Here is our beautiful... LEAKY tent!!! The first night we had a big storm and it poured. That was when we discovered that our rainfly leaked on all the seams... and there's only screen in the roof of the tent!! So Alex went racing out in the rain, threw a tarp over it and jumped back in the tent, praying that the tarp would stay on. It was very windy but the tarp stayed the rest of the night!! Later he tied and staked it down :).
Anna was having some trouble getting the screen house set up, so I took her picture...
Here's a more pleasant picture of Anna :). At least I'm sure it'll bring happier memories to her than the above pic!!
And Rachel was her usual sweet self :P. Haha, no, she really was!!! She's getting OLD, that's all there is to it!!
This is in Mackinac City (my first time ever going there!) and we were all squeezed into this doorway because we were hiding from Steve while he made a purchase somewhere :). We had a marvelous time- I haven't seen this many of my siblings all at once since my wedding, and... well, that doesn't count! I wasn't really at my wedding, contrary to what people may believe!!
The nieces and nephews are getting soooooo BIG!!!!
Here's Kayla with her pet skunk :). She and Andrea kept playing that it was spraying everybody all weekend :).
Kristina sure is a cutie!!!
Just look at those big eyes!
Aren't Sara and Alexis so cute?!? Awwwwwww!!!!!!!!!
Finally JUST before we left Alexis actually let me hold her (without screaming!). She still didn't like wearing my hat though :). Oh well, we can't all have the same tastes!!
"TEN MINUTES TILL GROUP PICTURE TIME!!!!!"
Here's a couple of my goofy uncles (and brothers). Uncle Lee was attempting to make a basket while riding a bicycle. He missed.
Aunt Janice made her salsa for the big group meal and it was DELICIOUS!!!! I finally have her recipe and made some last weekend. Mmmmmmm :).
See how it is? Aunt Janice does all the chopping while we sit around and eat it!! :) Haha, we really did help!!! I promise!!
Mmmmmm, this is our annual Root Beer Pancake Breakfast!!!! Boy were they good this year :). Uncle Karl put Barq's root beer in them, so you don't even need your regular morning coffee with pancakes like these!!!! And Becky made root beer syrup, which we'd never had before, but was very good!
This is Matthew, being his normal self!! :) Hahahahahaha. Sorry Sara, I had to say that. If y'all don't believe he's crazy, you should've seen him jumping around chasing bugs with Alex's handheld bug zapper!!! He went crazy with that thing!
I'm not so sure why the newspaper was so interesting, but oh well!
Here's the Harrys playing euchre... AGAIN!!!
Toasting marshmallows in the fire... Mmmmmm.
This is my Kakuro puzzle (my new addiction). These are very difficult (at least for me!!) because they're basically a crossword puzzle with numbers instead of words. Anyways, I was working on it on the road and thought y'all might like to see it :).
And here is photographic proof that Alex and I were indeed up there for all this!!! :)
And last Saturday since Alex had to work I decided to try making Aunt Janice's salsa on my own. Boy do I ever have a new appreciation for Mom and Aunt Janice, who will chop a whole batch by themselves!!! It took me hours to make one small batch that was gone by Sunday!!! But it certainly was delicious, if I do say so myself!! :)
Our oven died last week when I was making cookies, so now we're looking for another gas stove, mostly on craigslist so far. Its so sad :(. Heh heh, I even was dreaming about ovens last night!!! I dreamed that Anna and Mom and maybe Rachel were coming to visit and I was all befuddled and was cooking strange concoctions because I didn't have an oven. And then after Anna got here I realized that I had an extra gas stove in the guest room and there was another one on the porch (we don't even have a porch!). Anyways, I woke up feeling really weird, and I still have this feeling that there's another stove or two lurking around here somewhere. Maybe I'll go do a thorough search of the house when I'm done on the computer :).
I did make pizza on Friday night (tradition!!) and did it on the stovetop in a frying pan. And it turned out really good. Pretty much like the grilled pizza my family makes. And I made breadsticks too, which were also good :). So that was kind of fun!!
Okey dokey, well I have things to do so I'd better get skedaddling, but before I do- here's one more picture of the bridge :). Or of the clouds :). I guess its kind of hard to see the bridge in this one. Anyways, I hope y'all have a marvelous day!!
P.S. Does that satisfy everybody's cravings for pictures of me?!? TOO BAD!!!! :)
...while Carl supervised from a conveniently nearby easy chair :D.
