Life Lately

March 1, 2015 Laura

Please accept my apology for my infrequent posting lately. For as awesome as I did in January, I really lost the momentum in February! Maybe I can get it back for March.

Life lately seems like it has been so tiring! Twice this past week I was sound asleep in bed well before 9 o'clock. And even now as I'm typing this at 8:20, I keep looking over at my bed and wanting to ditch the laptop for sleep! Maybe it's the cold weather and the short grey days that have me wanting to hibernate, or maybe it's the early bird 9-month old that winds up in my bed well before my alarm clock each morning that's making me tired. Either way, blogging has just seemed too exhausting at the end of the day. Allow me to try to catch you up on the everything that's happened in the past month...

The biggest thing is that Mom and I have officially gone into business. A full post on this with much more details is coming, but for now let me just say that this has consumed my mind over the last thirty days! Mom has embroidered things for 10+ years and I picked up the craft about two years ago. We have always just done it for our family and occasionally for friends, but after much consideration, we decided to start offering our services to the public. I hate putting myself out there for criticism so it has made me a nervous wreck at times! But, I also love it and have so many ideas and get so excited thinking about it! Much more to come on it, but it's one of the main things that's been taking all of my brain power lately.

Both kids suffered from cold-like symptoms for about a week straight. After several sleepless nights for all of us, I finally took them to the doctor. Three out of four ears were infected! Obviously I felt horrible for taking so long to get them some real medicine but they both felt much better within 24 hours of taking the antibiotic. Katie Wynn's eyes gooped up again tonight so there's a good chance we'll be headed back to the doctor again tomorrow. I'm hoping it was just an allergy but we'll see how her eyes look in the morning.

Just when we've almost taught Katie Wynn to stop emptying all of the cabinets, Thomas starts doing it! It was only a matter of time. One morning while I was in the shower, they were both sitting in the floor of my bathroom playing. The next thing I know, Katie Wynn had opened the cabinet doors for Thomas and pulled out a bottle of lotion. She had squirted lotion all over his pajama-clad legs, all over the bath mat, and had so much of it gobbed on her hands that it was dripping off while she rubbed her hands together. He had gotten his hands on a tube of hair gel and somehow got the top off while chewing on it. So much for a relaxing shower for Mom! It only got worse as the three of us slid all over the wet, lotion-covered floor. I'm just glad we survived it with no injuries. (Pictures below taken AFTER I'd gotten everything cleaned up and they were happily playing together with a train!)

Matt had plans to travel to Indiana this month for work. Since he was going to be staying at his parents' house, he decided to take Katie Wynn with him so she could visit with them (and she'd been asking to see them). She loved it!! Thomas and I stayed back so that I could go to work...and thanks to some icy weather, I didn't even end up working while they were gone! I wish we had just hopped in the car and gone with them. Of course, now Katie Wynn thinks she can just go to Lala and Poppa's house whenever she asks. She doesn't understand that it was just a fluke that he happened to be going anyway.

Last week, Lolli had an injury which caused her to not feel well...which caused her to not eat...which caused her to act lethargic...which caused me to take her to the vet and find that her glucose levels had bottomed out...which caused her to be hooked up to an IV for a full day. Not really what I had planned for the week! After last year's ordeal, I'm pretty quick to take her to the vet when she's not acting like herself. I had no idea just how bad it was (and how big our bill would be, ha!) and that she'd have to spend the whole day with the vet. So we've been nursing her back to health again. For a week she's been wearing a cone (her "hat" per Katie Wynn) to keep from licking her sore spots and we've been feeding her medicine + cheese treats twice a day. Only two more days til she's done with her meds! Then it would be nice to go a while without having to administer them to anyone for a while. Fingers crossed about KW's eyes in the morning!

Instead of a full year's resolution, Matt and I have decided to do monthly resolutions for 2015. It seems easier to stick to something for thirty-ish days than for a full year, right? In January, we drank hot honey lemon water every morning. I had read an article about the positive effects fresh lemons can have and I knew that a spoonful of local honey was good for you too, so we put it to the test for thirty days. We are not coffee drinkers so it was an adjustment for us to get used to preparing and drinking a warm drink each morning. We made it the whole month without skipping a day, even at the farm! I don't know if 30 days was enough time to tell a big difference in how we felt, but we did both escape the flu that Katie Wynn had so maybe it helped? We actually continued on with it a couple weeks into February before giving up. We aren't doing it daily anymore but I think it will most definitely become a go-to remedy when we feel a cold coming on. I

In February, our resolution was no phones in bed. I'm sure you've read about how reading from backlit screens and being on things like social media before bed are horrible for your sleep. Also, it's gonna cause us to get cancer and die (isn't everything?). At any rate, it seemed like a good challenge and it was! It forced us to read books in bed instead which was quite nice for a change. I'm on my third book for the month which is awesome considering I only read four total in all of 2014! I hope this is a resolution that sticks around for a while.

