Birthday Anniversary Birthday Palooza Concludes

Our 5-day birthday-anniversary palooza has come to an end. My birthday Wednesday, our anniversary Saturday, and hubby's birthday today. I just had to share some adorable childhood birthday photos.

Carter looked like him at this age.

Casey resembles him here.

Bicentennial year. Whoo-hoo!

And this could be Clay. Brown-eyed legacy lives on.

If you're doing the math, you realize someone turned the big 6-0 today! He golfed at Bullseye Country Club while I caught up on a little housework, visited the chiropractor, then go a much-needed deep tissue massage. Standing for long periods of time for a week doesn't do any favors to your body. Even if I'm not 60!

Tonight we celebrated with our friends Craig and Sara (and Craig's sister and brother-in-law Jane and Kevin). Grilled out then cruised Nepco Lake in their pontoon. All day it was sunny and hot (as in 92). But once we hit the water, the clouds came, the temps dropped a bit and it was delightful!

Make a wish!

The top photo was Jim sporting celebration glasses and me with the birthday tiara.

With the girls!

Captain Craig.

The kiddos.

And even Prince E. the dog got into the partying spirit!

Gorgeous evening for a ride. The sun hit the top of one cloud in the sky. Otherwise, it was just gone.

Stopped for awhile by the dam for a swim. Not us, but three of them anyway. Then we saw some ominous skies and a forecast of rain and storms. So we pulled anchor and headed back.

Caught a little "heat lightning" on our way back. After docking, the winds came up and a little rain. But the radar is showing a potentially dramatic weather pattern while we're sleeping.

With the air cranked – tomorrow will be 91 – we hopefully won't notice. Either way, no alarms will be set in this house!

Have a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July!

Heart to Heart

Even though we've been together more than 23 years and shackled by our ring fingers for 18 of those, hubby doesn't get all the credit for getting my heart racing on our anniversary.

First it was "Junior" – a new snake in the back yard who is smaller than Freddie but still big enough to evoke screams at 8:30 in the morning. I wanted to get some work done in the back yard before the sun was beating down on me. I guess Junior had the same idea because he visited me twice in 10 minutes. Uff da.

You know what's worse than having a snake in the back yard? Having TWO!

When I got over that, it wasn't too long before I was going to grab my clippers and noticed a swarm of activity near them.

Apparently, I unearthed or disturbed a yellow jackets nest. Or maybe these are the Murder Hornets we've heard about? It's a new month in 2020, after all. So we need something unusually tragic, don't we?

After round three of heart palpitations, I headed inside. I figured it was a good sign I should not do yard work on vacation!

Plus, this greeted me when I got in the house. So my heart wasn't racing really. Just going pitter-patter with its love beat! That set the tone for a great rest of the day.

Even going to the dentist was short and sweet. And then it was onto the water!

My friend Cindy and I had a nice afternoon paddle around Nepco Lake. Even though it was 89 degrees, it felt nice on the water. Breezy and relaxing.

Tonight, I went to Witter Field to catch a little baseball action, shoot some pictures, and visit with friends. Hubby even dropped by after golf and delivered my anniversary dinner. Nothing says love like Potato Oles with nacho cheese from Taco John's.

And flowers, of course, and sticking with me for decades!

Back to Nature

With a 70+ degree high for today, we spent as much time outside that we could. First was the non-fun stuff, of course. Mowing, clipping, and removing a crap ton of overgrowth and vines in the backyard.

What did I have to show for it? Well about 2 dozen scratches at least on my arms and legs. And most of this trailer load for the compost site.

That earned me an afternoon on the water with our friends and an evening in the water of my bathtub with epsom salts.

A little windy but mostly sunny and nice on Nepco Lake. Saw lots of kayakers, jetskiers, and boaters out today.

Cindy, Mike, and Jim social distancing appropriately. When the waves didn't throw us all together.

Turtle sunning and napping like a cat.

Swan and geese resting nearby. I wanted to paddle closer, but I've been on the receiving end of hissing geese and it's not pleasant. So zoomed in and tried my best.

