My life...just not on the road I expected (but it's still dang good).

A Short Holiday Weekend

I bet you thought I wasn't going to blog today...

We didn't have any big plans for Memorial Day weekend but we did drive up to Seven Feathers to spend Friday night with Josh's family.

We pretty much got there in time for dinner.

And dessert.

And then we went back to the room so everyone could change into their swimsuits. (Not me though - me and the sausages don't do swimsuits.)

I didn't shoot at the pool for very long because the light was horrible. (I figured everyone would want to go swimming in the morning so I'd have an opportunity to shoot when the light was better - turns out no one wanted to swim the next day so this is the only decent swimming shot I have.)

Josh and his brother Jamey wanted to go gambling that evening.

I volunteered to stay with the kids though (since my fear of losing money far outweighs my excitement of potentially winning money.) Josh said he lost $40 in the first 30 minutes and gave up. (I think Jamey went home with a few extra bucks in his pocket though.)

The next morning, we had breakfast and then Josh and Coley hung out at the arcade while the girls and I goofed off in the room...

And then we set out for home.

Hope yours was good.

This Time Next Year

Last night, Annie's school put on a program for the graduating kindergartners.

This time next year, Annie will be a graduating kindergartner.

Crazy.

Have a great weekend.

Mahoney

My mom has been wanting a kitten and yesterday, I found the perfect one for her...

I stopped by Annie's school to show her the new kitten (because she's been really excited about it) and she sweet-talked me into coming home early (even though I had a busy work-day ahead of me) so she could babysit the kitten until my mom stopped by to get him.

My mom named him Patrick Mahoney, but I'm hoping she just calls him Mahoney. (I like Mahoney.)

We gave him a bath (He was really stinky.) and cuddled/played with him all morning.

After a couple hours, I wasn't sure I could part with him.

But we'll be able to visit.

And some good news...I think my recent trend of blogging only once a week is nearing its end.

The bad news...I feel like I've lost any small amount of wit or charm I once had (which doesn't make for good blogging.)

Ferndale

A few months ago, a past student (who shares the same wedding anniversary as Josh and I) emailed to say that she wanted to take my One Day Photographers' Workshop in Florida but felt bad since it meant she'd be missing her wedding anniversary. She figured since I was missing mine though, that maybe it wouldn't be a big deal to miss hers as well.

Unfortunately, I hadn't actually realized that I would be missing my anniversary until after I read her email.

I guess I'm just not an anniversary-type of girl.

A few weeks before our very first anniversary, I called Josh, excited about a Photoshop class I wanted to take on May 22nd. Josh (who had made surprise plans for our first anniversary) said, "Baby, don't we have something scheduled on May 22nd?" to which I replied, "No, I checked the Google Calendar and May 22nd is clear."

In my defense though, Josh Downs spent our last anniversary in Hawaii, without me. Granted, he was there for military stuff, but it's still a fun card for me to hold.

In fact, I played that card after realizing I was going to be in Florida, teaching on our anniversary this year.

So we decided to celebrate our anniversary early in Ferndale CA, where Josh was working on a project last week.

We headed out of town Wednesday afternoon in a big, old, Ford truck with an exhaust leak (His bosses truck.) and 25,0000 pounds worth of equipment loaded on a trailer behind us.

We stopped in Grants Pass to grab lunch and got into Ferndale around 8:00 p.m., just in time to unload our stuff and grab a late dinner at the hotel.

The next morning, we had breakfast and then Josh headed off for work and I headed out for a run. (The fact that I actually enjoy running enough at this point in my life to willingly hit the pavement while on vacation still boggles my mind.) Josh had scheduled a manicure/pedicure for me later in the morning and once he got done working, we rode our bikes to the beach. (It was only a 10 mile ride but I swear it was uphill both ways.)

After we loaded our bikes back up in the truck, we laid down in the grass under a tall, church steeple and a big, blue sky. (My favorite memory from the whole trip.)

That night, we had dinner in the bar of the Ivanhoe, listening to an open mic of old but wonderful songs like Honeysuckle Rose. I don't think anyone that performed was under 70 years of age. There was an 88 year old gal, yodeling and playing a steel guitar and an accordion player, dressed in pressed blue jeans who looked old enough that he might actually expire during his performance. The place was filled with what looked like regulars and I spent a good chunk of the evening admiring a table full of 80+ year old couples who were laughing, singing along with the music, rubbing their spouses shoulders and eating out of a brown bag full of snacks they must have brought from home.

I don't know that you could ask for a better evening at 80 (or at 38.)

Packed up early the next morning, had breakfast and was back on the road so we could make it home before Ross (who was watching the kids) had to be to work.

Before we left though, I took my camera out for the first time and only time during trip...

Happy (early) Anniversary Josh Downs. You're the best person I know.

Perfectly Imperfect

Some of the daily details of my family's life are probably much too boring to make for good blogging material. Someday though, I won't have a blog and since I won't have a blog, I won't have blog readers and that means that no one other than my family will be reading these old posts.