Matt picked our resolution for March: 31 sit-ups and 31 push-ups every day. Until my birthday on the 15th and then it becomes 32 a day. (He's doing his age as well). Y'all, I might die. I don't even think I can do that for one day much less thirty-one days! That's part of the reason I'm still sitting here typing...to delay having to do them before bed! I better be super buff at the end of this month...

Ok, it's already 9:30...way past my bedtime! I can't delay these exercises any longer, unfortunately. I'll try hard to be back soon and to do better this month!

January Phone Pics

February 19, 2015 Laura

Eek! I thought this posted 10 days ago! Not sure why it got hung up in my drafts folder...

I'm thinking I might do one big "Phone Pics" post for each month in 2015. And since we're already a week into February, I better get on the January one!

2015 started off with goopy, crusty eyes for my baby girl.

It was a Saturday morning and I quickly called our doctor's office and got her an appointment at 9am. Matt took her while I stayed home with Thomas and waited for his phone call...ear infections or pink eye? Those were my thoughts. I was not expecting FLU! Yes, she got a flu shot. This was the strand not included in the shot and she had a full-blown case of it. They came home with Tamiflu and we settled in for the weekend. She ran a pretty high fever for about 48 hours straight - this was the sickest she's ever been!

Putting on a brave face to go to the doctor.  And wearing her "tie" shoes - the only ones she has with laces! — Putting on a brave face to go to the doctor. And wearing her "tie" shoes - the only ones she has with laces!

This is when I knew she really didn't feel well - she never lays still on the couch!

Back home from the doctor and already feeling worn out.  She spent most of the day on the couch. — Back home from the doctor and already feeling worn out. She spent most of the day on the couch.

Good thing for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to keep her occupied.

We tried hard to keep Thomas away from Katie Wynn so he wouldn't get it too. Matt took him to church Sunday morning so they could get out of the house and get some fresh air. While they were away, Katie Wynn managed to get up and play in my bathroom/closet for a little bit while I got cleaned up. She was taking care of Elmo and Bitty Baby who apparently had a case of the flu too!

Thankfully, she only had to miss one day of school before she was back in her normal routine. And that day was more of a precaution than anything. She loved getting to play at her Mimi's house though!

Though the first weekend of 2015 was a little rocky, the rest of it was pretty good! Thomas had his first restaurant high chair experience and actually behaved really well.

He also started really crawling and sometimes, after crawling for a few minutes, would just need to splay out and rest a little.

I told Katie Wynn that night that she could pick A book to read to Thomas. She picked out a STACK of books. That girl...she can't pick just one of anything!

More resting periods for Thomas...

Now that Thomas can sit up and move around, I keep catching the two of them playing together. I think Katie Wynn likes having him around. :)

Almost every toy they're playing with in the photos above technically belongs to Thomas. Katie Wynn likes to claim them as her own. Like this caterpillar tunnel below - she calls it HER "patter-pillar" even though it was his Christmas present. Anytime she fusses about him touching the toy she's playing with and I remind her that it's actually his toy, she replies with "Thomas sharing." She's all about sharing when it's him sharing with her...

With Thomas sitting up really well, we've also been able to have some fun kitchen sink baths.

Thomas has discovered Lolli's food and water bowls. It was only a matter of time. Now we have to keep picking them up and poor Lolli has to remind us to put them back down!

One Saturday morning after prying Thomas's hands open to empty out all the dog food and dropping them everywhere, Katie Wynn told me that she would "keen it up." I went back a few minutes later to check on her and found that she had completely emptied the bowl of food so that she could pick up every single piece and put it back in. Sigh...

Speaking of Lolli, she got to ride home in Katie Wynn's lap one night. All I heard from the back seat was, "Thit 'till Holly!" "I hold you Holly!" "Holly heavy!" [Somewhat related: she can say Lollipop the correct way but still calls Lolli "Holly."]

