Goodbye to summer

Ryan and Derek

Even though our temps are still WAY up there.  In the beginning of August we had to say "goodbye to summer" getting ready for school to start for Ryan.  The last full week before school started, we took Ryan and a friend of his to Big Surf for some water park fun.  The boys had a great time.  Doug & I hung out in the wave pool almost the entire time.  It was so relaxing.  So much so that when I went to bed that night, I could still feel the waves moving me around.  A wonderful day all around.

Ryan's Summer Visitor

Well, before my family came, we were able to have Ryan's oldest friend come and stay with us twice.  He now lives out of state and the boys have been able to stay in touch through texting.  It was good to see him.

While the two boys were together, they set up a whole photo shoot for me using some Halo figurines around the pool.  If you'd like to see all the photos from that day, be sure to visit my photo website - go to the blog and go to the entries from July 11-28.  Here are some of the ones I liked from that shoot.

Got Their Eyes on Me


Ryan & Adrian setting up another scene for me

The Picture of Relaxation

Water Slide

The Mountain Top



My Sam

The Path

Lazy Summer Days

 

End of School Swim Party

Well . . . here we are one week away from the new school year starting and I am just now posting the End of School Year Swim Party pictures.  Slowly, but surely I am making progress in my backlog.  I have toyed with the idea of just starting from now, but really do want to share all the fun adventures.  So, hopefully those of you that are hanging in there with me don't mind.

Every year since second grade, we have hosted an End of School Swim Party.  We invite the entire class.  We have yet to have the entire class come, which is okay, because I'm not sure where we would put them all.  We had a pretty good turnout this year, in spite of a couple last minute cancellations.  The kids had a great time.  I didn't melt too bad and had two moms that stayed with me during the heat.  It was fun to sit & visit with those moms.  My brother gave up an afternoon to man the door for us so that we could be outside with the kids.  And Doug made sure all the pool toys, snacks and drinks were taken care of.  All in all a great day.

The kids have a great time with the water guns.

Posing for me.  Unfortunately because I could not see the LCD screen because it was so bright outside one of the girls got cut off in this picture.

Goofy shot!

Sammers absolutely loves these parties.  Inevitably some food gets dropped and makes his day!  He pretty much hung out under the food table for two reasons.  1.  The Food (duh!)  2.  It protects him from all the splashing water.  He is not a fan.  And if there was no food, he would have been nowhere near that pool that day.

July Calendar Pages

I cannot believe that I am all caught up on the calendar pages.  Now, to just get caught up on the rest of our activities!

2007:

2008:

2009:

2010:

June Calendar Pages

Here are the calendar pages for June from the past four years. I'm gonna have to get working on my calendar for next year.

2007:

2008:
2009:

2010:

Happy Fourth to all!

This year, our plans to celebrate the fourth were very last minute. It worked out that my parents and brother and my niece and her family were able to come over for a cookout, swimming, movies and video games. I'm glad we got together from some fun family times. There were a couple Harry Potter movies that got watched, some Halo was played on the XBox, swimming and tons of yummy food to share!

Ranger & my dad:

My mom with her newest great-grandson:
Ben & Doug grilling the food. Ben prepared these totally yummy shish-kabobs (or however you spell them!):

Ryan was very excited to have Ben come over. That meant someone new to play Halo with:

Ben "rocking it" in the pool with Doug & Baylee:

Both dogs made it in the pool, with a little help from me, to hang out with Doug:

All the swimmers, including the dogs:

Baylee & Ryan playing with his Halo guys:

Ryan, Melissa & Doug ready to watch some fireworks:

Baylee fell asleep on the way to fireworks and never woke up. Here's Ben, Baylee, Brittany and Payton:

The Fireworks:

End of School Swim Party

Yes, yes we have already established that I am extremely behind in my posting. So, here is another Harper activity to get caught up on. This actually happened the same day as Brittany's baby shower. Every year since first grade, we host an End of School Year Swim Party. We invite Ryan's entire class to come over for some swimming fun. Because of our concrete project, we had to have the party much later than we normally do. It was a great time. It was probably a good thing that we had it later. It's been a very strange summer for us. The weather here has been pretty cool. We were not anywhere near the 100+ temperatures that we normally have during June. So, the pool was actually cold. I know those of you that live elsewhere in the world will find it very hard to believe that with our temperatures in the mid 90's that our pool was cold, but it was! By the end of June, I had only been in the pool once - it lasted 5 minutes and caused me physical pain to be in there. Of course, Ryan's friends found that to be funny. So, for the pool party, the kids swam for about 45 minutes before they had to get out and warm up. They did have a great time.

Playing the favorite Marco Polo:

Glad school is over!

