Blue Skies Smilin' At Me...

The Brown family is back from vacation, and ready to take on the world. Or something. The great thing about taking a three week long vacation is that you are pretty much ready to come home and sleep in your own bed again. It's always hard to leave the great weather, beautiful river, fun activities, and free childcare, but hey, it's good, to be back home again.

Every summer we pay the surcharges to check our luggage, to take two planes, to drag 3 kids through 3 airports, to drive 1.5 hours, to get to "the cottage." The Cottage has been in Paul's family since before he was born, and he has visited there most summers of his life. We plan to follow suit. Originally purchased by his grandparents, the cottage is now owned by Paul's parents. It is directly on the magnificent St. Lawrence River, of the Thousand Islands region. Yep, like the salad dressing, that's where it was "invented." Maybe I'm partial, but it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. That river gets in your blood and draws you in. We always spend the month following our visit lamenting we aren't still there, and scheming how to stay even longer the next summer.

We had lots of visitors this summer, and were lucky to be able to rent the neighbor's cottage for overflow. In case you didn't know the definition of cottage, it means many, many people sleeping in a very, very small house. With one bathroom.

The highlight of this visit for me was learning to sail! OK I know this sounds cheesy but honestly, that's checking one off my bucket list. Paul's mom found me a (tiny) sailboat at a yard sale (yes she bought a sailboat at a garage sale). We affectionately referred to my sailboat as the bathtub, as that's about the size of it, and you are sure to be taking a bath in the river while sailing it. But all was well, and after capsizing it twice and getting "towed" in twice (or was it 3 times?) I pretty much got the hang of it. Going out for a sail and returning to the dock from which you departed, on your own, gives one a sense of pride almost indescribable. I had the biggest, dorkiest, pat-myself-on-the-back grin you could imagine. I can't wait to do it again!

And well, Paul's favorite pastime at The Cottage is fishing. Every year, he gets excited, scours all the fishing reports numerous times before we even get to the airport, get his fishing license, determines the best bait, gets up early to get out on the boat, and finds the perfect fishing spot to catch the most fish. And catches two fish. The whole time. We are now sure that it HAS to be too hot part of summer/water level too low/wrong bait/boat too loud/climate issue, and will make amends so he can catch all the fish next year.

We had a great time this summer, and thanks to all the friends and family that helped make it so. Most of all to Paul's parents for picking us up at the airport, providing us with a car, feeding us, watching our kids, and putting up with us for three weeks. We were also fortunate enough to have my aunt come for a visit, and our good friend "Uncle Mikey" was able to finally make it up as well. Lastly, most of Paul's extended family came for a huge reunion as well, and our kids got to play with/ meet their only cousins (once removed/first?) for the first time. Life is good! Enjoy the pictures.

Hard at work, but a bit of a scowl?

Lilly double-fisting it.

Lilly enjoying a peach from the farmer's market on our visit to Canada. Best. Peaches. Ever.

Big catch!

I love my family!

Best Part. It's a sailboat for ONE.

Bocce on the Green. A Brown tradition.

Caught being sweet...

Mikey and Owen. That's pure joy on both their faces.

Pirates at the Castle. It's a cottage thing.

Me in my official cottage vacation hat.

I love my goofballs.

Not so Blue.

Wow, this summer is flying by! Never thought I'd say that. I pretty much hate the heat and dread the long hot days of summer being pent up in the house. But that's just not the case so far, and for that, I am happy. We've managed to stay busy and sane, what more could a girl want? Now that swim lessons are over, we've been doing our regular library time, making trips to the Y, play dates, and movies. My parents came to visit for a few days this week and that was "super fun" as Lilly says.

With all the rain, the temperatures were actually decent last week and we were able to go pick blueberries. As you might already know, every kids loves to pick berries. For three reasons, they taste yummy, you get to get dirty, and you get to stuff your face when nobody's looking. Baby Ginger turned out to be a natural-born blueberry picker and I think ate just as many as the kids. I bit my tongue and just let all the kiddos gorge themselves on unwashed fruit while they picked - aren't you proud? We've already indulged in some awesome blueberry pancakes made by Paul this morning, and I've got a blueberry pound cake in the oven as I write. And we still have tons left in the fridge. But around here, that's not a problem.

