(Almost) Seventy

What do you do for someone who is turning seventy and has everything he wants? You tell him that one sister-in-law, one brother-in-law, one daughter, one son-in-law, two granddaughters, and one grandson are coming to visit. And then when you show up, there are actually three daughters, three granddaughters, two son-in-laws (sons-in-law?), one sister-in-law, one brother-in-law, one son, and one grandson. Plus some fancy Scotch, a delicious homemade olive oil and grapefruit cake, and tasty Italian pastries.

Thanks for being born, Dad, and thanks for being an amazing person and a great father!

Claire

This is one of my favorite pictures from this vacation.

Adele

Playground fun time!

I love Adele's jacket. I kind of wish it came in my size.

Kodak Moment

Santa brought the kiddos cameras this year. As you can imagine, Christmas morning is incredibly well documented.

I don't know what I love more about this picture - that Claire is already on board with the arms-length self portrait, or Ben's little tongue sticking out while he concentrates!

**Please bear with me while I backpost and catch up on December!

Christmas Eve

Jackie is 100% ready for Santa...and she's been a perfect angel this year!

Forty!

That face is the one Dad makes when he's trying not to cry.

Almost all of the family was together tonight to kick off holiday festivities with a dinner to celebrate Mom and Dad's 40th Wedding Anniversary! Because their anniversary is two days before Christmas it tends to get swept under the rug and forgotten about, but you can't let that happen for 40. You may remember the photos we had shot when we were all together in August - they were Mom and Dad's anniversary gift this year (pulled together in an album for them, and of course all the images to print/use as they see fit).

Dinner was amazing - we went to Praline Bakery & Bistro and I can't recommend it enough. The service was some of the best I've ever seen. The food was delicious. They even offer a perfect kids menu. Dessert...well, "Bakery" comes first in their name, so I'm sure you can imagine that if the food is delicious, the dessert was even better!

Mom

Mom was working on a quilt while she was here, and at different points of the afternoon she had "help" from both Barley and Champ.

Photos Not By Me

I would like to redirect your attention over to Wizelight Photography's blog, where you can see some of the gorgeous photos we had taken as a 40th anniversary gift to my parents. My nieces and nephew are pretty cute!

Does this knock "have professional portraits shot" off my life list? I think it does...but I might keep it on there because maybe it should be a reoccurring event.

Uncle Meat

On Saturday Emily and I thought it would be really funny for her to just walk up to Pete and put Jackie in his lap, but our little surprise delivery never made it to fruition. Saturday night Pete did end up the last adult in the room with Jackie when the rest of us raced out to catch the ice cream truck before it left the neighborhood, but she was happily hanging out in her bouncy seat so he really just had to, you know, make sure the house didn't burn down with her in it.

Sunday, as we were saying goodbye, Emily was determined to get Pete to hold his newest niece...she was nicer than I would have been and she actually asked him if he was ready before handing her over. I would have just put Jackie in his arms and walked away without saying anything, haha!

First Birthday

I took a lot of photos today, but this is probably the most important....happy 1st birthday to my formerly-newest niece, Adele! She didn't seem quite as excited about her cupcake as she did about the Indian food we had for lunch.

Bilibo

Jen, Jon, and Adele came to visit this weekend. The cats were very unsure of Adele, but Champ at least spent some time in the doorway watching Adele suspiciously. Barley spent all of the time hiding under our bed/under the sheets on our bed.

Christmas Morning

What's the blur in the corner? Is it the ghost of Christmas present?! Oh...no, it's jus Claire rushing to get to her stocking!

Claire Bear

Claire bear had some fresh squeezed orange juice while we waited for our super tasty breakfast crepes at the farmers market this morning.

Road Cookie

Emily and I took the kids to see ICE at National Harbor. It was quite enjoyable after the FOREVER that we waited in line. Ben and Claire had treats for the ride home.

On the fence

We were all out playing soccer in the backyard when one of the neighbors let the dog out for some exercise. Ben and Claire Bear jumped up onto the fence right away to chat and talk about what Santa brought them.

Cabled

This is Dad, sporting the hat that Santa commissioned me to crochet for him. That goofy look is because in another second he stuck his tongue out at me.

Merry Christmas!

Note the boxes of Wheat Chex by the fireplace - we each found a box under our stockings. Apparently Santa thinks we need healthier breakfasts! Also note the interest in Uno Moo, which was a big hit. And BOTH of those little rug rats cheated in every one of the three games I played with them!!!

Tracking

Checking Santa's progress before going to bed on Christmas Eve!

All together now

Pete and I had a wedding in DC on Mom's birthday, so we got to celebrate with her the next day. Turns out that Jen and Dave did some scheming and he flew down for it as well. It was the first time we've all been together in a LONG time, so we bribed one of Jen and Jon's neighbors to take some pictures for us.

More here.

