Chapter 399

While putting the kitchen rubble away from the countertop project, I found my yucca palm that Chris picked out for me for my birthday. It was tucked waaay back among a pile of boxes. I dug the old guy out, dusted him off, gave him a good long drink since he hadn't been watered all winter, and set him outside to build up strength before being abandoned in the dining room again next winter. 

Since we have new countertops, now I have to redecorate. I found a cute dish towel with utensils on it so I made a valence out of it. I couldn't re-use the old coffee picture either, so I made a utensil sign from old silverware for the old frame. It turned out pretty well. Next wall decorations.

To start my wall decoration project, I cut up a bunch of old silverware. That's how everyone starts out their projects, right???

Then I made a spoon flower. My plan is to make 3 of them to put on the wall.

Mary Lou and I went to the "new" IKEA to see what (more) there is to see. It's huge with two floors, endless walking, and a bold new cafeteria - the best part. While we ate our lunches, we were wishing our youngin's Reagan, Carter, Hugo, and Malcom were eating lunch with us. What a perfect view of all the different kinds of tractor activities while eating an IKEA lunch or snack. 

The first thing I see on my first day off from school. "I don't care if you don't have to get up early to go to work for the summer. I'm ready to get up!"

 I went to the dentist for a checkup and came out needing a root canal the next day. Amazingly I slept through quite a bit of the procedure (without medication). Dr. Mark said it was a compliment to him that I slept (and snored) through most of the heavy-duty root canal-y part. My question is, just why can I sleep through a root canal with all it's noise, vibration, and a rubber dam like this, but I can't seem to fall asleep at bedtime? 

On to more pleasant subjects, we went out to Lake Nahwatzel to Scott and JoAnn's cabin to meet up with the family and catch up on those folks that don't publish blogs are up to. There was floaty-ing...

 and lounging.

The cousins are getting old enough to interact, and it's clear Carter is not impressed with the girls at all.

 Payton shared her coloring books with Reagan who was working very hard to color the little details of a princess' dress.

Carter is still not impressed.

Carter and Carissa strike the pose of the day while the rest of the crew lounge on the lawn.

A lot. Between Bob and JoAnn, they have generated all of this:

  

Carter. Still. Not. Impressed.

The original four cousins.

The next generation of cousins. 

Payton and Reagan almost played together. They are finally able to communicate and interact with each other. It was fun to watch.

The cousins and their "plus ones". You can see Ryan in the back row holding his hat up so we can find him. After I got home, I realized I hadn't taken any of the genesis of this group; us old people. I'll try harder next year to do that. JoAnn, you try to remember to do that too. Maybe between the two of us we can form one brain cell and get this done.

Reagan love the little fighter jet floaty with the water gun on it. She bobbed around with the rest of us quite a bit. You can see her Auntie Kyanne floating out to sea in the background.

Carter finally gave up on this whole pink and purple parade. He went to find some manly stuff to do.

All the v.2 cousins in the paddle boat hoping if they look cute enough a driver/paddler would come by and give them a ride.

Back here at home the garden is blazing in greenery. 

We've had lots of lettuce, herbs, sugar snap peas, and the tomatoes are starting to set on.

 In preparation of painting the house, Bob is tearing up some of the 35+ year old eaves and fixing some leaks so we can get another 35+ years out of them.

This could go bad quickly.

My poor flowers took a big hit. I hope it can forgive us (meaning Bob) and continue growing as well as they have been.

Reagan just loves kayaking with Chris and Carissa. The photo on the left was taken exactly one year ago from the photo on the right which was last week's kayak outing. For some crazy reason they kayaked out of the same place on the same day as they had the year before. Reagan looks happy to get out on the water in both photos.

Next year, Reagan will have to have her own kayak to tow behind the main one since she is getting bigger.

Reagan loves the library. She's discovered it to be the Mecca of books the original library creators meant it to be. While looking up the history of the library to see when the first library occurred, I found out that all I need to say they've been around a long time. I did find the above link pretty interesting, for a book nerd, anyway. Here Reagan is returning her book to return box.

And sitting on a bench to read along with the statue. Isn't this just the cutest photo?

Finding/painting/hiding rocks is a huge thing right now in their area. Reagan loves to find painted rocks and "hide" them for the next people to find. The art on some of these rocks shows there are some astounding artists out there on the peninsula!

Have a great week, Everyone!