Beach!

While I was coming home from visiting Kari, the rest of the P's were preparing for the beach.  Aunt Becky arrived and brought Lily some pretty birthday necklaces...

Then everyone packed up and headed to the beach for a couple nights.

Mike went down the first day, as I was coming home.

And then I went down the second day (Mike came home for work).

There's always a lot of reading when the P's are together!

 And the next morning, we all had breakfast on the beach!  Yum!

Lily got some milk in my "toffee tup" and thought she was hot stuff.

Peter and Liam had such a good time running and playing together on the beach!

Memory Lane

It was a (good!!) whirlwind of a few days earlier this week.  We went to the beach for a couple days with Mike's parents and sister (pics on that later).  Being at the beach was so close that I couldn't resist the urge to drive by my grandma's house... SOOO many sweet memories with her there.  I can't remember the last time I'd been to her house.  She moved out in 1995... tho I can picture her there like it was yesterday!  And it brought back such fun memories of staying with her for a week (or more?) in the summers!

A virtual tour for our family....

(I'll put the caption under the pic.)

at the top of the exit ramp

looking left toward Granddaddy's house

looking right toward Grandma's house

the 7-11 at the corner of her neighborhood.  I have vague memories of Shelton and his friends there?

turning into her neighborhood

Wow, it was such a crazy, weird feeling to see her house.  I've been crazy emotional lately (more than normal, and normal is more than enough) so tears started streaming when I saw it.  Oh, I miss her and cherish the sweet & strong person that she was.

and I had to get pics of little Lil at big Lillian's house!

She kept telling me the steps were HOT and wouldn't really sit for a pic.

 When I showed these to my mom, she thought this one looked like a 2 year old ME in her mom's front yard! :)

looking off her porch (yes, I went onto the porch)... that same black rail.  I can just picture our 1980's cars lined up out on the street  as we all gathered at Lil's house for some fried chicken and butter beans out of her garden.

And Lily in front of where her garden was.  We did not go in the back yard ;) (tho I did entertain the idea).  Her metal chain fence has been replaced.

and her side door... I loved this pic b/c you can see her burgundy trim still around the door, the color of her trim and shutters when she lived there (I think).

a view from her neighbor's driveway.

I did go in next door b/c the neighbors still live there and he was out in the side yard when I drove up.... the man who used to till her garden every year (she was a widow).  I cried for them too, even tho I tried to pull it together.  It was neat to sit and talk with them for a few minutes and they got to meet Lily (P was asleep in the car).

We do know the people who live there now... my uncle's, friend's, son (however you would say that!!!)

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Then I drove to Granddaddy's property (I'd been there in the last 5 years or so), so it wasn't quite as nostalgic.

I felt like I was in a time tunnel...

You can barely seen the remnants of his "lane" or driveway back to his house, tho I think his house has been demo'ed by now.  A church bought is property and is planning to build a big, nice facility on his land.

And for old times sake...

"JOHN, COUNT THE CARS!!!"

Cajun Weekend

I had my first ever get away by myself (since having children)!!

I'd been begging Mike to go visit Kari for some time now (and he's always said "go, go!", being the sweet husband that he is) but I'd just never pulled the trigger.

Now that she's pregnant with twins, I just had to go down to celebrate with her.

Kathy kindly watched my children and I headed down last Thursday.

There was a little change of plans in that Kari was put on bedrest the day before I arrived!

It was still just so fun to be together and to visit her in cajun country!  

Kari and I have been friends for 14 years this summer!!  As we "roomed together" at the hospital, we reminisced about the first night we were roommates at the start of the Bogart Summer Project... 1997, baby!  And the concrete-ish hospital room reminded me of so many nights that summer in the Rusenkos basement (with windows open and fans blowing)!  And so many cRaZy adventures since then... I couldn't resist the urge to dig up some old pictures and scan them...

 {summer 1997}

 Our STINT team {fall 1999}

{Feb 2002?}

I'll stop there... ;)

{Hospital Weekend 2011}  :)

We tried to liven up Kari's room a little with some paper lanterns...

On Sunday, we got dressed up for church and Hal skyped us in!

And an "out of bed" pic before I left!

I treasure this girl's friendship!!  Love you, Kari!

...we are praying for those babies to grow strong and healthy!  And I'm looking forward to a winter visit with MK after the sweet babies arrive!!

Backyard Fun

(the quality of these pics isn't so great--- our camera is having issues)

So I thought I'd post some backyard pics to remember the things we do to entertain ourselves out back.

Practicing our jumping (on the "sun" or "circle")

We've worked *hard* for these jumps!  

Earlier this summer while we were inside, Peter told me he wanted to see if Lily wanted to go outside and play "The Woah Game" with him... I was a little unsure at first of what he meant... then I remembered, they LOVE to walk on this ledge and say "WOAHHH" as they try to walk along it and balance!

after they get to the end, they circle back around to the "start" saying "AGAIN! AGAIN!"

and Peter likes to stop and pull this "chain" on the lantern that used to have the cap to the wick on it.  He pretends its the string to a light and "turns off the lights" and tells me to go to sleep... :)!

 and this is what our patio often looks like... fun!  fun!  I love it!