After bath one night, I found the kids like this. I asked Katie Wynn what she was doing on the boxes and she said she was on her potty (her diaper is still on). I'm glad she likes to pretend to do that because she doesn't seem to have interest in doing it in real life...

Katie Wynn has become obsessed with having a "big ponytail."

One night I gave her one and she gave me one (with help) and then she squealed in excitement, "Now we bofe have big ponytails!"

Toy switcheroo! Him on hers and her in his.

Here are a few more random pics...

Wearing Mama's hideous blue tennis shoes!

She always climbs up on a stool so she can help Mimi cook.

I don't know what I was thinking with this loud outfit!

I tried to catch Thomas in crawling action one night but Lolli kept photobombing him.

My dad has the only family birthday in january and instead of cake, we pigged out on chocolate fondue! That's always pretty eventful with 13+ sets of hands trying to dip their fruit/cookie/cake in!

We had Anna and Wyatt the next weekend and had fondue with them too. It might be my favorite dessert...I think I could eat it every night. And the fruit makes it healthy, right?

Sadly, that's where my January phone pics end! I have to save the next ones for February's recap post. :)

Thomas: Eight Months Old

February 7, 2015 Laura

Am I the only one in disbelief that Thomas is already eight months old? When did that happen?! It's amazing how fast time seems to be flying and how quickly he's growing into a busy little boy. A VERY busy little boy. This past month was his biggest one by far in terms of milestones. He was already sitting up but he's no longer wobbly and now he's crawling across the floor at lightening speed. He pulls up on anything he can get his hands on - tables, chairs, my legs, his daddy's legs, he even uses Lolli to give him a little boost up! This past week, he has also started walking behind objects as he pushes them across the floor. I have a feeling he will be walking even earlier than his big sister did!

Wanna see his comparison photos from the last four months? (His first four months' worth of photos can be found here.) I haven't edited any of these yet but will touch them up a little bit before putting them on display at his first birthday. The first set are the traditional monthly pictures in the same chair with a chalkboard sign indicating how many months old he is. I have to take these fast before he wipes off all the chalk writing!

Next set are of Thomas and Katie Wynn both in one of our living room chairs. Are these easy to get? Absolutely not. That girl does not like to sit still for pictures! If you click on the photo for month seven (the one where they both have on striped polo outfits) and make it bigger, you can see a big fat tear rolling down Thomas's cheek. I can't remember why he was crying but I'm sure it was from something his big sister did. The last photo - eight months - was fun. Their daddy had them both giggling for my camera. I love how Thomas is so laid back. :)

The third and final set of monthly photos are themed for each month. For month five - November - we played football! I love those sweet blue eyes shining in the light.

I always have the hardest time narrowing these down from the handful of photos I quickly take. That's why you're getting some bonus pics with these. :)

Nothing says December like Christmas lights, right? Katie Wynn loved helping me wrap these around Thomas and he loved playing with them.

Speaking of Katie Wynn, here's one of her wrapped up in Christmas lights too! She was only three months old when I took hers (Thomas is 6.5 months above) so she looks a lot younger than him.

I really struggled with an idea for January. I had every intention of getting a New Year's hat for him to wear, but it just didn't happen. I nearly let the month pass us up before snapping a photo. Since we don't actually get snow around here very often, I just bundled him up so we could pretend. (It might've been a little cold to sit topless in the snow anyway...) I think my favorite picture is the one where he's biting his lower lip.

February is the month of love and love means kisses. With ruby red lipstick! I put my lips all over my sweet pea for these photos. And if you look closely in the first picture you can see another one of his milestones from this past month - two new teeth!

Katie Wynn got kisses too during her first year. It's funny to me how she definitely looks like a girl and he looks like a boy.

Here are some quick stats on Thomas at eight months old.

He weighs 18.12 pounds and wears 6-12 month clothes, size 3 diapers.
His eyes are still blue and his hair still looks strawberry blond-ish.
Our boy loves to eat! He eats solid baby food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and still drinks around 24 ounces of formula each day. The only food we've found that he just really dislikes is green peas (can you blame him??). We've given him puffs to try to eat but they mostly get thrown down to Lolli. He loves playing with them though.
While he is still not the awesome sleeper that Katie Wynn was/is, he's getting much better. On good nights, he sleeps from around 7:30pm to 5:30am with 2-3 naps during the day. We have experienced every sleep regression I read about but didn't have with Katie Wynn.
He does not have an inside voice. When he jabbers, he wants everyone to hear him!
Little Brother ADORES his Big Sister. He loves to watch her no matter what she's doing. She makes him laugh so much. I hope they are always best buddies!

