Our Fourth In The Land of the Free

On the Fourth of July I had the privilege to attend the wedding ceremony of my childhood best friend, Sarah. She knew my parents were going to be there for the ceremony, but we decided to make my attendance a surprise. It was so exciting to see the look on her face when I arrived! Priceless! It was wonderful to see Sarah so happy on her day and see in her eyes the feelings of excitement and joy over the new beginnings in her life: her husband-to-be, Larry, a new dream job, a comfortable place to live ahead. I can't say how glad I am that I was able to be there to share in her special day. And seeing her parents, Linda and Bruce, and her brother Ryan, who were all once like a second family to me, was wonderful too.

It was a perfect, "backyard" wedding, surrounded by friends and family. She and her fiancee had done most of the work setting up. Friends and family had brought in food to potluck. Her grandmother-in-law made the cake. Music was performed by friends, including a special song sung and played on the piano by her brother. It was so relaxed and beautiful. As I watched my friend be married, I remembered building car cities on our desks, singing along with Simon and Garfunkel, breaking CD's we thought had "bad" lyrics after a church camp, forming the "V" Club, laughing about all the words we thought sounded weird like "neep," and so many more memories that comprised the days, hours, minutes, seconds of my youth spent with Sarah, or "Ah" as I called her. I admit it. I cried big fat tears. She is such a treasured part of my past.

Sarah and I were best friends from fourth grade through ninth grade when we drifted onto our different life paths. But for those years we were pretty inseparable. Peas and carrots, that's what we were, and what a pair! We were such a crazy duo, but we had so much fun in our little best friend world. It was hard for both of us when it was clear that we were making different choices in high school, but we've stayed in touch and through our lives' journeys we've kept that connection that only old, dear friends can have.
After a short stay at the reception we headed back to Lake Roesiger for our Fourth of July celebration. This year there were over 40 people at the cabin! That includes (here goes!): all six of the Conlin kids (Angie, Adam, Ryan, Alea, Ashley and Aaron), the three spouses (Mike, Me and Zach), the 8 grandkids (Kylie-who had to leave early in the day to fly back to AZ for girls' camp-and Steven, who belong to Angie; my five; and Alea's daughter Camden), all the married kids' in-laws were there too (Angie's-Skip and Jan, Mine-Stan and Candace, and Alea's (Rick and Barb, and also my Tutu), Ashley had her boyfriend Ryan there, and Aaron brought his girlfriend Bree, the Schweikarts were there (Chris, Shuree and Trina, they are Dan and Nicolle's close friends, minus the boys of the family who were working), also Adam and my close friends, the Shevitz (Jen, Dave, Hannah and Max) and of course, last but not least, our dear Auntie Sara. It was a huge, wonderful group!

We played in the cold, damp day at the best place on earth, the Lake Roesiger lake house. I say it every post about the cabin, but it's my favorite place to be in the whole world. Its not one thing about that place, it's many things: the memories I have of it, I've been going there with Adam since our high school dating days; the Washingtoniness of it, green, damp, scenic, fragrant, rich; the family life that's been lived there, we are so often all together when we're there; the memories I know will be created there in the future. It's got a special nook all of its own in my heart that's green and full of joy. What a perfect place to be on the 4th of July!

The day was spent playing various lawn games, hide-and-seek (Josh's spots were the best!), exploring the woods around the house and general running amok. The kids all went swimming even though it was one of Western Washington's occasional freezing Fourths. We did a lot of eating thanks to Dan and Nicolle's barbecue and all the sides everyone provided. After dinner, we had a big bonfire and stuffed ourselves silly with s'mores and all the other baked treats that Barb (Alea's mom-in-law) made...oh so good. The fire was also perfect as a warm up for our chilly swimmers.

