August

Dennis has been super busy. Bless his hard working self.

We had an anniversary! 13 years. Love him. Dinner at home with the kids (well...really at Tina's where we were camping out for a week while she was at the beach with her family.) Spinach & garlic stuffed pork loin, roasted potatoes, asparagus.  Went downtown for dessert at Pour where I had the blackberry sampler (no longer in season) and Den had a salami plate.

At our Lapp home staycation.

He broke into his buddy Sydney's shoe stash.

Our life in boxes.

Took one last walk/ride down Clearview Rd.

Some of us didn't get it at first.

One last ball game in the yard.

A paint mishap from the early years.

What I was greeted with when we first  moved in during a huge snow of January 2005.

What I won't miss. 

 

 

 

 

 

We were grateful for this home. It was a lot of room, a lot of character and very little rent. It allowed me to be close to everything convenient and close to some dear friends who were a support in the first "dark years" here. We brought 2 babies home to this house.  This place was a gift.  But I am over it. Being close to all those places and people...not so over that. But the healing will come. To this house I say "Yes, go.  I would not wish you back again."

IT's A.......

Back from Bermuda

Yes we are back and yes we had a great time and yes we missed the kids. I think leaving V this young was the hardest part. The older ones understood we'd be back, but he did not. I know they did great with my mom who was so generous with her time and flew out to stay with them. But I still missed my babies. With that said, Bermuda is beautiful. Everyone should go at least once. The water was amazing, and the houses are all pretty bright or pastel colors.

I'm not going to post all 200+ pictures that I took, but I'll send them out on shutterfly if you are interested. Email or leave a comment if you want to see them all. Some of you will get them whether you asked for it or not, and I'm warning you there are mostly sunset and beach pics. (the above pic was taken by a timer at Turtle Beach, only a few locals there, on our first afternoon on the island)

1)getting on the boat; 2)last look at land while we wait to leave; 3)nest at the docks; 4)chicken that smelled amazing but we had just taken out the sibs that gave us a ride to Cheesecake factory so we were stuffed.

Our room, fun towel animals...albeit slightly creepy, and mints on our pillow.

It was important that Dennis felt safe.

First sunset on the boat.

First meal. Den had the better appetizer, but i had the better main dish. Mahi Mahi on a bed of sun dried tomato polenta, topped with roasted fennel. Den also had the better dessert, chocolate amaretto mousse.

Church Bay is where we snorkeled. We swam out and around those rocks where there was a huge reef.

enjoying the midnight chocoholic buffet

We got up early on our last morning and hiked to a beach to watch the sunrise. Aren't we romantic?

Unfinished Church.

Last sunset on the boat.

back where we belong



*as i finish this I can think of other pics I meant to put on here, but I'm too tired. So I'll probably put one up here and there throughout the next few days or weeks.

Assignment

1. Pray for my kiddos and my mom while we are away.

2. Pray for our travels and that we won't spend the entire time missing our kids.

3. Try not to be jealous.

10

Look at these kids. Aren't they cute? I know the girl is thinking, "Did I really just marry my best friend?" She did, and she's glad of it.

Anniversary (and something for the men folk)

Last Thursday Den and I celebrated 9 years of near perfect marital bliss ;)

After getting the kids settled at his mom's and having her snap a few pictures of our "in loveness" we headed out to dinner on the Chesapeake.

We ate a restaurant where the food ended up being so-so in my opinion, but little did I know we'd get a show as well. We sat outside and besides the lovely water view were these coyote decoys to "scare away the geese", we were told. The weather felt fabulous but looming in the not so far distance was a storm. In my optimism I kept assuring D that it would pass right over us, until D said there's the rain. She had just brought out our salads and we could see the rain on the water headed our way. No sooner had we gotten inside and just sat down when out the window we saw tables and umbrellas flying into the water. About 15min later it was calm and pleasant.

This little guy tagged along and if you notice their is stuff on his cheek and near his mouth. It's chocolate. He decided to stick his finger in my lava cake and have a taste. Earlier he grabbed a handful of my pasta and tried to shove that in his mouth. So what do I write in his baby book for first food? Do I put seafood fettuccine alfredo and chocolate lava cake?

Den wanted to hold a sailboat.

Afterwards we had to go back to his mom's to get a car and my phone that I forgot, so we took the chance to take a quad over to the lot and catch the sunset.

Then we took a ride back to the woods and saw this in the soy bean field, attempting to hide.

The main reason we went to the woods was to check Den's deer cam and he was not disappointed. Yes this is the men folk part and yes that buck only has one antler.

9 years....

a day at my happy place

If you read this you know me, and if you know me you know that my happy place is the beach. I love the magnificence and mystery of the ocean. It represents so much about our God. He is beautiful, creative, bigger than us, and there is still so much to learn about Him (to name a few). So yesterday I went with my favorite people to my favorite place. It was wonderful. E took a little while to get her courage up and play in the water (which was a little cold at first, or a warm day at the pacific, but as the day went on it got warmer), while J ran and literally hurled is body into the water all day long. We had blast.