Katie Wynn's Kitchen

January 27, 2015 Laura

So last year, Katie Wynn got the cutest little shopping cart for Christmas and with it came lots of food that she could fill it up with. Shortly after Christmas, my Dad and I built a tiny pantry for her to store all her groceries in so that they wouldn't be scattered all over my kitchen. When I found the plans for the pantry (here, from Ana-White.com), I saw that it had a coordinating kitchen set to go with it (here). I immediately told Dad that Katie Wynn would be getting the rest of the kitchen from Santa Claus the following year so we should do it when we had free time and not wait til the last minute.

Fast forward 11 months and I emailed him a link to the plans just before I left for Palm Springs. "We should probably build this soon..." I told him.

Well. Have I ever told you how awesome my Dad is? I was just going to make K-dub the stove to go with her pantry and maybe save the sink for a later occasion. And I had no idea when I was planning on doing it with Christmas just three short weeks away. But while we were living it up on vacation, my Dad built BOTH the sink and the stove for me (er, Katie Wynn). Isn't he amazing?! I had no idea he was doing it either. When we got home from Cali, he told me to come over and see what he had built. Such a weight lifted off my shoulders!

It's funny, before having kids, I would've been really sad if he had worked on a shop project without me. This time I was just so glad I didn't have to figure out when I was going to get it done!

I'd like to say that after he built it I took over and finished it up, but the truth is, this Santa gift would not have been possible if it weren't for him and my Mom. I think the only thing I did was prime and paint it white. Dad even did a touch-up coat of paint after that. Then he attached the oven door and all the cute little accessories. Mom shopped for hardware for me and sewed the tiny curtain. All I did was pop my head in occasionally to see how things were going. They are the best!

We moved it to our house the day after Christmas. (Santa brought it to Katie Wynn at my parents' house.) One day, when I trust my kiddos to go up and down the stairs by themselves without getting hurt, the play kitchen will move to our bonus room. But for now, we officially have a kitchen in our kitchen. It's actually great because Katie Wynn cooks while we do! (By "we" you know I mean "Matt.")

We had to do a little furniture shifting to have it all fit in one spot together, so I had to move some art around on the walls too. This big cake painting was done by my sister-in-law, Beth, and used to hang in our dining room. I LOVE it on the brown wall though and love that it goes so well with the color of the sink skirt. Hooray for coincidental matching!

One of Katie Wynn's favorite things about her kitchen is the dish rag that has her name on it. Go figure - that was a last minute addition that I whipped up on the morning of Christmas Eve! She loves telling everyone that it has her name on it and using it to "dry" her hands after "washing" them in the sink.

My mom and Aunt Kim were superstars when it came to shopping for hardware. I really wanted a cute little faucet for the sink but did NOT want to spend a lot of money on it. They found this perfectly sized silver one from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for just six bucks! And they bought the towel holder for one dollar! I was amazed. The sink basin was my Dad's idea (I think) and makes me so happy...it was the water bowl that their dog, Taylor, used. She was such a good dog; I'm glad that something of hers is living on in the kitchen!

For the stove top, Mom and Aunt Kim picked up some thin wooden circles from Michael's that I painted black. We had four of them to use but only two fit on top; I think that works just fine! I wanted to add a little kitchen timer up here too but could only find ones that had really long times - like an hour - on them. I don't think KW can wait that long for the ding! to go off. What I really need is the timer from a board game or something. If I ever come across one, I'll add it on here somehow.

The little oven door has a plexiglass window so we can see what she's baking inside. She loves getting to open it up and put things in it. She knows to turn the knobs to turn the oven on to bake.

It looks like on this particular day, she had a tray of cookies and a pan of cupcakes baking. That's my kind of oven! She'd tell you that red pot is full of soup.

The pantry and shelves under the sink are great for storing all of her other foods. Under the sink she has fruits, meats, and cake that she can "cut" with her play knives. I, of course, love that there's a curtain to keep it all concealed when she's not playing with it (which is not very often).

Speaking of playing with the kitchen, here are some recent phone pics of Katie Wynn playing with her kitchen and accessories. She spends time playing here every single day!

The pan of cupcakes is pretty awesome because it's also a shape sorter. She has to match the shape of the top up with the right shape on the bottom. She's getting so good at it! The cupcakes are also helping her learn her colors...orange is still her favorite.