10 on Tuesday

1. Let's start with the picture(s), shall we? I didn't have one I liked from today, and I couldn't pick just one from Wisconsin, so here's a collection of the non-wedding portions of our trip. Click on the following links for full size versions of each photo... (starting in the center and then moving L-R, top to bottom) 1. Soy, 2. Sunny, singing, 3. Cooking, 4. The Drive: part 1, 5. Rain Drops, 6. The Drive: part 3, 7. Trout Pond, 8. Pete, on a plane, 9. Toby, 10. Barn Quilt 3 (and cow), 11. Fields of Gold, 12. The Drive: part 4, 13. Holly Dolly

2. Things I'm currently excited about: sleeping in my own bed again, not driving anywhere for a while, not having to do training walks in the near future.

3. Things I'm currently NOT excited about: the amount of stuff I've been putting off until this past weekend was behind me, returning to my furry alarm clocks, having to cook for ourselves again.

4. Let's catch up...it was 4th of July when I was last posting regularly, and a lot has happened since then! I spent the following weekend doing back to back 16 mile training walks. The next weekend my friends Pat and Becky were in town from DC, and we spent a lot of time catching up and a little time out enjoying the weather on George's Island. And then it was the 3 Day, on which you can read my thoughts here. Needless to say, I survived, and headed out three days later to Wisconsin for our Wisconsin Wedding Weekend Wackiness. Let's give that it's own number, shall we?

5. Wisconsin Wedding Weekend Wackiness...that involved flying to Madison on Wed and spending Wed night, Thursday, and Friday morning in Fort Atkinson with Pete's family before driving to Milwaukee for a wedding (Pete's friend from high school) Friday night. Wedding fun, then a little sleep, then on the road by 7:45 Saturday morning to drive "up North" to River Falls, WI - about 6 hours including pit stops. We got there and found a number of friends in the hotel lobby and did some very very quick catching up before we had to grab lunch and get changed for the wedding. More wedding fun, and then Sunday morning we were up early (we are incapable of sleeping in) and spent as much time as possible with our out of town friends before we all had to head our separate ways. We dropped Mails at the Minneapolis/St Paul airport and then headed back "down South" (haha, I'm making up my own WI slang now!) to Fort Atkinson. We got to Pete's parents around 8:30 and grabbed some dinner (brats, of course!) while I transferred photos and did a quick sort to show them, and then it was bedtime. Monday we headed back to the Madison airport around 11:30, had lunch, had two uneventful and on time flights, and made it home around 8:45. In one word: whirlwind. In two: too short.

6. I won't go into highlights from the weddings, but I will share this funny story. At the second reception, for our friends Whit and Ed (the Johnsons!), Whit's father and mother got up to give a toast. I'm a crier, but this speech could easily have made a non-crier cry. Ed's friend and groomsman Kendal was sitting next to me and hadn't heard something Whit's dad said - he asked me what it was and I said "I didn't hear it, I was busy crying!" Kendal was surprised, and I explained that I'm an easy crier - I cry at Friendly's commercials - but weddings really get me. He thought that was funny. And then Ed got up to give his toast. About half way through, Kendal looked over at me said "gosh, you weren't kidding were you?!" and offered me a handkerchief because there were tears streaming down my cheeks. Yeah, I wasn't kidding. But Ed's toast was incredibly cry worthy. I mean, he thanked Whitney's parents for her. Come on!

7. The crying, towards the end of the weekend, was exacerbated by tiredness. Pete flipped on to Mighty Ducks before we left for the airport Monday morning, and yeah...I cried at Mighty Ducks. This should, in no way, demean the toasts by Whit's parents or Ed. I wasn't so tired then, that was honest tears. Mighty Ducks, I hope, was tired tears. July was a very busy month, and the 3 Day alone was exhausting and emotional, and then to head straight out for our whirlwind Wisconsin Wedding Weekend Wackiness which had me even more exhausted by the end of it.... tired only begins to describe it.

8. I mentioned the long list of things I've been putting off until "after the wedding weekend". Training for the 3 Day sucked me dry of energy this year, and I knew I wouldn't have time to recover from that before our vacation. I had hoped that our vacation, despite the two weddings, would be full of naps and relaxing whenever weddings weren't involved, but that wasn't the case. But this weekend...this weekend I won't be setting alarm (and possibly over feeding the cats Friday night as I think that's the only way to shut off the furry alarms...shh, don't tell Pete!), and I'll be staying in my PJs as long as I'd like, and maybe I'll even nap in the afternoons...and then next weekend perhaps I'll start on that "work on after vacation" list I've got in my head.

9. Now that I'm not walking anymore, and after flying, driving, and sleeping in beds that aren't my own for a few nights, my body is crying out for yoga. Lots and lots of yoga. Perhaps I need to hit this up next Monday.

10. The cats have been very happy to have us home, and Barley has been following Pete around the house and settling on top of him whenever he's stationary for more than a few minutes. It's rather adorable. In fact, Barley's already in bed with Pete, and I'm off to join them!