Day 180 - Me!

With straight hair again. The only time its ever straight is when I go to the salon. Momma got a color, trim and blow out today. It was so far past due and so needed. Its been a stressful week and I've been in a rather short mood and was in need of a little me time get-away. The neighbors daughter babysat O for me and I had a few hours alone. I feel better. And I always feel better with straight hair for some reason.

We are leaving again tomorrow for the lake and there is MUCH to do before then. I have to run my neighbors daughter to VBS tonight, take photos here at home tonight, I'm going to the midnight showing of Eclipse with some friends later (yes, I'm one of those people now) and havn't packed up a thing. My house looks like something blew up in it and toys and clutter exploded everywhere. Sigh. Such is life I suppose. I am looking forward to getting back up to the lakehouse and spending some time with the whole family. The cousins and everyone will be there this weekend. It will be crazy!!!

Well, I guess me and my straight hair better get busy....ahh...I'd rather take a nap...but that may mess up my hair. ha!

Day 179 - Sing

I was supposed to have a shoot at my house last night, but storms moved through in the late afternoon so I went back to VBS to catch up on any children that may have been new. I took this shot in the big room as the kids were practicing one of their songs at the end of the night. They're getting pretty good at the songs after only two days! Kids amaze me. This one is rather noisy - in more ways that one - excuse all the grain and the pun. :)

Day 178 - Snack

On Sunday we came home from the lake. Its been a whirlwind since then. The past two nights I've taken pictures at our Vacation Bible School. Its at Pump it Up this year and if you've ever been to Pump it Up you know the lighting is horrid. I've been staying in the snack room a lot to get individual shots of all the kids. Here's a shot of snack on the first night of Galactic Blast VBS.

Day 177 - More Lake Fun

Hubby finally stopped working on his parents lakehouse this afternoon and had some fun on the lake with us! After O woke from his nap, we loaded up and headed down to the boat for some fishing and swimming. It was so much fun! Hubby had been working on the boat while O napped and saw all kinds of fish jumping so he decided to cast and he caught 2 fish before we even got down there. We went out in the middle of the bay and dropped anchor and O was ready to go swimming! It makes me so happy that he is having fun on the water. Some of my favorite childhood memories involve being on the water and camping with our cousins. I'm so so happy that he will get to grow up on the water and spending so much time at the lakehouse with his cousins. He got in our new raft a lot - which we dubbed his boat - and the water was divine. I had to get a shot of this hair....oh this hair just kills me. I'm in love with his hair, as much as my curly hair drives me bonkers, I'm in love with his! Here he was sitting on the back of the fishing boat by the ladder eating some chips. He spent a lot of time hanging out by the ladder. :)

After we finished swimming, we decided to troll along the bank and try to fish. That's where I caught my first catch of the season. Man was she a beauty. All 2 ounces of her! She was about as big as this one that hubs caught and let O crank in. We caught a total of 5 today...I only caught one. That's okay. I'm saving up for the big guy.

On our way back to the dock, I asked Chris to position the boat where I could take a photo of the house from the water. This is the new Weber Lakehouse. It's just beautiful. I can't wait to make a lot of memories here.

The sunset was finally so pretty tonight. I was tired from taking photos today, but I'm glad I drug my camera our for one last capture of the day. It was well worth it! Look at the beautiful pink sky reflecting on the water.

And one last fun shot from the day. The next door neighbors out here got 2 new brand spanking new jet skis. They are sharp! This was my favorite capture of Joe on his new toy.

Now I am off to join my hubby on the deck for our last night here. We leave tomorrow around lunch. But will be back very soon!

Day 176 - Fun in the Sun

Owen had a BLAST playing in his pool today here on the deck at the lakehouse. I had a blast taking pictures of him...I got a little pic happy. He was doing so great in there - leaning back and getting his hair wet, pouring water over his head and then Granna tried to teach him to blow bubbles. I'm so happy to see him having fun in the water because he's always been a little skiddish of water in his face. Looks like he's made a breakthrough!







All that fun in the sun left this little one plum tuckered out. He fell asleep in his daddy's arms at the table as he was reading him The Little Engine That Could. It was just precious.

Tonight we did a trial run for next weekends big firework show when the whole family will be here. Hubs went down and shot off 3 fireworks for me to practice taking pictures of. I've never taken pics of fireworks before and desperately want to catch a shot of some over the lake next weekend. Here's one of the results from tonights attempt.

We stayed up late last night and then I got up early with O today. I also caught an afternoon nap with him, so now I'm awake and everyone else has gone to bed. I may watch a little tv and call it a night...or get sucked into clickinmoms!

Day 175 - Deck Play

Today was our first full day out at the lakehouse. I went into Murray today to pick up a few things. I got O a kiddie pool to leave out here, some water guns and water toys, and this spray bottle. Wouldn't you know his favorite toy is a $1.25 spray bottle. I have a feeling tomorrow I'm going to get my big butt in that tiny pool and cool off! I took this shot tonight on the deck as we were waiting for dinner to finish. Hubby and I took a night cruise on the lake tonight on the boat and I was kicking myself for forgetting my camera. I've never been on the water that late at night and it was so peaceful, calm and quiet. We only saw a few boats. Maybe we can take another late night cruise tomorrow and I'll remember my camera!

Day 174 - 5 minutes!

