Odds and Ends

This week is the crazy week that always preceeds a big family vacation. This is the week where:

♥ I am frantically checking my packing list -- usually adding items to it as well as adding things to the shopping list.

♥ I am dumping all my cameras to make room for all the new photos we'll be taking...

♥ I'm working on laundry and

♥ cleaning the house... (you have to have a good clean house JUST IN CASE you get in an accident on your trip and strangers have to come in... that's my weird logic.)

I also have to grab the $$ out of my savings account. It's time to buy the Park Passes!! (I think we'll stick with the 3 day pass... same as last year.)

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We recently returned from our weekend in Why-oh-mun. Max's parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary so there was a BIG family party. Of course, with 6 grown children and all of their children... it IS a big party. We had a good time reconnecting with family that we only get to see once a year.

Inigo (in front of Grandpa in this picture) has a big wad of gauze in his mouth. We had originally planned to take the group photo on the buck-rail fence in the background. As little boys are wont to do, he climbed to the top of the fence where the rotton log immediately came crashing down. Poor Inigo landed face down and bit hard on his tongue. It was severly hurt. Max's sister-in-law, a nurse, said it was right on the borderline of needing stitches... she also thought it would be incredibly difficult to stitch a tongue and since we don't have great health insurance ($7500 ded.) we opted to absorb, with gauze, the incredible amount of blood that was gushing out and hope that it would eventually stop -- which it did shortly after he went to bed.

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Our hotel was... shall we say... less than stellar. When Max was growing up, this hotel was the place to stay -- the fancy schmancy hotel in his small town. Let's just say that the 20+ years since he left town has been hard on the place. It's not very often that you find a hotel that has windows that open with no screens.

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Last week we took a few more senior photos of Buttercup. On the way home was an incredible sunset. I had to stop and take a photo:

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And finally I'll end with a few more random pictures (since I just dumped both cameras):

The first is a crazy one of Inigo. Buttercup's favorite pink sunglasses broke and Inigo thought he'd play with them. We thought he looked hilarious!!

And...

While we were in Why-oh-mun we took a side trip to visit the graves of Max's two brothers. One of the hard parts of living in Florin is that he is so far away and can't visit the graves as often as he would like.

(The grave they are looking at is not his brother. Our family name is on those headstones and I don't have time right now to photoshop them out.)

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The airline tickets are bought.... hotel and rental car reservations made (thanks Red!) and I'm gearing up for the big weekend in Denver where Red and I are lucky enough to go see Wicked!! I can't tell you how excited I am for this!! (I have never been to CO before and this is a musical I have been dying to see for a looooong time! Thanks again, Red, for this opportunity!!!!)