Sometimes we bake cookies in bed and then she runs the cookie sheet into the kitchen to put in the oven and bake while we get ready for the day. These are fun too because they velcro together into a roll so that they slice like Slice-N-Bake cookies. She likes decorating the ones that have sprinkles.

When Big Sister isn't looking, Thomas likes to play with the kitchen too. Notice he went straight for the steaks!

I'd say that Santa Clause (ahem...Poppy and Mimi) did a really good job with his gift this year. It has already gotten so much use and I hope that she continues to play with it for a while. Her daddy hopes this will spark an interest in cooking for Katie Wynn and that she might enjoy it more than her mama does. I hope so too so that she can cook for me on nights that he's not here. :)

Friends on a Farm

January 25, 2015 Laura

Hey, long-time readers - remember back in 2010 when Matt and I visited a farm and had so much fun that I wrote EIGHT blog posts about it? Well, this past weekend, we finally got to go back!

We have been trying to plan an adults-only weekend with some of our friends for a while and finally picked a date and lined up childcare for the long MLK weekend. After our initial plans fell through, and then our backup plans fell through too, my friend Allison suggested we just visit her folks' farm for the weekend. A brilliant idea!

Don't worry, I plan to wrap up the whole weekend in this one post instead of splitting it into eight. :)

At the last minute, one couple had to back out of the weekend so we ended up with just four couples going. It was about a 5-6 hour drive and, since most of us didn't get on the road until after lunch, we didn't arrive until dinner time Friday evening. Chris and Allison had already been there for a few days and had grocery shopped for the weekend. A delicious dinner of grilled chicken, roasted vegetables, and fancy rice was already prepared for us! I didn't have my camera unpacked yet so the only pics I got that night were from my phone. After eating the main course, we celebrated Darrin's new American citizenship (that he'd gotten just that morning!) with an AmeriCanadian cake.

After hearing about the questions he had to answer and the oath he had to take, Darrin just might be more American than the rest of us now. I would've failed for sure.

Matt and I camped out in the same upstairs apartment that we stayed in last time. You can see lots of pics of it and the rest of the farm in this post. "Camped out" makes it sound like we may have been roughing it. I assure you we were not.

Saturday morning started early for Matt, Chris, and Sarah as they headed out for a run. They ran 5.5 miles on hilly gravel roads. They can only be described as crazy. I sat inside and stayed warm and cozy. When they returned, Allison had baked oatmeal and bacon cooking. (This is a recurring theme from the weekend - we played and lazed around and then Allison fed us delicious food.) I'm still thinking about that bacon...it was so delicious!

After getting dressed, the boys headed out to a field to shoot skeet and us girls went to the barn to visit the alpacas and llamas. At the farm, there are 8 female alpacas and 4 boys, and two llamas. The llamas are the protector animals. If a coyote or something tried to sneak in and attack the alpacas, the llamas would stomp all over them!

The llamas are my favorite. They love to nuzzle up close to you and put their nose on your cheek for some kisses.

We hung out with the female alpacas. Because alpacas live for so long, Jack and Jan (Allison's folks and the farm owners) don't want anymore babies so there's no mingling between the two genders.

I guess it gets lonely though. We got to witness a little girl-on-girl alpaca action.

Pretty friends just hanging out in an alpaca pasture.

After awhile, we hopped in the farm truck and met up with the guys down by the water. The War Eagle Creek runs through the property and there are several flat spots where you can walk down and fish. Or, in our case that morning, just take pictures. Even with boots, boot warmers, and a pair of socks on, I could still tell that water was COLD!

Here are two comparison pics of me and Matt. The one on the left is from our first trip in 2010, and the one on the right is from last weekend. Do we look older and wiser now? Or just heavier and more sleep deprived?

We left the water to go back to where the boys had been shooting skeet. Jack has what they call the "War Wagon" for skeet-shooting. It's a big trailer that's fenced in and has cushioned benches for sitting when not shooting.

The guys were kind (and patient) enough to show us girls how to hold the shotgun so we could all take a turn. This was my first time ever doing something like this and it was a little harder than I thought! I wasn't expected for such a kickback from the gun. I think hitting just one clay is the only thing that could've made the weekend better. I tried three times and missed every one! I think I could've gotten it though with just a few more tries.

Action shot!  See her shell casing flying?! — Action shot! See her shell casing flying?!

Allison's hair is flying from the kickback!

