Day Two: Lazy Sunday.

after a morning kerfuffle over a bit of bacon, a few red lights, and some less-than-stellar directions on the way to church, we were more than ready to pack a lunch and spend the afternoon doing nothing and being lazy at the park where we ran the 5K the day before.

while we were happy to eat our lunch and play with bubbles, Dad and the brothers-in-law wandered off to see what all there was to actually do at the park.

they came back with a plan: boats! a jon-boat, (not to be confused with a dinghy because for some reason they are apparently different) a paddleboat, and a two-person kayak were just right to keep us all entertained and gave us plenty of chances to try out all the different options.

although some of us were skeptical at first, once we were on the water it was obvious that this was a great plan.

there was plenty of wildlife to see, including dragonflies and turtles and this little frog-guy who jumped right out of the lake and onto Dad's arm, beginning a trend of us seeing at least one frog every day for the rest of the week.

we spent the whole afternoon just paddling lazily around the little lake. it was fun, and relaxing, and mostly cloudy so we didnt have to worry (too much) about overheating or sunburn.

also, we need to start looking more seriously into getting ourselves some kayaks and finding a place to use them, because i had almost forgotten how much i like being on a lake in a kayak.

near the end of the afternoon, there may or may not have been a mini naval battle, with the jon-boat attempting to forcefully enlist the "athletic couple" in the kayak (hey thats us!) to pull their lazy butts back to dock.

however, due to a miscalculation on their part, they ended up towing us instead!

it was a great day to be together. and don't we all just look so very good in our life vests? i might just have to start wearing one all the time. think anyone else would join in on the trend?

the only downfall of the day was that the hubs had a minor run in with chiggers. i didnt bother to take any pictures of the tiny creepy little bugs that were all over his feet and ankles, because um, ew gross! but have no fear they were spotted quickly and swiftly eradicated with a combination of a towel, some hand sanitizer, a can of Raid (for his shoes), some hydrogen peroxide, and a good scrub in the shower. in fact, if i hadnt just mentioned them right now, they would probably be one of those long-forgotten vacation memories because they were just that much of a non-event in the grand scheme of a great vacation.

Day One: Vaca 5K.

i know. i know. i should have been blogging every day of vacation this past week like my Mom did so as not to have to bore you all with things that happened a week ago. (or more, depending on how good of a recapper i actually end up being) but i was having too much fun actually enjoying vacation to take any time at all for blogging. sorry about that. so just sit back, relax, and enjoy as i extend my vacation (at least mentally) for as long as possible.

note: since Friday was a travel day and all we really did was show up, eat dinner, and chill at the pool, i'm not counting it as a full day.

we woke up bright and early Saturday morning to run the First Ever Family Vaca 5K Fun Run/Walk. the hubs ran with me to keep me motivated, which is a good thing, otherwise i would probably have quit at least three times. the route ended up being just a little longer than an official 5K (3.6 miles according to my sisters GPS) but we were all able to finish!!! Mark and I crossed the finish line at just over 44 mins, with the rest of the fam not far behind. everyone was finished in under an hour. and everyone came in first in their division!

ps how great are those shirts?!?

 it was a really good thing that we decided to do the 5K first thing, because it gave us all a great sense of accomplishment and allowed us to fully enjoy the rest of the week without having anything big like a 3+ mile run looming over our heads the whole time.

we spent the rest of the (very hot and humid!) day checking out a local farmers market, which came complete with a bluegrass band!

and in the evening we headed over to Busch Gardens for a few late-night rides and to watch their evening fireworks display.

and to think all that was just the first day...

pre-vacation thoughts.

my family is going on vacation together. to Colonial Williamsburg. we leave on Friday. this will be our second family vacation to Williamsburg. my oldest sister missed it the first time. (lucky her!) for those of you who are uninitiated to the tale of what will inevitably go down in history as the worst family vacation ever in the history of all family vacations, some highlights of the first trip included a 4th of July weekend with 100+degree temperatures paired with 100% humidity, no air conditioning, warm drinks, a closed wig-makers shop, an open blacksmith shop, (great idea for a hot day - small room full of a raging FIRE!) missing all the 4th of July festivities, all while being constantly reminded of what a great day it would be for the water park. did i miss anything? doesn't that just sound like such a good time? no lie, everybody's favorite part of the trip was the night we ate dinner out of a vending machine and watched junkyard wars on tv.

so we're going back to give it another try! this will be the first time we have all been together since my wedding in October.

two parents, four kids, three husbands, and two babies. all together for a week of fun, running, the beach, pools, amusement parks, hysterical laughing, a little bit of history, and a lot of straight-up relaxing, with (most likely) just a sprinkle of drama and (most definately) plenty of food.

i started packing last night. because i am nothing if not a horrible last-minute packer. just ask anyone who knows me. i stress about trying to remember everything i will need, overthink every single article of clothing i pack, obsess about how many pairs of shoes are acceptable to bring (a different pair every day? why not?!)(but seriously is 5 too many?) and ultimately end up freaking the freak out before blindly shoving anything and everything into a bag with un-wreck-less abandon and i inevitably end up forgetting my deodorant. or my beach towel. or my bathing suit. or all of those things. i do not enjoy this process, and neither does the hubs since a lot of the freaking out ends up being directed at him, so i'm doing my best to avoid it for this trip.

