Barbecue In the Park

Summer, oh how I love thee. 

The monkeys children make any toy a climbing toy.

Exactly how many kids fit on a stump?  Count with me.  ONE.

 TWO.

THREE!

Happiness. 

The Mistress and the Wife Make Nice

Well, it happened.  I flew....in what I've affectionately (AHEM) come to call Robbie's "Mistress".  She's taken the bulk of his love and attention for about six years now, and it was high-time we made amends.  I horned my way into the "first passenger" position, ousting Mr. Aho Sr., who was Rob's first pick.  No way, Jose.  Wifey's got first dibs. 

It was a beautiful evening, and Rob set the mood by taking me out to dinner first.  A romantic Chinese dinner, followed by a sunset flight along the shoreline.  How perfect is THAT?  I was not even remotely nervous.  It was just so.... so..... adventurous....so UNmundane (I swear, it's a word), so JET SET, that I was  REALLY looking forward to it. 

So, we stared each other down, the Mistress and I.  She's pretty.  I'll give her that.

 Looks are one thing, but what about under the hood?  WHY were there so many parts left on the "Great Wall of Parts"?!?!  Some of those looked important.  I asked Robbie what a "fuel distributor" thingy was, and he told me "it distributes fuel".  Isn't that kinda important to have in a plane?  I mean... they put it in the kit and everything!  And here it is!  Still on the "Great Wall of Parts"!  Robbie didn't seem concerned in the least.  So unconcerned, in fact, that he didn't even bother to answer me.  He was giving all his attention to HER instead.  Inspecting every last little bit of her cutey-patootie chassie.  The hussy.

But, I'm a big girl.  He may be infatuated with you, honey, but he's MARRIED to me.  Let's pose and make nice.

All smiles before take-off!

And.... we have LIFT OFF!

If you look really, really closely, there on the swing on the platform by the lake, you can see our children, waving to us.  Those little specks down there.  Say cheese, kids!!

There's our house and yard.  Bird's eye view!

Aho Airstrip.  It's not ready for landings just yet.  Thank goodness we didn't need to use it!

So, ummmmmm, okay.  Here's where the Mistress got the better of me.  She bounced, and bucked, and bobbled a little too much.  And my taking pictures and looking through a camera probably didn't help anything either.  We had to make an "unscheduled" landing on a grass strip.  Rob asked "are you going to make it?  We have 15 minutes to our destination".  I barely got out the "NO", because if I opened my mouth for too long, I was afraid of what might come out.  Luckily, there's an old guy with a grass strip in his back yard because he loves planes.... and so we landed there.  In the guy's back yard.    As soon as we touched ground, I said "LET ME OUT".  Rob wanted to park the plane at the end of the strip, like you're supposed to.  NO TIME.  GET ME OUT OF HERE.  For a good 15 minutes I could do nothing but lie prone on the grass, hugging the earth, trying to get the world to stop spinning. 

It took a good half an hour before I felt reasonably well enough to get back into the plane.  But not before Rob had gotten a barf bag from the old guy for the return trip. 

I will NOT be defeated.  I WILL enjoy a sunset flight with my husband.  Luckily, the air was much calmer on the return flight, and we were able to fly along the shore at sunset.... just as we had planned.  It was gorgeous.  Here's a picture of an abandoned light house.

Beautiful.  Just - gorgeous.  I can see why Robbie loves this so much.  Especially up here, with it's open skies and gorgeous scenery.  OK.  I get it.  Next time, though.... I'm going to take Dramamine.

Sunday Afternoon Adventures!

Words Unnecessary

Daisies, Strawberries, and Bubbles

Beautiful first Saturday of Summer.  Daisies in full bloom.  The kids and I decided to go strawberry picking for the first time!

Colby snuck my camera outof the car and took the following couple of pictures.  I was impressed!! 

 14 quarts = 2 beach buckets.  For future reference.

Bubbles!!  We made a "big bubble" solution and our own wands.  SO COOL!!  I couldn't stop taking pictures.  Be thankful I didn't post the other 152 of them.  It was hard to narrow it down.

Reagan - official bubble popper.