the mix...

We had to leave right when the big family pics were being taken, so I don't have any pics of that...boo-hoo! I also didn't get any shots of Uncle Bill and Aunt Donna, cousin Tyler, 2nd cousin Kathy and her family, Aunt Rose, cousin William, and (almost) Aunt Jo - oy vey!! We were so pressed for time to get Michael to his final baseball game of the season and the awards presentation after the game...15 minutes to make it from Westerville to Dublin...NP with Gary driving! Safely, of course. :)

The gathering was such a good time, G.U. John requested that we all get together again as one big extended family. Aunt Rose thought we could shoot for Labor Day next year and make it a tradition. Sounds good to me!

the beach

Michael loves the beach. We've been doing the sand and water on our deck most of the summer, but I thought he might enjoy going to a real beach. Today was the perfect day to head out to Alum Creek State Park and hang out at the beach.
We noticed that when he's happy or excited, he'll sometimes roll his tongue (above).
The little hambone had quite a time playing in the sand, splashing around, riding on my back while I jumped up and down in the water. We only had one little challenge and that was when a little boy came over to Michael and asked him if he was a monkey (what the heck??) and then proceeded to scream and splash in front of him. Thankfully, he didn't stay near us too long and Michael was able to recover and enjoy himself some more before we left.

more rainbows

I usually see a few rainbows each year at our house. Here's the first one of the season that I caught (aside from the Niagara Falls rainbows).

4th of July....Canadian style

Gary and I took a little trip to Niagara Falls over July 4th, alone. We thought it would be good to get away (alone) and it came with a bonus photo op for me. Thanks to our moms who watched our kids while we were out playing, alone.

Here are some of the pics from our trip. View from Skylon Tower of the American and Canadian Falls.

The weather was a perfect 76 degrees and mostly sunny...which, combined with the mist of the falls, made some cool rainbows.

So, I'm leaning over the edge of this wall taking a picture of the daisies above and Gary says, look down.....yikes, little black snakes slithering around!

The brink of the falls...Canadian Horseshoe Falls. We also did the "Journey Behind the Falls" on the Canadian side, which was pretty neat and very misty.
We managed to get a pretty good spot for the fireworks. Of course, after seeing the snakes, this girl wasn't going to be sitting in the grass. So I thought we had great seats on a concrete wall next to a walking path. Which turned out to be a good thing because it got so crowded I would not have been able to see over everyone.

We could see most of Buffalo's fireworks and they were great! We wished we would've been at their fireworks instead! They lasted a good 30 minutes or so.
The Niagara fireworks, weren't bad. They just didn't last as long (maybe 10 minutes) nor did they have a grand finale. M-ville's are better. Turns out, Canada just isn't into July 4th and Independence Day like us Americans are... go figure!!

All in all, it was a very nice getaway. We even stopped at a winery on the way home and did some tasting and purchasing...for G's mom's favorite vino...which was a real chore tasting all the different wines. She's so lucky she has us to do this awful favor for her. :)

I hope you had a nice 4th too. Thanks to all the servicemen and women and veterans that make July 4th, our Independence Day, so meaningful.

Does anyone have any special 4th of July traditions or did anyone do anything different this year?

fork in the road

Let me preface this post by saying that I haven't NOT worked since I was 15....but here's what I am working on this week.



Don't worry though, I think I hear opportunity knocking. I just have to open the right door. :)