The one thing I can say about nasty weather on the 4th is that it makes for a quieter lake. It's pretty small, earning itself the nickname "Lake Dizzy" and when it's nice out it gets busy, too busy, with boats. We don't even like going out on the lake when it's like that. But this year we took the boat for a couple of spins, pulling our little boys on the kneeboard, because there were so few boats out there! The kids all went out in the kayaks too without getting sloshed around the whole time by the big wakes.
But with all the pre-firework fun, the best was yet to come. SHOW TIME! Zach, Ben and Josh all got a chance to light some fireworks this year with Uncle Zach's help. Luke loved the Pop-Itz and the sparklers. Adam and I had some fun with the camera and the sparklers too. And MAN! It was quite a year for the who-can-put-on-the-coolest-firework-display contest held by many of the homes around the lake. We at the Conlin Cabin do our best, but we pale in comparison to most of the houses. But we don't mind taking close to last in the competition! From the lawn out on the lake we can see everyone else's shows...cheaper for us and they are spectacular! The three photos at the bottom of the post are taken of 1) the firework show to the right of our boat dock, 2) the show across the lake, and 3) the show to the left of the boat dock. Nice, right? Are you kidding me?! Waaaaay better than nice! It's the only show I've ever watched where I can honestly say by the end that I'm ready for it to be over and that I've had my fill of fireworks for the year.
I love this country. I love that I can live this life and have the freedoms I have in a country that is as diverse as it is beautiful and beautiful because of its diversity. What a miracle its founding was and what a rich history it has had in its short life! Many of the things I hold dearest to my heart would not be a part of my life if not for the U.S.A. I enjoyed, beyond measure, the celebration of the birth of our Nation with those that I love in a place that I treasure.

Livin' The Good Life

We rolled into Washington a little travel worn, but with a car that still operated and our sanity intact. We went directly to the Conlin Cabin on Lake Roesiger in Snohomish County. It is my little piece of heaven. It's my Carolina in my mind. I love it there.

The weather in Western Washington was quite un-July-like, chilly and cloudy, but that didn't stop our boys from jumping directly into their swim suits and diving into the frigid water within minutes of pulling into the steep gravel driveway. Usually by July there has been enough sun to warm the lake a bit, but not this year. It's dang cold! But I guess the boys care more about having fun than the temperature and they swam and played in the water for a couple of hours regardless of the chill.The whole family was together for the weekend. Adam's older sister, Angie, her husband Mike and their kids, Kylie (17) and Steven (15). Adam is second in the family order, and of course, we were all there, then comes Ryan, who is living at the cabin and graciously let us all take over his "home." Alea and her husband, Zach, were there with their daughter Camden (16 mos). And then his youngest sister Ashley brought her boyfriend, Ryan, and Adam's youngest brother Aaron brought his girlfriend, Bree. Let's just say every square inch of that place was filled by people! Good thing we all like each other so much.

We spent a good portion of Saturday taking family pictures at the cabin and in the local rock quarry. I will post highlights of those later, but with the beautiful scenery and the total coolness of being a Conlin, I am sure you can imagine, they were fantastic! :)

But we also had plenty of time to play around and hang out with one another.
We took the kids out on the boat after all the crazy picture taking. Luke was a little unsure about the loud, tipsy boat we were climbing into, but he didn't want me to go without him. He settled in nicely on my lap, making sure I held on tightly. The one time I didn't hold tightly because I was trying to help get Zach in the boat, he plopped off my lap and bonked his head. After that he made sure I was holding on by screaming loudly anytime my arms were not wrapped snug around him! It made helping the kids into the boat and getting them the gear they needed difficult. So I was relegated to flag holder. Less helpful, but Luke was happy and comfortable.

Zach gave wakeboarding a try for the first time, he was so excited to do it! But then he got frustrated and too cold pretty quickly when he couldn't get up after two tries and decided that this was not the summer to become a wakeboard superstar after all. It was a little frustrating to see him quit, but I hope he will try again when he's a little stronger and a little more determined (and maybe on a day when it's a little warmer!). Ben and Josh both tried the kneeboard out for the first time and loved every second of it! It was so cute to see them trailing behind the boat on the board, all teeny-tiny-boy at the end of a long rope! On the way back to the dock they both had a chance to steer the boat for a bit at no-wake speed. Upon our return to the dock we discovered Luke had fallen sound asleep on my lap, lulled into Slumberland by the whir of the engine and the sway of the water.
I love Conlin Cabin life. It's the good life. It's just perfect.

