Labor Day Festivities

I was talking to aunt Debbie a few weeks ago and she said, "How are your sisters doing?"  And I said, "I don't know, I don't ever see them."  That's pretty sad since we all live fairly close to one another, so I decided that Labor Day was a good excuse to get together for a barbeque.

The hammock was the hit of the night.  These three even ate their dinner in the hammock.  There was one disasterous incident when Ava got bucked out of the hammock, but there was no permanent damage done.

Here I have put my fabulous brother-in-law to work assessing my patio roof.  The roof has needed to be replaced for several years now, but last week the wind ripped one of the panels off so it really has to be done now.  I need to decide whether I want to replace it with polycarbonate (plastic) or steel panels.  I am leaning towards the steel since they are sturdier and actually cheaper.  The only plus with the plastic panels is that they do let in more light.

Here we have most of the family in attendance, minus Brian who was taking the picture.  Why we are huddled in the corner behind the hammock for this I am not sure, but somebody wanted us to be by the trumpet vine.

Here we have me and Denise again posing in front of the trumpet vine.

  

Here we have Colton and JoLyn striking a pose, and below a picture of me. 

All in all I think a good time was had by all.  We should do this again some time.

End of HCG Round 2

I finished my second round of HCG yesterday.  The last week has been pretty worthless.  I went up almost two pounds at the first of the week, and it took me the rest of the week to take off those two plus another one.  All in all I am down 18 pounds this time around. 

I am pretty pleased with the results.  I went out today and bought a pair of size 6 jeans.  I have  never before in my life fit into a size six.  Granted, it is a misses size 6 and not a juniors size 6, but I will take it.  I may have also purchased a bikini.  Quick, get me to a beach while I can still fit into it!

In other news, I have survived my first official week back at work with kids.  The high school kids started on Monday and the little kids started on Wednesday.  Wednesday and Thursday were extremely hectic, but by Friday things had calmed down considerably.  Here's hoping that it just gets better from here on out!

Update

In anticipation of going back to a hot classroom I decided to chop my hair off.  Yes, this is a bad picture that I took by myself, but oh well.

I have been on hcg again for two and a half weeks and I am down 17 pounds.  All of a sudden none of my pants fit any more.  I bought a pair of jeans, but it is still so hot I can't imagine wearing them to work.  I searched high and low for a pair of capris or shorts today and I only found one pair that will work.  They aren't great looking, but at least they won't be as hot as long pants.  I tried on a pair of size 6 jeans at Ross today and they fit great.  I have never been a size 6 in my life, so I am really happy about that.

Buffalo, NY

Mom and I spent a few days in Buffalo visiting the fabulous Barnes resort.

Here is a front view picture of their cute home.

This is the only interior picture that I took.  I know that they are planning on doing a lot of painting in the next few weeks, so I decided to let them post the before and after pix.

On Saturday after our architectural tour we stopped at a park with a waterfall near their house.

Later that day we did some grocery shopping at Wegmans.  For those of you who have never experienced Wegmans, I feel sorry for you.  Forget Niagra Falls and those other hokey tourist destinations, if you happen to be near  a Wegmans make that your priority.  I really wish we had Wegmans in Utah.

Here is Liv modeling in front of just one of the many cheese displays.

Mom, Lex and Nate again in front of one of the many cheese displays.

Here we have Liv in the elevator at Wegmans.  Yes, Wegmans has an elevator.  None of the stupid grocery stores that I shop at have an elevator.  Unfortunately my pictures from the second floor didn't turn out very well.

On Sunday we went to the lovely village of Niagra-on-the-Lake.

Everyone wanted a picture of the Amish woman, so here we have Liv posing with the Amish woman in the background.

We passed this fort on the way to Niagra-on-the-Lake.  They were doing a revolutionary war reenactment in the field next to the fort, but Nate didn't want to stop.

After Niagra-on-the-Lake we stopped on the American side of Niagra Falls.  The falls were okay, but who are we kidding: the main purpose in stopping was to find some ice cream, and they had some delicious ice cream here.

Here we have both Lex and Live posing on the statue of Nicola Tesla.  Tesla was an electrical engineer and contemporary of Thomas Edison.  Although many of his inventions were just as revolutionary as Edison's, he was very eccentric and made a lot of wild claims which later earned him the reputation of a mad scientist.

Happenings

Summer is plugging right along, and I feel like I'm just as busy now as I am when I'm at work.  Between my morning hikes, yard work, house work, geneology, and Thursday's with Ava at Cherry Hill I don't end up having a lot of down time.  At least I get to sleep in most days, and that is fabulous.

I got a letter from the County this morning informing me that I have been selected for jury duty next Friday.  If I end up having to sit through a trial I hope that the defendant is as colorful as mom's "Silky Smooth".

One great find this summer has been the Ogden dog park.  I met a lady a few weeks ago who told me about it, and I have since been up there a couple of times each week.  Most of the people seem to be there on a regular basis and I am getting to know the other dogs.  Sometimes the other owners are chatty, and other times we just sit and watch the dogs play.  Shady is just as interested in the other people as she is in the dogs, and she makes sure to go around and let everyone have the opportunity to pet her.  I just wish we had a dog park a little closer to home.

I found this little guy on the trail the other day.  Luckily for him, Shady didn't notice him as she ran by, or he wouldn't still be alive.  When I came upon him he was just sitting there on the trail and he didn't seem to be the least bit concerned about me.  When I paused to get my camera out he did meander under this dandelion, but when I lifted up the leaf he just sat there and looked at me.  He was so tiny, about the size of the top of my pinky finger.

Here is a random photo that I like to call "Coonhound Among Wildflowers".

Fun at Lagoon - Sort Of!

Wednesday was Steph's work Lagoon Day and she kindly invited her sisters to join her.

The day started out okay.  It wasn't warm enough for the water park, but it was pleasant.

Since we had small children we spent most of our day in Kiddie Land.

Poor Ashlyn did not really enjoy many of the rides.  Even rides like these made her cry unless she could sit next to someone.

Grace and Ava enjoyed somem of the more "grown-up" rides.  This was Ava's favorite, but somehow I didn't manage to get a picture of her on it.  Grace would have ridden the wild roller coasters all day long.  I made it on the Spider twice and the Wild Mouse once, and that was about all that I could do.  I didn't enjoy either of them at all!  I am old, have a sensitive stomach, and I am afraid of heights.

Puff the Magic Dragon was my favorite roller coaster.

At lunch time Denise and her students joined us.  Ava and Grace enjoyed these rides too.  Ashlyn was scared.

Ash did actually enjoy this ride.

This would be Ashlyn's favorite ride.  She spent most of her day like this.

We figured that this was the reason that JoLyn didn't join us.

At about 3 pm the winds picked up and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees.  It was really miserable, but since they were serving Famous Dave's for dinner we decided to stick it out until 5:30.  Dinner was good, but I'm not sure it was worth the misery leading up to it.  As soon as we finished dinner we were out of there, and not a minute too soon.  As we were walking out to the parking lot it started to rain.  Here's hoping that next year's Lagoon Day falls on a day with better weather.

Shady's Biopsy

For anyone who cares, Shady's biopsy showed that the growth was not cancerous, so I don't have to put my dog through chemotherapy.  Hooray!