Shell flying!  My timing was spot on! — Shell flying! My timing was spot on!

Chris was the only one to hit his clay while us girls were out there. He hit four in a row and then I climbed up in the wagon to push the trigger and messed him up. Turns out I am not a skeet-shooting lucky charm.

Clays and beer.

We rigged up my camera with the timer for a group picture on the War Wagon. Maybe I should frame this for Jack - I think this was the inaugural run for the wagon!

Did you ever ride in the back of a truck when you were little? I feel like I did all the time, but I can't really remember why other than I wanted to. Even on city streets. Sometimes with my legs dangiling off the back. We talked about how we all did that but our kids will probably never get to what with all the carseat and seatbelt regulations these days.

Boys and their toys! This ranger lives at the farm and is very handy for getting around the 300+ acres.

While Allison warmed up lunch (tacos and nachos!), a few of us stopped back by the barn to give the alpacas and llamas a snack.

Sometimes the alpacas get a little mad at each other and do some spitting. Poor Darrin ended up in the middle of one of the crossfires and got a little spit on him !He was a much better sport about it than I might've been; he just kept on feeding them.

My camera and I went inside while the others went to visit the chickens. They collected four pretty eggs that we had for breakfast the next morning.

Is there anything better than boys in the kitchen cooking? I don't think so.

After lunch, we grabbed some chairs and went down to a different part of the river to do some fishing. Sadly, the fish weren't biting but we still had fun trying. Matt and Chris built a fire since it was starting to get a little bit cooler.

My fisherman! We were hopeful that he would be the one to reel in a fish, but alas, there wasn't even a nibble on his line.

I think Sarah may have had enough with the three of us. Or maybe she was about to sneeze?

This is much better! Sure do love these girls.

Just when we got the fire really going, it was time to put it out. We made sure every little piece of wood was soaked before leaving...no forest fires from us!

The boys piled into the truck and went to put the War Wagon back in the barn. Us girls took the ranger and went to explore the cave on the property.

At first glance, the cave my not look very big, but it has small tunnels in the corners that you could crawl through. Jack and Jan had a spelunker come out and go through them and apparently they run the length of the whole crest above the cave. You could not pay me enough money to go in one of those tunnels! Sarah was the climber in the group and checked them out for us. (I did climb up there on my first visit, though.)

After leaving the cave, we went on a mission to find the cows. Jenny was the designated gate opener every time we came up on one.

We were just driving down the road when we came up on a bunch of white tailed deer! I could barely grab my camera fast enough. They ran across the road right in front of us and several of their friends were still hiding in the woods. So cool!

We passed the boys on our way to find the cows and had our picture taken.

Finally, just past the house, we found the guys (actually, gals) we were looking for.

We continued on to go see where the cows are weighed and the original well. The cows didn't want us to go! They ran after us for a little while.

They evenutally stopped following us as we went on our way. But we had to turn around and go back the same we came and...they were waiting for us. A herd of big, black cows is not exactly what you want to see blocking your road!

Oh hey there, 140C. Don't mind us, just passing through.

As we approached the house, we could see that the boys were sitting outside enjoying a fire.

For dinner that night, we had a great meal of steaks, baked potatoes, and salad. The guys grilled the steaks outside and they were delicious!

Matt made bananas foster for dessert and it was great, but would've been even better if we hadn't let our ice cream melt into a bowl of soup. Oopsie.

I didn't take any more pictures that night, but we had a fun evening of playing pool, watching sports, and working on the world's hardest puzzle.

We reconvened the next morning for our last meal of the weekend together. Allison made eggs and sausage and biscuits to go with the fruit and leftover baked oatmeal. Once again, we stuffed ourselves silly.

We couldn't say goodbye and go our separate ways without one last group picture!

And since we were already in position and already had the timer and tripod set up, we took a few fun shots. My camera was set up with a ten second timer to allow me to get into place, and then it would take four pictures in a row. The pictures were quick, like 1-2-3-4, not like 1, pause, 2, pause, etc. And the only way you could count them was to listen to the shutter since we weren't using the flash. The instructions given for this first set of four was regular smiles for the first three, and then opened mouth smile on the last. Click the picture below to see all four images in a row.

The last set was open mouth smiles for the first three and then a serious face for the last one. Darrin and I failed miserably on the serious face!

And with that, we loaded up our cars and headed home. Such a fun weekend! Thank you to Jack and Jan for letting us stay on their awesome property, and to Chris and Allison for hosting us there!