Holiday

Sorry to have been MIA for so long - this weekend was a crazy busy one! Back in February we had the sad task of burying my mother-in-law - a truely amazing vibrant 89 year old woman. We all had worried for years that our family would drift away after that. She was the glue that held us all together we thought. At the party after the funeral, we all agreed that we needed to work hard to keep in touch and stay together. The first piece of that happened this weekend at our family reunion.

We all drove to a campground on the side of Lake Shasta in California for a weekend of swimming, boating, and catching up. We ate big breakfasts around the campfire, swam at all hours, and some of us even sang Karaoke in the evenings.
This is Emma, Glenn and I after a long day of getting dirty and having fun with our favorite baby girl!

This is Emma when I asked her to do a 'mad face'. Too funny!

We arrived on a Saturday, set up and the kids all immediately headed for the pool. Emma made an attempt at swiming on her own so I pulled her out sputtering. The rest of the weekend all the kids followed their cousin Curtis (age 9) around like the Pied Piper, from the playground to the camp and back again. Sunday morning we rented a pontoon boat and took all the kids out for a swim. We ate Tacos in honor of Mom, and stayed up entirely too late relating stories of the folks and of growing up.

I have to tell you, it was a great time. There is nothing quite as heartwarming as seeing your kids loved by their aunts and uncles.

I'll post more pics in a few days, I'm waiting for dh to remove them from his camera!

Wors for me Wednesday and other musings

Happy middle of the week! It is Wednesday and I desperately want it to be Friday. My sinus infection is still trolling along, mostly because I'm not stopping to take care of it, and I'm just tired.
So what amazing tip can I give you today? I think today I'll share a kid tip. Having three of them at home, I've learned a few things about how to get them moving. One great trick I've learned is the timer. At least at my house, if you say, 'I bet you can't get your room clean in 3 minutes' it is a challenge and a dare that sets the kids off in record time. My twins like to compete with each other which is part of it I'm sure. They often beat the time I suggest, and even if they don't I sometimes say they did because it makes them so darn happy!
Today is a fun filled day of work with another visit with my personal trainer tonight. Then a little more work on Jakey's room before falling into bed and starting over again tomorrow. This weekend we take the 4runner in to the shop to get the bumper fixed (dh fender bender last month) and I get a rental car for the week. I hope they give me something cool!
This weekend we need to finish the three bedrooms downstairs and restore our house to some semblence of order.
I suppose the other thing coming up that I haven't mentioned is the big family camping trip. I married into a huge family - my husband's mother had 4 kids, 13 grandkids and I don't even know how many great grandkids at this point. She lived with us for 2 years before she died in January. While we were at the funeral in Grants Pass in early February we all agreed we'd do an annual summer camping trip to try to keep the family together. We booked a campground on Lake Shasta in California, and we are all set to go.
I'm really looking forward to it. DH's mother gave me her cast iron skillets before she died and I intend to pack them so we can do a big taco feed, which was tradition with her. I think we are going to bring food for that and for an ice cream feed so that hopefully we can have everyone in our campsite each night for a while. DH has been frantically scanning all the pictures that his mother left us in hopes of having some CDs to share when we meet up with everyone. His one aunt, who now is in her 90s, lives near his brother in southern California. We hope she will be able to identify some of the people in these pictures! It also is a good way to preserve them as some of the shots are awfully old.
Guess that is all I have time for on my lunch hour. The work outside my office window continues, and now they have added breathing masks for all the workers. Makes you wonder as we are all sitting here with no protection except 110 year old windows that don't seal. Reminds me of the time a few years ago when the asbestos abatement was going on on our floor and they would leave white footprints down the hallway after they exited the area that had the black plastic taped off to 'protect' us. Gotta love state employment!