And we still have so much to look forward too! A girls day next weekend for me, then my 10 year college friends weekend after that, then comes vacation! Paul and I have both commented that we feel exhausted all the time, never well rested. So we are now starting to make a joint effort to get to bed at a reasonable time. So far I still find myself awake well after midnight and up with the kids around 7:30. (Paul does let me sleep in on weekends, but we have a smaller house and 3 LOUD kids, so.....). Hopefully we'll both be feeling better rested very soon. I saw a shirt recently that said "These ARE the good old days." I think that's true. We may be tired and sometimes feel like we don't get a break, but I do know that life is good right now and I do not take these times for granted or wish them away. For someday I'm certain I will refer to this time as the good old days.

Granddad and Owen

Gran and Lilly

She tried to eat them all...

Some things just come naturally.

wordless wednesday

Happy Birthday Baby

She is the best surprise we've ever had. She kindly decided to make her entrance into the world a week late but before my scheduled c-section. Giving me a chance to try out labor - ha. She got kicked out of the hospital nursery for being too loud. Her nickname was "nut" the first 6 weeks of her life. Because she was a nut. She assumed her role of happy, complacent, third child shortly after those first 6 weeks. Now we call her "monkey."

She is tall like her Daddy. And looks like him too.

She walks pretty well holding onto a finger. She says mama, dada, nana, bye bye, and hi. She repeats other words you say, and loves to wave. She gives big, slobbery kisses on demand. She loves to move to music just like her siblings. She likes to feed other people cheerios. If they let her. She likes strawberries, her daddy's skillet potatoes, avocados, and any kind of cheese. Cheese in every form. She loves cheese.

She loves to push her ride-on toy and also grab the phone to "talk" on it. She likes to swing. She likes playing with her brother and sister. She loves giggling with her big brother - they seem to have a special bond.

She does not always like nap time. She does not like when her mommy is farther than 6 inches away. She does not like the photographer at J C Penny.

She is a little spoiled. Because she is the baby.

She is fun.

She is ONE.

Happy (belated) Birthday Baby Ginger :)

Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time there was a very tall boy and a really petite girl. They went to the same big university and ended up at the same party. The girl, who really liked to drink wine, realized she had no corkscrew and must make a trip to the store and get one at once. She asked if anyone wanted to go to the store with her, and the boy said yes. Although she really didn't know the boy, she agreed. So they made the trip to the store, drank (all) the wine and decided they liked each other.

The boy and the girl proceeded to spend all their time together. Now the girl realized how silly they must have looked walking around beside each other, for the boy was much, much taller than her, and she was quite sure people were saying how funny they looked together. This bothered the girl quite a bit for awhile, and she decided she should probably not walk around with the boy any longer. But before she got a chance to say anything, she forgot about it.

The boy and the girl spent the next three years at the university together, and they decided to get married after they graduated. They had a nice wedding, went on a great honeymoon, and became husband and wife. They went on to have real jobs, and buy cars and houses, and travel too. After a few years of being married, the husband and wife decided they would like to have a baby. They waited and waited and waited, but could not have a baby. They cried big tears, and went to doctors, and years later, were blessed with twins, a boy and a girl. The husband and wife were so happy to have a family that they always wanted! And then, before they ever caught up on their sleep, they were blessed with another surprise baby girl. Now the house was running over with little people, and they liked it.

The last baby will celebrate her first birthday in a few days, and tomorrow the husband and wife will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. They've learned a few new things about each other in the past 10 years. For instance, no matter how hard the husband tries to change her, the wife is still messy and always leaves papers laying on the counter. And as much as the wife wishes otherwise, the husband doesn't have a spontaneous bone in his body. He has never planned a surprise, booked a trip, or brought home flowers just because. The husband refuses to make phone calls or pay bills. The wife will never take out the garbage (it's not her job).

But whatever shortcomings the husband and wife may have, they do seem to make up for in other ways. The husband's extreme patience and calm nature certainly compliment the wife's short fuse and excitability. The wife is enthusiastic and a dreamer, and helps to inspire the husband to do big things he might not otherwise. He's a good cook. She bakes great cakes. He digs gardens and fixes things. She does the photo albums and sews nice things. He lets her sleep in on the weekends. He makes coffee every morning. She lets him mow the lawn for hours on end. She lets him buy expensive man toys.

He knows how to piss her off at the touch of a button, and sometimes seems to find pleasure in it. But he can make her laugh like no one else. So hard that she is crying and gasping for air. She knows she sometimes annoys the hell out of him, yet she doesn't stop. But she has brought tears of sheer happiness to his eyes on more than one occasion. He knows that she loves him more than anything, because she tells him. She knows he loves her too, he shows her.

