work field trip ..

on tuesday we had a shop field trip as ellie called it .. we meet at two sons floats in noel missouri .. most of us meet at 10 am ... someone .. was lost and didn't get there until 10:30 .. but that's ok .. we waited on him .. and waited and waited .. but he showed up .. and we still like him .. 

we parked our cars .. loaded coolers .. squirt guns .. sunscreen .. diet coke .. oreos and a few other things that one must take on a float trip with them into the bus  .. piled on .. and drove 7 miles up river ..

we piled out of the bus .. loaded our canoes and 1 raft and got to paddling ..

not me .. i had my paddling privileges revoked .. it seems turning the canoe around numerous times and running into the tree branches that hang down don't work for certain people in my canoe .. so ruth yanked the paddle out of my hand and told me no more paddling .. stick to taking pictures she said ..

tom and sarah ..

sweet travis .. and yes he can see thru that hair .. he just flips it to the side .. i wish you could see his eyes .. he has amazing eyes .. they sparkle .. 

his eyes have the young kid sparkle .. you know they kind of sparkle were you have no worries and summers are fun and carefree .. the kind of sparkle that requires only 5 hours of sleep and doesn't have to do laundry and convince dirt loving boys that they need to take a bath because they smell .. bad .. 

there were just a few spots that you had to get out and walk your canoe/raft .. 

mike dug his vintage seadoo swim suit out to wear .. actually .. i think it might be his only swim suit .. but vintage sounds lots better ..

noah and me .. look i am in a picture .. with noah .. and it is a good .. no make that a great one !!!

noah and ruth .. 

mike and his sweet and pretty wife rachel ..

jeff and his dear sweet wife debbie ..

the whole group 

we had a great day .. 

we laughed .. floated .. paddled .. well some of us did .. we saw a snake which caused us to spill all the sangria .. ate all the oreos .. jumped off rocks .. trees and swings ..

most of all we didn't hurry .. well some of us didn't .. jeff was just sure that it was going to take all day to go the whole 7 miles .. who cares i kept saying .. this is not a race .. this is relaxing .. we don't have to finish first ..

we didn't ..

we came in 3rd .. for those of you who care !

montreal pics ..

when we got off the plane these signs where all over the airport .. 

cash thought they said "dick lanes of grand lake"

my favorite place ever was right across the street from the hotel .. to bad ellie isn't big enough to run across a busy street in a foreign non-english speaking country to get me coffee ...

this was also across the street .. dairy queen dip cones is all i can say !

snack time .. 

oh mommmaaaa this is sooooo good .. cash i think you need a napkin !

plan b ..

so my evening didn't go as i had hoped .. which means that i had to move to plan b .. which means that i ate a handful of oreos and then ran .. and then my mind went crazy and wouldn't stop .. so i kept running until all my thoughts had thought themselves out ..

we got back from montreal last night about 9 or so .. we were barely able to make it thru the gate when the kids threw open their car doors and scampered up the hill to granny's .. it had .. after all been 5 whole days since they had seen her last .. they stayed .. didn't want to come home .." bring me some clothes" i was told .. ok .. i said .. how about a night gown and some fresh undies to go with those clothes .. great mom .. 

i took my running shoes to montreal .. thought it might be fun to run the streets in the early morning .. hahaha .. didn't happen ... didn't even make it onto the treadmill .. we walked every corner of that city .. up and down every hill .. and that in itself is a funny thing to see .. jeff takes about 16 steps for every 2 the kids and i take .. i am trying to keep cash from picking up miscellaneous items from the street .. nuts .. bolts .. washers .. anything that might be useful for him .. he crams his pockets full of these items .. and then when his pockets are full he will ask me to hold onto his "treasures" for him .. and then there is ellie .. she is window shopping the whole time .. "oh mom" .. she exclaims at every window that has some spectacular french fashion in it .. i want that .. when you are 25 i tell her .. and that .. oh .. what a beautiful dress .. and those shoes ..

while this is going on cash is in the middle of the street .. he has found a coke lid with letters inside it .. these are his favorite .. ellie has her face plastered to the glass window of a super fancy store and jeff is no where to be seen .. 