And the boring daily details are exactly what they'll want to remember...

Josh was home all day on Friday, battling the stomach flu and packing for an overnight camping trip with Cole and his brother that he was determined to go on, regardless of the fact that he had the stomach flu.

Since it was just Annie and I for the evening, I decided to pick her up early from school and to surprise her by taking her somewhere that she loves to go. (Somewhere I don't love to go.)

I took her to the mall.

She recently decided that she'd like to wear shorts and since she has refused to wear anything other than dresses for the last year and a half, she doesn't own any pants, let alone any shorts.

We went to A Children's Place but the shorts were too 'short' for my over-protective, borderline-prudish nature. We went to the Gap but again, the shorts were too 'short' and too expensive. We went to Target where the price-was-right but the shorts were too 'short.' Finally we found one pair that wasn't too short at Old Navy so we snagged them along with a new Hello Kitty t-shirt. Then we went home so Annie could change into her new attire before heading out to pizza with friends and then we called it a night.

While we slept, all cozy & warm, Josh, Cole and Jamey (Josh's brother) spent the evening in the woods about four miles up Lost Creek in their new hammock tents (which weren't staked in correctly) while it rained and one by one, their hammock tents flipped over and began letting in rain. Given a number of circumstances, they remained in those positions and woke in the morning after very little sleep, drenched to the bone.

They spent the next day fishing and and we spend the next day at soccer and a few antique shops.

We met back up at home Saturday afternoon, relaxed for awhile and decided to ride our bikes to Medford (about five miles away) for dinner.

We kept having to stop to air up Annie's tire and after making it nearly all the way to Medford, we decided to turn back because we didn't want to ride home in the dark, stopping to air her tire every five minutes. So we got back to the truck and drove to dinner instead. (Annie never got any dinner though because she fell asleep before the food arrived.)

Next morning, we got up early and drove out to Ashland to take my step-mom to breakfast at my favorite breakfast joint for Mother's Day. (If you're ever in Ashland, Oregon you have to stop by here and have their Lemon-Ricotta Stuffed French Toast - trust me on this one.) Our hope was to get there a few minutes before they opened (8:00) since the wait is usually long. By the time we got there though, there was already a line looping down and around the sidewalk. We got in line anyhow and held our breath in the hopes that we'd manage to get a table. Turns out the group before us took the very last table (which meant we were looking at a 45+ minute wait.)

So we had breakfast at Elmer's instead (where they most certainly do not serve Lemon-Ricotta Stuffed French Toast.)

By that time, we were late for church so we went to the later service instead before heading over to Josh's parents to BBQ.

I just read back through all of that and am quite certain this is the most boring blog post I've ever written. (It was however, a perfectly imperfect weekend that I want to remember.)

I can't even dress up all those boring paragraphs with photos (since I didn't take any.)

I did however manage to pick up my camera for the first time in weeks after I realized that Ross was playing hide-n-seek with the kids out in the mill at Josh's parents house...

Ross and Annie counting while Cole and Courtney hid.

A blurry one of Cole and Annie running off to hide.

My favorite shot.

Ross (dramatically) running to base.

Ross and Courtney hollering because I was giving up their hiding spot.

Courtney yelling, "Ready or not, here we come!"

The boys were hiding in there. (You can see Coley's fingers at the very top.)

Ross, trying to keep away from Cole.

Another favorite.

And another imperfect shot that I happen to love.

Perfection is so overrated.

Hope your Mother's Day was great, however imperfect.

Sunday

Cole spent half the day on Sunday constructing elaborate guns out of PVC pipes.

Annie spent half the day at a birthday party for our neighbor-friend (hence the princess tierra, the ginormous plastic ring and the heart-shaped necklace with lip gloss inside.)

I spent most of the day feeling under-the-weather. (Remember, I closed down the bar the night before.)

And I wavered on posting that last shot (Annie was upset because she scratched her middle finger on her PVC gun.) but couldn't resist.

And another reminder that I'll be teaching my one day photography workshop at She Scrapbooks on Saturday, May 21st in The Villages, Florida. (352-259-6226) This is the only in-person class I'll be teaching in 2011 so I hope to see some of you there. (Lots and lots of gals from my online classes are driving/flying in for it so it's going to be a FUN weekend!) If you're coming, email me to let me know because we're planning to get together for dinner on Friday night in The Villages and some of us are hanging out in Orlando on Sunday as well! (karen@snapshotsofagoodlife.com)

Have a great day.

The Party (With Few Photos)

We celebrated birthdays for my Aunt and Grandpa on Saturday.

This was one of the only photos I took though (My dad and Annie.) because sometimes, I just don't feel like shooting.

Thankfully though, my little cousin thought to snag this shot of us on the dance floor just shortly before we closed the joint down at 2:00 a.m. (I wish you all could have been there to see my cousin Shell cut a rug to My Chick Bad.)

Feeling simultaneously proud and embarrassed about closing the bar down.

And antiquated or not, 'cutting a rug' is the best expression ever.

And despite appearances, I never managed to sprout any taller than 5'3.