A Really Long Drive

When you travel from Colorado to Washington you have to drive through Wyoming. Wyoming is a really BIG state. And this is what it looks like:All 12 bazillion miles of it.

So the boys found some things to occupy their time. Like watching DVD's and playing their Nintendo games. Honestly, that's what they did the entire time. After each movie ended they had a 45 minute mandatory workbook/reading time before games could go back on. But otherwise they were in screen time heaven! And that was just peachy.

Back a few years ago we used to bring all kinds of games, activity books, paper and art stuff and books on CD. You know, the things I used to do in the car on long drives. But first of all, all that stuff made a huge mess. Let me rephrase that, the boys made a huge mess of all that stuff! Even when I made it easy to put away, it was still everywhere by the time we reached our destination. And usually it was only partially used but totally destroyed by crumpling and tearing. And secondly, as soon as the screens were off, the bickering and begging was on. "Zach's on my side!" "Can you get me the fortieth snack I've asked for today?" etc. So this year I brought just the boys' summer workbooks and one bag of colored pencils plus all the screen devices and peace reigned. It was so nice and I have no regrets about the mindless, brain-numbing hours of video games and movies the boys zoned out to over the miles.
Tommy didn't play video games or watch movies though, so he had to find other things to entertain himself. The boy doesn't much like to sleep in the car, but he still did pretty well on the drive.Adam did the driving for this first leg. After awhile Wyoming got to us and we started going a little Wy-azy. That's the kind of crazy that vast, endless Wyoming makes you. Things that just aren't funny suddenly become hilarious. We passed a town called "Quealy" and for the rest of the trip (and still over the past few days) the word "quealy" has replaced "really" in all our conversations. An example: "Quealy? Do you mean it?" or "Do you quealy think that's going to work?" Lame right? But still so oddly funny. Wy-azy I tell you! There were other things too, like taking a lot of self portraits to make yourself laugh. Did I mention that Wyoming is BIG? Well it is, so there's a lot of time to kill!We left on Tuesday afternoon after a half-day of work for Adam, with Rawlins, Wyoming as our day one destination. We got in early enough that Adam took the boys for a swim in the pool while I got Tommy to sleep. And in the morning we stuffed ourselves with the delicious continental breakfast the hotel offered before leaving for Utah and Idaho. Western omlettes...delish! In the first couple hours of the drive to Boise (our next stop) our van, the Mighty Money Pit, passed the 200,000 mile mark! Way to go MMP!
We got into Ogden, Utah for a late lunch. I thought I remembered that there was a Cafe Rio in Ogden. Cafe Rio happens to be one of the yummiest Mexican restaurants I know of, one that we frequented regularly when we lived in Utah. We always try to stop there when we are driving through Utah, although I hear there is one in Denver these days! I texted Adam's brother Aaron, who goes to Weber State which is located in Ogden, to find out if I was right about Cafe Rio being there. And guess what?! Not only was there a Cafe Rio...there was an Aaron! I had forgotten he was going to be there right up to the 4th of July weekend attending the summer semester. So he and his girlfriend, Bree, were able to meet up with us at Cafe Rio for lunch. It was very fun, and oh so tasty.

Walking into Cafe Rio I was reminded of how much Utah is its own little planet. The ladies with their hair all done just so, with the perfect amount of teasing to get the right amount of lift; the moms who look like they are the babysitters because they are so young (I looked like that once too!); and the vibe, whether you love it or hate it there's a vibe in Utah that you don't find anywhere else. Ahhh, Utah, I miss it and I don't miss it at all!