They agree on most things and don't sweat the small stuff. Fortunately they have the same taste in furniture and cars. And they both like to look at antiques, and garden, and visit the river. They are lucky to not have to fight about kids or finances. They like to bicker of course, but don't let things get out of hand. They are really good at talking things over.

Ten years has gone by so fast, and no doubt the next ten will go by even faster. The boy and the girl look forward to watching their children grow, turning their dreams into realities, and of course, bickering with each other. The wife will still leave papers all over the counter, and the man will still refuse to make phone calls or plan vacations. But somehow. It works.

Happy Tenth!

Parks and such

So today I decided to get the kids to a park since we're having lower-than-avg temps and a bit of a breeze to boot. We won't be having many more days like this for months to come so I had to take advantage of it.

We ended up finding a nice small park in a new neighborhood near us and spent a nice hour there. On the way home, I decided to drive through another neighborhood to see if they had any nice parks, for future reference. So we did come across a park in this neighborhood as well, but it was gated. It was a large area that required one of those HOA cards to get through the gate. So I told the kids sorry but we can't get in, the gate is locked.

And Lilly says "wait a minute mommy, we could use a pogo stick to jump over the gate if we want." I love it when my kids can truly make me laugh out loud for real. And I did. This isn't the first pogo-stick reference to come out of her mouth, and it just always makes me laugh. We don't have a pogo-stick, and she's never really seen one or read about one that I know of. My guess is it came from some show we watched. But my girl is clever isn't she!

In other news Baby Ginger has been taking many first steps. She can walk across a (small) room holding my hand, and she has also taken a few solo steps to count. I'm pretty sure she'll be a "walker" by her first birthday. She is SO proud of herself :) One of her current favorite pastimes is hanging out on the bottom stair, where she likes to sit, then stand, then sit... and perhaps lay on it as well. She thinks it's pretty fun. Like all soon-to-be toddlers she's fearless and has a few bruises to show for it.

And last but not least, my lil guy Owie. Owen hasn't been as fast with his speaking and enunciation as his sister, so he has referred to himself as Owie for quite some time. We have followed suit. Cause it's cute. Well last week every time I called him, he said "no mom, OWEN." Ah, break my heart! My little man is getting so big, and would now like to be called Owen :( Owen has developed quite a fear of carwashes. The drive through kind. I've only taken the kids through one a few times. Lilly thinks it's quite fun. Owen, on the other hand, I thought was choking on his chicken nugget last time we got near one. But no, he was just convulsing. The boy is terrified of car washes. No matter how hard I try to talk it up and explain it to him. If we approach the intersection where the car wash is, you will quite likely see him tearing up. He even gets quite upset in parking garages and don't get him near an elevator. So for now, my car is dirty (er). I hope this is a phase.



These are a few pictures from our day trip to Brenham, TX. It's only about an hour from us and a great little town. The drive getting there is really scenic too. We visited a really nice park (lots of shade!) and then did a tour of the Blue Bell Ice Creamery, a Texas institution. It was organized by the twins' club I'm in. It was a fun day.

Hanging around home. Tea party.

Another park. Sisters :)

Ginger's current fave hangout.

It was 95degrees today. Boo. The kids have one more day of school left until summer. Boo. I see lots of Candyland in my future. But that's OK.

And this is why I worry. One minute she's wearing a pretty pink toddler dress. The next...

And she shrieks with delight when Tik Tok comes on the radio. The party don't start til she walks in.

I'll be there when the Bluebonnets Bloom

We finally made it out to the Bluebonnets this year.

Just in case you don't know, the Bluebonnet is the Texas State Flower. They start blooming in late March, on the highways, in fields, everywhere. To drive by a field of them can be almost breathtaking. Drive past any large field of them on a Saturday in April, and you will see oodles of cars pulled over with families and such taking pictures. It's a Texas Tradition. Seeing Texas in bloom this time of year almost makes up for the misery we all know we are soon about to bear. Unforgiving heat. And mosquitoes. I guess the flowers are nature's precursory peace offering.








Want to know how many takes it took to get those 5 pictures? 48. Yeah, that's right. So I hope you enjoyed them. And I learned something today. Apparently it's not illegal to pick Bluebonnets. All my life I've been told "Don't pick the Bluebonnets!" "It's against the law!" Now I hear that's just an old wives tale. That there was an article in the paper today. I had already told the kids the police man would put them in jail if they picked them. And now I hear it IS OK to pick them. From Grandma. Who's picking them right and left while the kids watch with their jaws open.