My in-laws have just finished building a house on Blood River. Its a little inlet off of Kentucky Lake. We arrived here late last night for the first time in several weeks and the place looks amazing!!! We're here until Sunday. I took this shot last night with my new toy, the handy dandy remote. Why have I not bought one of these sooner? I sat my camera up on the deck railing - sounds scarrier than it was - and took a 5-minute exposure!!! It was really dark outside and look what all I picked up in those 5 minutes. Love me some night photography and this little remote is going to come in so handy!

Day 173 - Lightening Bugs

I caught lightening bugs with Owen tonight for the first time. I even dug out a mason jar like old times. I caught a wopping two and we put them in the jar at seperate times then let them go. As the 2nd one flew away, I told O to tell it bye and he waved bye to it with the sweetest look on his face. They are out in full force, but I don't remember them being so hard to catch as a child. ha!

This is perhaps one of my favorite pics of Owen lately. The only thing that could make it better for me is if you could see the bug and if it was lighting up! I love to capture his firsts. I try to capture as many as I can. That's what its about.

Day 171 - Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my hubby! We started the day off by giving Daddy his gift, a new travel coffee mug with all kinds of photos of him and Owen on it. He loves it. Then the boys had a gourmet breakfast of maple and brown sugar oatmeal with honey drizzled in. Doesn't everyone eat breakfast in their skivvies like Owen? If you look closely at this photo you can see the chunk of oatmeal in mid-air that has fallen off his spoon. I love how Chris is cracking up at him.

After breakfast we all hurried up and got ready for Church. Today we attended early Church because we had plans to meet up with family afterwards for a Father's Day Brunch. After Church we headed downtown to a restaurant called Monell's. Its a really neat place. Its actually an old home in Germantown and they do family style, down home cooking that is just yummy! You share a huge table that holds about 13 people and they just bring out loads of food. We met up with Chris' brother and his family, along with his sister and her family who were also in town. The only problem I had with Monell's was it was sooo hot in there and Owen didn't want to eat or stay out of my lap. I just couldn't cool off. We were supposed to go to a circus afterwards but a quick drive by the fairgrounds proved the circus was going to be outdoors and it was just too hot to take it today. So we headed on home and had some family over for a bit. I hate that we didn't get to see Chris' sister and her family for long, but we will see them soon on the 4th! While we waited at Monell's in the little garden courtyard I got took a few shots.



I would LOVE to have a little iron bridge like this in my backyard somewhere for pics. It's so stinkin cute. After eveyone left today we all took a good long nap, followed by a visit to our friends house to let the boys play late this afternoon, and then home for dinner and now its 10:30. Whew. The time just goes by so quickly sometimes. Happy Father' Day to all the dads out there. I hope you had a great one!

Day 170 - Lifeguard

We went swimming at the neighbor's house again today. This time Daddy got to tag along and we had a great time. O keeps getting more and more brave. He even was kicking in his little life jacket for far distances alone coming to us today! We were so proud. Today's pic is of him on the ladder. He will get into a raft that we have been calling his boat and we'll go out in the pool, but he always wants to come back to the safety of the ladder. Wonder if he'll be a lifeguard one day? ha!

Day 169 - Friday Night Pizza

O is finally starting to like pizza! Well...pizza toppings more than the crust, but hey we're getting there. I can't wait til the days when we can have Friday night pizza and movies and he will actually sit through a movie with us. This afternoon we went to our neighbors house swimming. They just got a really nice above ground pool a week ago. It was O's first time in a big pool this summer and he did great! They have three kids, the youngest is 7, and they all just adore "Little Owen" as they call him. I had a hard time getting him to get out! With only a short nap in the car from the morning under his belt, we fell asleep in my bed after 5pm...I had to wake him up after 7! He and his daddy just went to bed. I think this is the latest he's ever stayed up. Maybe he will sleep in, but I'm certainly not getting my hopes up.

On another note. Yesterday we got O his first bike. He loves it. I just have to share these adorable shots from last night after we got home with it. They're just too cute not to share. :)

Day 168 - Cruisin Along in my Automobile

O wanted to go ride his tricycle this morning. I guess I shouldn't say cruisin...there wasn't much of that going on. He's still getting the hang of it and has a hard time peddaling sometimes. There was a lot of grunting, distractions and getting off the tricycle. Not to mention the heat wave making me sweat my booty off. Whew! Its just miserable outside. A storm blew through ealier and has cooled it off a little but its probably just a matter of time before it becomes a sauna outside. I went out to dinner with some friends last night. It was a nice little getaway and always fun to spend time with the ladies. I didn't take a photo yesterday, so I'll include two today. I seriously want a macro lens. I want to be all up in this rain drops business! Its on my wish list...that's forever growing.

Day 166 - Orchid

I love orchids. They are so pretty. They sell them in pots now at Kroger and they're called Just Add Ice Orchids. You only have to put 3 ice cubes in them a week and they live for a while! Hubby bought me this one a while back and its starting to die. I just went grocery shopping tonight and they have all kinds of them in different colors and they're only $4.99! So pretty. I'm gonna have to get me another one when this one bites the dust.

Day 165 - Daylilies

Our daylilies are blooming finally! I was trying to take some pics of them, but had a little partner in crime helping me out. He ended up stealing my reflector, sitting down on it, saying he was having a picnic, wearing it on his head, and wouldn't give it back. Its the story of my life. The dead flower that he's touching here looks kinda like a freaky crawfish or something. ha!

Day 164 - Woo woo woooooo

Owen had his first microphone experience today. Wow. It was funny. And...well...loud. There's nothing more to say about that.