After a very satisfying lunch, we noticed this ice cream place next door called Farr's Fresh and thought we'd give it a try. We are SO glad we did! Inside was a smorgasbord of ice cream, frozen custard and frozen yogurt flavors with toppings galore all for just 39 cents an ounce! We had stumbled on ice cream lovers' paradise!
Tommy loved it too. Recently my friend Alissa, who has two boys Luke and Tommy's ages, did a hilarious "first baby, second baby" post commenting on how different you are as a parent with your first and second children. Well, you can just imagine how things are with the the fifth.... Ice cream at 8 months? Oh yeah. I had a flashback of being at Baskin Robbins with Zach at about Tommy's age and smacking Adam's hand when he tried to give Zach a bite. My how times change!
This picture was Luke's ice cream concoction. Root beer ice cream with Fruity Pebbles, mini gummy bears and mini m&m's as toppings. With marshmallow sauce and a cherry on top. Not my pick. Not really Luke's either. After choosing all those things he just kind of picked the gummy bears off the top. Mine was all chocolate and fudge.
It was fun meeting Bree, who we've heard many great things about. She's coming out to Washington with Aaron for the 4th of July weekend, so we will get to see her again soon!
I love this picture of Luke and Adam, finding shapes in the clouds on the grass by the roadside waiting for me to finish feeding Tommy before we could go. When you are road tripping with a nursing baby you end up with a lot of scenes like this, taken from the passenger seat of the car while the rest of the family chills out while you are feeding the babe.
After driving through Utah we moved on towards our evening's destination: Boise, well, Meridian, Idaho, actually. We were planning on staying with our good friends, the Richardsons, a couple who we've known since our undergrad, pre-kid, pre-marriage days! We love spending time with Dave and Mo (who is also one of my Womens' Conference buddies), and it was so fun to get the kids all together. They had a great time playing together while we chatted away! Dave, unfortunately, was traveling, so we missed out on a visit with him, but we still had such fun and got in as much together time as we could before they had to leave the next day for their road trip back where we had just come from, Salt Lake.
They left right after lunch, but Mo kindly left us the key to their community pool so we could play in the water during the warm sunny afternoon. It was so nice! We were there for three hours just enjoying the day. Tommy slept for about 2 1/2 hours of it, so I relaxed reading on the lounge chair by the kiddie pool. It was heavenly! Here's the scene from my lounge chair followed by the rest of the fun.
This photo is of Luke and Ben sitting in a puddle that built up in a low spot of the concrete when the swimming pool water was splashed out. The swimming pool was no hot springs pool like they got in Hooper, so the kids got a bit chill. But with a nice shallow puddle heated by the sun to warm up in when they got cold, they were happy. Ben kept walking over to the pool, splashing water out on purpose to make the puddle larger.That evening we made a quick drive over to Nampa to have dinner and stay with my best friend from high school, Kim, her husband Aaron and their beautiful little girl, Elsie. It had been a few years since we had seen each other, and it was so fun to spend time together again. It's amazing how with old friends you can pick up where you left off like no time has passed. They are an amazing family, and we loved spending the evening with them.

We had to leave early the next morning to make it to Washington by early afternoon, so it was a bad night for Tommy to decide not to go to sleep until 1:15am. But he still did it. Grrr. I was so tired when it was time to get up at 5:30am, but at least I could sleep in the car. Which I did. A lot.

What awesome friends I have in the Boise area! Stopping to visit with them on the drive through is definitely a perk of having to come from Colorado Springs to get home!
So we are here safe and sound, and already having so much fun...more to come from the lovely, loved-one filled, and gorgeously green (and a little cold) State of Washington!

Low Ridin'

The potty training days for Luke are over; he is doing awesome and even staying dry most nights! But we still see the undies butt running through our house for at least a portion of most days now that summer is here. And if it's not full-on undies, it's serious low riding. Luke comes to me all day long, shorts somewhere between halfway down his booty or completely down to his knees, asking for help to get them back up again.
I can't find shorts to fit this kid's tiny diaper-less waist! He doesn't like the cinching ones because the buttons and elastic rub his skin and bother him, so I have been trying to find some with elastic waistbands. Let me tell you, there are just no hip, stylish shorts with elastic waistbands out there. So Luke now has a bunch of lame jersey-style sport shorts. However, I couldn't help myself and bought a pair of plaid shorts for him the other day at Target...size 9-months! Fortunately they were long so you can't tell they are for a kid Tommy's age!