Snowflakes in Summer

“We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake...”

― Sir Francis Bacon

Road Trip

Last weekend we took a wee bit of a road trip.

I met up with an old friend, a new friend and her FELLOW-FOTO-FRIDAY-contributing daughter. It was just so much fun.

Of course, I had to get a freakish eye disfigurement just in the nick of time. Oh, the pleasantness of meeting new people while looking like a monster. I picked a pair of of frames from the 'free' section (read: please take these off our hands because no one in their right minds would actually BUY them section) several months ago, justifying their hideousness with the idea that I would never ever ever let anyone see me in them. HA!

I found out a *little* too late that red raspberry leaf tea is great for my first-ever eye sty.

Here are some pictures from that day. Gross glasses and all.

Glimpses of a Newman road trip:

..............................hand holding (not pictured: not letting GO when baby brother starts to cry)

.........................singing (not pictured: the bickering)

..................................snacks (not pictured: the donuts)

........................crocheting (not pictured: doing it more for the challenge of taking a picture of both hands simultaneously)

......................... sleeping (not pictured: "Are we THERE yet?!")

........................... reading a purposely-fresh batch of library books (not pictured: dropping them on the floor and asking for more 4.5 seconds after opening them.)

.....................a cool picture of movement out the window (not pictured: the 100 other attempts)

......................puckered lips ( a sure sign we need to switch drivers!)

It is pretty obvious by the ratio of car ride photos to visiting photos, I take most of my photographs when I am bored or am in need of some entertainment.

Obviously, the visit was entertaining enough. I had a great time. (And boy can that Amy PLAY.) winky wink


(Ann, Amy and Nanci~ feel free to swipe the group picture/ guitar picture by right clicking on them if you would like your own copies.)

ThE BiG ToP

We have been doing a lot of fun things lately and then, because there are so many pictures involved in blogging said fun thing and so little time to blog, I set fun-thing-blogging aside opting instead to blog one or two pictures of something simple, like a flower. :-)

Wow, was that a run-on.

One such "fun thing" was going to the circus with some friends. I had never been to a circus before (so it stands to reason my children hadn't either) and it was a pretty great experience. The whole day was a double feature really, since us grown-ups had gone on a (first ever!) double date the night before including dinner and the theater. No great pictures from that night though, tsk tsk.

Back to the circus....


There were elephants, showgirls, and dancing poodles that tickled little girls' fancies.


There was magic and intrigue.


There were tightrope walking tigers, clowns and sky jumpers.

I

really

liked


them.


There was a snack filled intermission and light necklace/wand paraphernalia that was snuck in under the radar.

And then. AND THEN.

The most jaw-dropping, death-defying stunt of the night. A human cannonball.


Fear gripped us all.



The audience was struck dumb with amazement at the perilous feat.

The rest of the afternoon we had stars in our eyes..

and attempted...

feats all our own.

It's lonely here

When you have a houseful of people you love~ time flies, smiles abound and laughter is constant.

We had some of our favorite people come this weekend to visit us so all these things were with us all weekend. Every time we visit them, I rarely bring out my camera. I promised myself I would snap A FEW pictures this time around and tried very hard to do so.

Here they are.

*awwwwwww.

We made applesauce spice ornaments in the dehydrator:

1 cup cinnamon
1 tbsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. nutmeg
1 tbsp. allspice
1 tbsp ginger
3/4 c. applesauce

Bake (or in our case dehydrate) at 150 for 1 1/2 hours then flip and do it again.


Then strung them with popcorn, cranberries and strips of fabric. It totally tickled me to death that one of the boys got right into it and made a beautiful garland all himself. He was so stinkin' cute.

*awwwwww (take two)

TADA!!

And then Josh got the snow day he was dreaming of~ you wouldn't believe how excited he was.
I am so THANKFUL we had some sleds~they were a hit.

And then we went on a walk to catch a glimpse of the mountain goats but never did.

We DID, however, spot a baby bear!!!

*awwwwwww (take three!)

... and there was plenty of bananagrams!!

They left on Sunday afternoon and you know what? It's been lonely and (too) quiet ever since...

Going Visiting

Good friends make life so pleasant and I've recently found a few more.

It started with a free bed on the side of the road which I happily and thankfully snatched up.

I returned with a strawberry rhubarb crisp in order to thank them for their kindness (and, just because, I included an invite to the book exchange.)

Turns out, we have quite a lot in common.

Thus, a friendship was born.

They have just the sweetest girls. I can always tell the quality of the parents by the quality of their teens.

We enjoyed a wonderfully fun day at their house, admiring gardens (and BEAUTIFUL garlic-just LOOK!),

exploring, laughing, wading, sheep petting, admiring, and getting to know one another.

By the end, we were happily exhausted.

It was a GOOD day.