Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Dropping in from California


It was so good to see Jon! He was in town for his sister's b-day and came by to see everyone. California is obviously agreeing with him - he looks great! The kids had fun catching up and they had no trouble talking him into playing a few games.

*Jon if you're reading this, I bought the book. I'll let you know how it goes :)

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Scusset Beach

Here are some pictures of the jetty at Scusset. It was so nice being able to camp there for more than a week. It's quiet, relaxing, fun, and absolutely beautiful. After the medical 'stress' week, we were all so ready for a break. Lucky for us that the commute to the shop from Scusset is so do-able.





During our camping 'adventure' we had a big birthday celebration following in the footsteps of our Christmas exchange. With 5 families joining in, there were plenty of gifts exchanged. For those that don't know about our Christmas exchange (which is where the b-day one came from) here's the scoop...
Between us, all of the families have quite a number of kids. It got very difficult keeping track of who gave who a gift (including which adults got gifts). So the solution was we would stop exchanging gifts during the year and just have one big exchange in July. We put all of the kids names in a hat and each picked a name. If you picked a sibling, the name went back in the hat. After the kids picked their names, the adults did the same (if you picked your spouse, you had to put the name back) We set $$$ amounts for the kids and for the adults and had a few months to do our shopping.
It's nice just focusing on one person. And it seems to make the gift giving more personal.
On the day of the exchange, we all sit in a big circle and each person is given one chance to guess who their secret partner was. If you guess incorrectly, you don't get your gift and the next person gets to guess. We continue guessing until everyone has gotten their gift. It's too funny watching the kids try to keep a poker face while all the guessing is going on. After the exchange we had a bbq with lots of yummy food. And thanks to Michele, we all enjoyed a big ice cream cake that she made for the entire b-day gang. We ended the evening with a walk to the beach to try and catch the sunset.






Sunday, July 22, 2007

She's not only cute, she plays poker for money!



Elizabeth is our closet gambler... and her pup apparently has learned a few new tricks from her "mom"
Vegas here she comes!

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Thanks....

for all of the good thoughts & prayers! What a long week. All 3 tests are done and while I don't have all the results back, we were thrilled to hear that the nuclear showed no blockages :)
Dawn, a special thank you to you - there is nothing like carrot cake, a brownie and a piece of marble cake to get you through the day before a fast. You rock!