because honestly, i really really really want this to be the best vacation ever. so much so that it's tainting my over-the-top-my-head-is-about-to-explode-from-squealing-jumpingupanddownexcitement-eeeeekkk!!! with just a little bit of being nervous about the whole thing. what if i do end up forgetting something important? what if its not as grand or great or exciting as i have worked it up to be in my head? what if we dont all get along anymore? what if we spend the whole week sitting in our hotel rooms because we can't decide what we should do? (what do you wanna do? i dunno, what d'you wanna do? now dont start THAT again!)

but really, i should probably just get over that. because the most exciting thing about this vacation is not the place, or the activities, or a few days off work. the exciting thing is that my whole family is going to be there, and do i really need anything more than that to look forward to?

because who knows when we will all be together again?

fun, food, fellowship, and softball.

last night was the softball league's fellowship game. the way i understand it, it's kind of like an all-star game, except without the whole "all-star" thing. a couple players from each team in the league all get together and play a for-all-intents-and-purposes meaningless game of softball before the final tournament starts on thursday. the thing that makes this game different from an "all-star" game is that the players aren't necessarily the best players from each team, but rather just those that are available that evening. its all about having a good time and getting to know people on the other teams.

and a good time was had by all, the pitcher tried some behind the back pitches (i didnt know that was possible!), the ump made some pretty wacky calls (calling strikes as soon as the ball was pitched lol) and the coaches/score keepers threw a couple faux-fits-of-rage. seriously, it was the most fun a meaningless game of church league softball can be.

since i was already in the area getting my hair cut, i decided to go watch my "all-star" play. including the hubs, i knew a grand total of two people there, but there was free food, which meant that i didnt have to make dinner. awesome.

also awesome: what this field has that might prove to be better than a creek... a pond!

i can't believe i didn't know about this before now. i am SO going to more games next season...

down on the farm.

this is (part of) my small group. we usually meet on Thursdays, but we got together this past Saturday to help out Becky with some work that she needed to catch up on at the horse farm where she works.

the farm crew: Abi, Becky, Mark, Me, and Alex.



we shoveled horse poop. we fixed fences with varying degrees of nail-pounding skill and success. in the rain. (that felt SO nice!) we fixed holes in the barn walls. we cleaned bathrooms. we combatted rats and spiders and biting flies. we raked and hauled and tossed hay. i ended up with giant broken blisters on both of my thumbs. by the time we were done, it was 97 degrees outside. we were hot and sweaty and dirty and stinky.

and it was awesome. we chatted and joked and laughed the whole time. we didnt even realize our own stank until we decided to go get something for lunch and realized that our options were limited to places that would not judge us too harshly for having horse poo on our legs. we ended up sitting on the ground in the shade outside the front door of the WaWa up the road. it was a really fun way to spend a Saturday morning.

and then i went home and showered and zonked out for a two hour nap. and that was pretty awesome too.

primed.

i'm running out of words to say about this project. and i'm just guessing that you're kind of tired of reading words about this project. that's why i went a whole week without mentioning it. arent you so proud of me? did you even notice?

but even though the gargantuan project we are currently in the middle of has not been mentioned lately, we have still been working on it, so here. have a pic of the fireplace room (taken with my back to the sliding glass doors) after two coats of primer to cover up the new smooth ceiling and the old half-green walls.

so much better already. now just try and imagine how nice it's going to look after we paint the trim a crisp almost-white, add two coats of white ceiling paint, and two coats of this color on the walls:

(this is Haze ICC-22 by Behr, in case that's the kind of thing you need to know)

so that's where we are. the color is picked, but the paint is not yet bought so i still have the opportunity to change my mind at least three more times and re-consider stripes or a blue accent wall or a colored ceiling before deciding once again that yes, this is the right color. i think.

bag lady.

sometimes, it doesn't really take much at all to make you feel better about the state of your house and like less of a failure at housekeeping.
this is the story of my coat closet.

this is what it looked like two days ago...

...completely overrun by the plastic bags we had for some reason been saving. they were shoved in the closet wherever they would fit, mostly up on the shelf, but were always poised and ready for action. they would spring out at you when you opened the door, showering you in a barrage of crinkly plastic annoying-ness, hoping to be used for some sort of project or other various whatnot, relenting only after satisfying their sole purpose of making you pay attention to them for a few precious seconds before shoving them back up on their dark and lonely shelf.

finally, i decided that they deserved better than my pathetic attempts to make them feel useful. so i took them away. to a better place. where they could reinvent themselves and start a new life.

and we are all better off because of it. they get to go out and see the world and meet new people, and i get my coat closet back under control.

i kept one little bag of bags up on the shelf, because sometimes you really do need them. and hopefully with less competition around vying for my attention, they will no longer feel the need to attack me every time i open the door.