Time To Cool Off

We've had a heat-wave over the last couple weeks. It was in the upper 90s and even got up to 103 on a couple days. I thought it was time to get the pool out for the kids. In the end, I decided to let Rick do it. It was too dirty for me. But I did get out the sprinkler. The kids just loved it. Chris didn't know what to think of it at first. He never ran near the middle, but he enjoyed running through the edges.

Rick cleaned the kids pool out, patched the little hole, and filled it up on Saturday. The kids got to play in it for about an hour. The first thing Chris did when he got out was to go sit in the dirt. Just like a little boy! Rick had to spray him off before I could change his clothes. Oh well. The most important thing is that he had lots of fun.

I took pictures of the kids in the sprinklers, and Rick took pictures of the kids in the pool. I'll try to get a few of those pictures on here.

Playing Outside

We've been having some really nice days here. I took the kids outside a couple times last week. I got a few pictures of them.



















Chris loves to sit on our back steps.































Rick found that hard hat in Huntington Park. Someone lost it off of a ship. It has the name of the ship scraped into it. Rick thought it was cool, so we brought it home. The kids love to play with it.

I put Chris in the little bear harness(it's like a backpack with a leash), and we took a walk. Chris stopped every few seconds to exclaim over birds and the sky and everything else he could see. It was so cute.

Rick had duty this weekend, so we didn't get to go to church. When Rick got home, we went over to Boardman's house. We had church and a snack afterwards. We really appreciate the fellowship we have. I don't know what we'd do without them.

Summer is right around the corner. I plan to enjoy it with my family. There will be plenty of pictures. I'll try to post more often.

Cakes

Last Saturday, I made a marble cake and decorated it. This is only the second one I've really decorated. It was a "Happy Spring" cake. I just bought a decorators bag and tips and wanted to try them out. I used shortening icing to decorate with. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Here's what it looked like.

Wedding Pictures

This is all my aunts and uncles with the bride and groom.















You may now kiss your bride!

Wedding Pictures

This is all the brothers and sisters together with
Grandpa and Grandma Walter.




















Uncle John walking Grandma down the aisle.

My Travels

I guess it's been almost a month since I last posted. Pretty bad huh? Lots of things have happened in these past few weeks. I'll just give you the highlights.

My Grandma Rowley fell in love and was planning her wedding. Rick was trying to figure out a way to get me down to Tennessee for it. We finally decided that I should fly to West Virginia and ride down with my parents. Then came all of the preparations for that trip.

Rick decided that I needed a break from the kids. I offered to take Chris with me, but he said no. He wanted to care for the kids for 4 days, while I went away. He said it was only fair, after he'd left us all behind several times, while he was in the military. I didn't know what to think about that. Four days with no kids?!? How would I stand that?

Finally, the day arrived. We loaded my things in the trunk of the car and drove about 30 minutes to the Norfolk International Airport. I felt reluctant to leave my kids, so we walked around for a little while, looking in shops. It felt so strange, saying goodbye to my family.

I love to fly, but I hadn't flown in years. I always get nervous. I"m just afraid that I'll get lost and miss my plane. I've never done that, but I'm always afraid I will someday. I flew from Norfolk to Detroit, MI. As you know, that airport is HUGE. So, when I landed, I read where I was supposed to go and trucked my way along on the walkways(I love those things!). I had to walk through a tunnel that was all lit up with flashing lights. They were in the walls and ceiling. It was so cool! Anyway, I got to my gate, and found that they had moved my departure gate. I finally got to the right place. Whew! What a relief! When I finally got to Charleston, my mother, sister and brother were waiting for me. Always nice to see familiar faces.

The next day, we all crawled into Dad's Caprice, and set off for Friendsville, Tennessee. When we got there, we went over to the rehearsal dinner. I saw lots of familiar faces from the past. Not only family, but also people from Pennsylvania, who I knew from Penn View.

The wedding was beautiful. Lavender, white, and purple. My mother and my Aunt Ruth were the bridesmaids. I took a few pictures. Dad's turned out better though. I'll be posting a few with this entry.

All of Mom's brothers and sisters made it for the wedding. All 10 of them in one place. It was one of those rare occasions. Uncle Terry traveled the farthest. California! Dan and Debbie NM, Dave and Anita OK, Nathan and Ruth Mississippi, Dad and Mom WV, Steve and Amy PA, Steve OH, Daniel and Rhonda, Chris and Kathy, and John and Sherri TN. It was great to see everyone again.

I finally got back home on Monday, April 21. I was glad to be home with my little family again. I missed them very much. Coming home is the best part of going away.

More Pictures of The Kids

I figured out how to flip the pictures around. I did it all on my own! I'm not a computer whiz, so it's nice when I can figure something out on my own.



















My little Princess!



















Here's Daddy's favorite picture.



















Poor Chris got tired of pictures.



















Christopher's best smile ever!