Ranger actually got in a couple times with the kids and did a couple laps. One time he went in and swam to each kid before getting out to lay in the sun:
Warming up and getting snacks:
Of course Sam was never very far away from all those good snacks. He did go in the pool also - not by his choice:

Ryan out of the pool, snacking and warming up. I didn't notice Sam watching him eat until I put the pic on my computer. He is such a funny dog:

During a warm up break, the kids kicked the ball around and ate - what else - ice cream sandwiches. By the time the parents came to pick up, the kids had made it back in the pool and then didn't want to get out:

Ryan had a great class this year. We were hoping that maybe his teacher might come this year, at least for a little bit, since we kinda know her pretty well. We haven't had one come yet. Maybe next year. I had to put in a little jab because I know she reads this blog! We will miss having her as a teacher next year but are looking forward to 5th grade!

Concrete All Done

Okay...Okay...Okay...I know the concrete has actually been finished for like a month. I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures from the final and completed project. The concrete came out beautifully. Doug then textured the whole area. He patched up the sections of our pools deck that needed a little TLC (c'mon the pool is almost 12 years old - it was in need of a little love). He then textured those spots as well. Then a fresh coat of Cool Deck paint for the whole pool. It looks wonderful and fresh.

Picture of the pool area:

The new sitting area complete with chairs that were purchases last year. These are my "great find" last year. I ran to Michael's for some thread and had two boys with me in my not very big car. There they were two Adirondack chairs with ottomans for $30. I bought two and then had the fun of trying to figure out how to get them in my car and bring all the passengers at the same time. One of them fit perfectly in my truck area. The other one had to go in the back seat. It was a tight fit but we made it home. They sat in our garage for a year. As soon as the concrete was done, we pulled out the chairs and the stain (that was also bought last year) and got to work. They came out great and are so comfortable to sit in by the pool reading a book (which I have already done several times this swimming season!)

Add a few speakers, some snacks and a cold drink and you are set to enjoy some time by the pool:

Love My "Boys"

I have always been surrounded by boys. Having all brothers and no sisters, it started out that way. Now, I live with my husband, son, nephew and two male dogs. I'm convinced that our lizards are all male also! These days "my boys" refers to our two wonderful beagles. I think everyone should have a good dog in their life. They can add so much to your life. The absolute best feeling is walking in your door and seeing those tails wagging like mad because they are genuinely happy to see you. As a matter of fact, there isn't much that isn't genuine about a dog. They do what they do because they want to do it, not because they think it will make you like them better or because they will get a raise for doing so. Since I haven't posted for a bit, I decided today would be a little piece about "my boys". (I was also inspired to do so because we bought them something silly - which you will see at the end.) This is a bit of a long entry with lots of pictures.

A brand new puppy for Christmas. Santa brought us our first beagle. He is the best dog I have ever owned:

Hardly anyone can resist a new puppy. This is my mom with our new Beagle on Christmas Day:

And my dad with our new puppy, also on Christmas Day:

Ryan & Ranger have been great friends from the beginning:

Then, when Ranger was a year and a half, we rescued Sam (9 months old). The two of them have gotten along great - just like brothers. They do get into scuffles every now & then, mostly when Ranger is trying to boss Sam around. For the most part, they play fight and get along. They don't even fight over food.

One day, I couldn't find Ryan or the dogs. I searched and searched. Then I heard laughing coming from my closet and there they were. I've heard it said before, Every boy needs a dog, and I believe it to be true.

This is one of my favorite moments. We hadn't had Sam very long & the two boys were still trying to figure each other out. I call this picture Doggie Bunk Bed. One was laying under the pillow and one on top. I got a good laugh out of this one before I took the picture.

For as long as I can remember, my Dad has affectionately called dogs "knotheads". Well, we dont' know what Sam got into or did, but if you look very closely at the top of his head, he literally is a "knothead".
The boys cuddling together under my computer desk. I'm not sure Ranger is really enjoying this. They did stay like this for about 30 minutes, so it must not have been to uncomfortable.

During the summer time, they even enjoying swimming with us. Here is Sam "tolerating" us putting him on the board.
Ranger being a good sport with goggles on. Ranger actually loves to swim. He will jump in and swim around a bit on his own.
Patiently waiting for their food:

Doug may not appreciate this picture, but it cracks me up. Taking a nap on the couch. Sam is a rather large Beagle and really hasn't figured out that he is big. He will try to fit in anywhere he can. Both of his legs are hanging off the couch, not touching the floor. He was asleep like that until I took the picture, then when I was done, he went right back to sleep.

Ahhhhh, the beloved tomato. This is one of their favorite toys to play with. They will chase each other around the house for hours playing with it. As soon as one gets it from the other, the chase begins again.

Ranger was meant to live with me. In the winter months he gets very cold and wants to cuddle all the time. He decided Scott looked like a good place to cuddle and warm up. Scott didn't complain at all. Instead, he enjoyed the moment.

The other day, we stopped in at Old Navy to check out their clearance items for us. They had some doggie clothes on sale. Mind you, I love my dogs, but don't treat them like humans. Usually we look at the doggie clothes and laugh at the silly things they put on them. Well, they had the coolest hoodies. We bought one for each of the dogs. They are soft and warm just like sweatshirts.