Death by Pictures...

It's been many eventful weeks for us - all the best of summer, from the slightly mundane to the truly wonderful. Here's the rundown.

Hiking

We have been talking for a while about better utilizing our Metro Parks, so a few weeks ago Husband and I took the dogs on a little hike. What a beautiful way to spend a few hours. Good exercise for both us and the pups, and we got to enjoy the wooded landscape of Ohio. How refreshing! Here is a picture of the dogs. This was new dog's first experience off of pavement on the leash . He did pretty well.

Kimonos

The Nerds had a big nerd conference a few weeks ago. Apparently at these sorts of nerd fests people dress up in costumes like the characters they play in their games. Being the crafty wife I am, I got suckered into making a couple kimonos for some of the boys to wear. The kimono featured below was worn by one of the Nerds whose character is a young girl who is akin to the water??? Hmmm, a 220lb Nerd pretending to be a young girl via a costume in the colors of coral and water? I try not to figure these things out. It makes my head hurt. Besides, they pay me to do this and I can force husband to come to the fabric store with me to pick out the colors. I totally win in this case. Watching Husband wander uncomfortably through the fabric store is almost payment enough! I just wish I had pictures of the Nerds actually wearing the kimonos.

Vacation

We recently returned from our annual trek to the lake. What a great week! It was so relaxing - spending the days on water and chilling out to watch the Olympics in the evenings. The best part was spending so much time with my niece and nephews. They are a total trip! My oldest nephew has an odd sense of what is fun. For example, when asked whether he would like to wash dishes or go to the pool he pondered for a moment and said, "BOTH!" The boy loves to do the dishes...

He also likes to drive the boat with Pawpaw, but that makes a lot more sense to me.

My niece prefers doing anything that makes Husband say or do something funny. Sooner or later this usually involves thumb war. Husband is a super cheater at thumb war which the kids think is hilarious!

The water was really low this year which meant that a lot more of the banks were visible. From the boat my dad and I spied what looked like a foundation and possibly a fireplace on the banks of a cove. We decided to investigate. We went up on land and explored the area... There was definitely a house there at one point, probably before the valley was flooded by the damning of the river. The foundation and the rubble around it are all that's left. It was cool to see all of the bricks and stones and the distinct outline of the foundations of the house and the outbuildings. We also discovered what we thought was a fireplace was actually a cistern. Part of it had collapsed but if you looked down into it, it had rounded walls and the top had bolts in it where there had once been a lid. It was kind of cool to see the remains of some one's home like that. I wonder who lived there?

As usual, vacation went too quickly. I was not ready to come home. Neither was Husband...

Friends

This past weekend we got to see lots of friends! Some from high school, some from college - it was great to catch up with so many people. Some of the guys were in for the fantasy football draft which was hosted for the boys at our house. By 7:00 last night the pups were completely wiped-out and so were we!

Well, fantasy football means its almost fall again. This summer has gone way too fast, but I have to say it's been a really great one!

Oh, and a big CONGRATS to Tom! Not just for graduating, but for graduating at the head of his class! Just like the good Dr. Paul... Our friends are such super-overachievers!