Mike and Cindy cooperating with a smile.

My long-haired, bearded husband, not so much. He's not a friend of my camera.

Babies!

"Get in line, kids! Crazy woman with a camera in the kayaks!"

And off they go. Cute.

Other ducks on the shoreline.

And that was about it for wildlife. Not the season yet for tons of flowers. Still, it was just nice – wonderful, actually – to be out and visit with our friends, too.

Glad we could squeeze in work and play today. Tomorrow promises to be rainy and dreary. Sounds like a good day to do nothing, if you ask me!

Hope you enjoyed some spring time today, too!!

Blue and White

Full day today with Blue and White as the class AND Saturday colors.

Photographed the Assumption graduation from 10 a.m. to 11:30-ish. Worked out well. Close to crying with some of those kiddos, that's for sure!!

Here's a link if you want to see ceremony pix:


After that, since it was sunny and 80 degrees (not a typo), we took advantage of the Blue skies and went kayaking on Lake Nepco where, unfortunately they had White caps. Not a typo there either. Very windy. But we did manage to get a few hours of paddling into our should muscles!

Got home, showered and went to a grad party. Which will pretty much be the scene tomorrow.

Right now, my eyes need a break from editing pix. Too dark outside to visit Mr. Deck Chair. But Mr. Recliner was neglected all day, too.

Hope you are relaxing, too, and enjoying this weather!

Red, White and Ooooh

Happy July 4th! No work today for any of us! We didn't "ooooh" and "ahhhh" over fireworks this year so I had to attempt to draw the same reaction with my dessert. Pretty close.

I was thinking red, white, and blue and I came up with one of I am sure many ways to present the nation's colors in a trifle bowl. But since a few saw it and a few more ate it, here's my layers...

The colors for this one are strawberries on the bottom, blueberries in the middle, and raspberries on top.

For the white part I have cubed up angel food cake...

And some crushed Vanilla Wafer cookies for a little bit of sugar.

On top of that, before adding more fruit, is a layer of white chocolate pudding. I also had Cool Whip on the side to throw on top of individual servings.

It was mostly healthy and pretty "light" tasting since I used angel food versus a heavier cake. And any time you can add berries, it's a treat. In our house anyway.

We spent the afternoon and evening at our friends' house on Nepco Lake. Plenty of goodies – and fresh fruit – and friends and fun. We didn't go to the fireworks but we can hear them from our house!

I kept thinking tomorrow is Sunday but it's back to work so we'll get some sleep when it quiets down. They should really just observe July 4th on a Friday going forward.

Tomorrow will be red, white, and snooze.

Nepco-lympics

Wasn't exactly Olympic training today but it felt like it. Instead of watching the games from my recliner or sitting out in winter like these ice fishermen and maybe women, my neighbors and I dusted off our snowshoes and hit the trail.

I should clarify that Cindy and I may have dusted ours off. Her husband Mike just took his out of the Christmas wrapping paper for his inaugural trek.

Yes, it was only 19 degrees. But 2 hours later, we had worked up a sweat, burned calories, and drum roll please... I had over 10,000 steps!

Sun was out so we could see some pretty things in the woods. The trees in the park next to Nepco Lake also shielded us from the wind.

 Setting out.

We're old pros. We can sweat, er sparkle, and smile!

Interesting mix of seasons. Here we have milkweed, a fall leaf and snow on branch.

And here we have snow sitting atop little, tree-side mushrooms. Weird.

 We even saw a snake. OK. A snow snake, but still.

No worries. I out-ran that beast. Even in snowshoes!

While the first part of our journey was clearly marked and somewhat groomed trails, the second leg was still marked but definitely the trail less traveled. Wasn't exactly sure where we were but we just kept trudging along and figured we'd find the parking lot again.

We made it! Here I am under the winners' arch, celebrating our victorious finish. Pretty sure I earned the pewter medal... or what comes next... plastic?

It was fun and it was a decent amount of snow so get out and take advantage of it. Then, like I did, you can come home, make a hot drink, sit in your chair and watch the real games.

It'll put you in the spirit. And definitely admire what they can do!