Catch up – scout camp

So this is the crew that went to summer camp near Pana in June.  Jack is far right in back row.  That’s his boonie cover hat, his usual hat of choice for camping and band practice.  Gary’s the third from left in back row, smiling.  He digs this scout stuff. 

 

The fearless leader

At camp,  I think they called this the Princess Palace.

 

And then we have Jack’s straw cowboy hat he wore all the week at camp.  It was pretty tall.  Sure made it easier to find him in a crowd. 

 

Gary had one, too.  This was the night Grant came up for Order of the Arrow. 

 

And then the guys back home and unpacking. 

This was actually taken at a friend’s eagle project, nothing to do with camp but still scout related so here it is.  Grant’s in front in green, Jack’s in red.  And aviators.  And his Henry rifles hat.  He is definitely a hat kid. 

Catch up—my summer project

We have two decks here and they were both looking rough this spring with all kinds of peeling up going on.  It must have been a latex stain the previous owners used because it was like little strips of rubber that’d stick to your feet as you walked on it.   Not good when hopping in the pool.  Or when trying to maintain pristine clean feet like I do all summer.

Ha! Just kidding!  Have you met me?  I didn’t get the name Princess Brown Foot for nothin. 

And a little side story, one day Bob decided to honor me and my regal feet by bringing a bloody rabbit up across the peely deck.  I had to hurry and close the sliding door or he was gonna deliver it right to the kitchen. Oy, that cat.

 

So anywho….BEFORE

Annoying flakes and strips everywhere!

 

MIDWAY

Power washing (thanks, Karen and Joe!) helped but didn’t strip off nearly as much as I expected so I had great fun for several days hand-using sand paper. 

 

Doesn’t this face just say “Great fun!”?  The line above my nose would suggest otherwise.  And I don’t think this probably counts as a real smile.

This is mid-July and yep, I believe about the very second I decided to get the hair cut off.  We are talkin a hot job!  But it was made tons easier by the two littles being gone (thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!) so I could focus and not be pulled into the kitchen every few hours to provide pesky food and drink.  And no refereeing of brotherly/sisterly spats, if you can imagine my darlings doing that.   It was a quiet place around here and I could definitely concentrate.

AFTER

 

Well, almost after.  One of the top rail boards was in bad shape so I held off on finishing it until Gary got home from the Minnesota trip to plane it down.  After the planing and staining, it looks good.  And in this pic this deck floor looks ugh! fake cedar orange, but I swear it’s not.  I picked out Justin Timberlake, well, actually the stain was called Timberline (and is actually browner than this picture appears) and the reddish stain was called California Rustic.  I liked it because Gary came from California.  And he’s very rustic. 

[Wait, does rustic mean old? 

Or maybe it just means rough.

Either way.  Haha!]

Here’s the deck off the kitchen once finished, much improved I’d say. 

Maybe Bob can kindly keep the blood on the red sections.

Catch up—odd n ends

 

Grant was kinda wanting some tank tops for band practice/band camp this summer.  I found this one at Target and really wanted to bring it home to him, but an X Small was not gonna work no how so I just had to take a picture of it. 

He went shopping on his own at Goodwill and with some scissors, this number became his band camp shirt.  For two weeks he wore this.

  

   

Only memories ~and maybe this pic~ remain of my longer hair.  By mid-July, I was all ‘please cut this off ’

Marshmallow mouth stuffing contest with neighbor.  No pictures were taken of the kool aid hair dyeing incident, however.

At the Vera Bradley outlet, we found the Barbara and the Caroline bags right together!  Caroline had already gotten a Caroline for her birthday.

We thought Uncle Neil might like to see these on Grant. This was from our day at the West County outlet.

 

Our living room with the addition of Ross’ recliner

Last of the old house

 

At Cracker Barrel with Harrell cousins for Cathy’s 50th birthday

Wish I had a pic of all the cousins that were there!  Lots of us and lots of yakking and laughing of course

  

Kids with my mom and Grandpa at Duke’s.  He’s 90 now.

 

Sam at scout camp in July, 81 years younger than my Grandpa

Catch up seems to be the only way I operate—Boundary Waters

 

So many days have passed.  So many pictures to share.  I don’t know why I get so behind in everything.  I vow to get back to the blog at least a little each week.  I don’t want to have huge regret once the kids are grown and out and there’s these big gaps in what all was going on in their lives at this time.  So, for a start, here’s what the big boys and Gary did in July:  a week long canoeing trip in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota and Ontario.  They had rough weather and tough conditions, but I think all would say they are glad they went. 

 

Gary’s boot failed a few hours into the trip.  Uh oh. An extra lace wrapped somehow around his leg to the toes allowed him to manage to go on.   That was minor compared to his burnt eyeball, terrible storms, hyperextended knee, and the stress of being in charge of keeping everyone safe in some pretty harrowing situations.  

  

Look at those shades of blue, would ya!   Just wish his eyes were in the pic, too

 

Hieroglyphs on cliffs along one of the lakes—so cool the boys got to see these

 

An experience of a lifetime between father and sons and so thankful every one came back home safely.