ellie come on i holler .. cash .. drop that lid .. and get out of the street .. jeff where are you .. 

entertaining at least .. is all i can say .. 

so my point is my feet where tired from scouring the city of montreal .. so i didn't run .. and then there was the ridiculously amazing food and wine .. there was no way i could run .. so full of food i could hardly move .. so full of wine i for sure could not have run straight .. i just knew that when i got back home that it was going to be like starting over ..

but it wasn't .. i think the super rich and delicious food and wine was just what i needed .. a boost to my training program you could call it .. i churned out 4 miles tonight like i WAS a "marathon runner" ..

also have a new obstacle to watch out for at night when i run .. besides the pot holes and those swarms of bugs that fly into my mouth and make me choke and those other bugs that dive bomb and hit me in the eye and blind me ..

snakes ... lots of snakes .. not the little green grass snake kind .. not the big big black kind that eat rodents .. but the dark brown stripy kind that i really don't care for .. not that i like the other kind .. but i really don't like the brown stripy kind ..

they come out at night and lay on the still hot road .. so i kinda hop and jump back and forth from side to side while running down the road .. geezzz .. that's all i need to step on a snake and get bit .. or worse .. trip over a snake and fall and then have the snake attack me while i am lying on the ground trying to recover from tripping ..

oh man .. great run i had ..

tomorrow pictures .. of montreal .. not snakes 

playing in the fountains ..

jeff is touring the seadoo factory in sherbrooke canada today .. so the kids and i are taking a day off .. we slept in .. did a little shopping .. grabbed a picnic lunch and hit the park .. 

they have the funnest fountains .. 

the kids ran from one end of the fountains to the other ..

my guess is .. we had more fun than jeff did today .. 

bam .. boom .. ahhh

a little bit before the fireworks started the wind picked up and blew us around .. we had to pull up the anchor .. find another spot and start all over .. 

thank goodness strong and handsome jay was still with us .. 

it was hard to get great pics because the wind was swinging the boat from side to side .. you have to be very still to get good fire work pics .. 

things were just humming along until about 20 minutes into the fire works and then this storm blew in 

storms are fun to watch .. from your front yard or back porch ..

not on a boat on the water that is full of kids 

 ok .. got to go now .. 

big big lighting scares momaaaaaaaa ..

.. and then crack ..

we watched the fireworks from the boat again this year .. we had a few more people and aliens with us though .. greg .. hunter and johanna went to cherokee to eat and watch the fireworks .. so we kidnapped alf and took him with us .. we also sent greg pictures of alf "celebrating" .. he didn't think that it was near as funny as we did ..

cj .. love his hair ..

sydnee .. misty .. and ellie .. 

uncle jay ..

we watched the war birds fly over .. we ate pizza .. we drank beer and dp and grape pop ..

cobalt boats always hands out popsicles .. they were good and cold .. and rock hard ..

we had a big discussion on the way home on just what order the colors were in .. between jay .. ellie and syd i think we got it figured out .. we are so brilliant !!

we finally found a spot to anchor and watch the fireworks .. this means that we had to get the huge anchor out and lower it oh so carefully down into the water so that we didn't loose it .. it was dad's anchor .. since "babe" does not do anchors i asked jay if he could help jeff out with this one .. jay is super strong and handsome afterall .. he can do the anchor .. i carried the pizza boxes .. he could do the anchor .. that's fair right ?

check out jay's muscles .. you all have to because we did .. see that big knot/tangle jeff is working on .. while he was untangling the rope .. strong and handsome jay is holding onto the 500 pound anchor .. just holding on .. trying to keep it from flying thru his hands and yanking him into the lake and then sinking to the bottom of duck creek .. never to be seen again .. 

see muscles .. 

and now the knot/tangle is bigger and strong and handsome jay is holding onto the 500 pound anchor with just one hand .. amazing that brother of jeff's is .. 

so we got the anchor set .. 

got the kids settled in .. the grda had come by and handed out "we got caught wearing our life jackets" t-shirts .. we were all ready for a great firework show ..

and then ..

crack ... 

mommmmmaaaaa .. is see lighting over there .. should we go in ..