Shopping with B

After our zoo trip yesterday, we all stopped by one of the malls so that W could run around for a bit and Aunt Anne could make a few returns. Needless to say, this put me in the mood for some shopping. Then, when she told me that Forever 21 had skinny jeans for $9.00, I HAD to go shopping. So, this afternoon, Brenna and I did just that. Our first stop, of course, was Forever 21.


$9.00 skinny jeans. BAM! They came in this dark denim and black. I wanted to get both, but I couldn't find the black in my size. Maybe some other time. Our second, and last stop was Hollister. B likes to browse around there.


I found this supersoft hoodie on the sale rack, marked down to $25 from $40. Then, to make things extra sweet, I ran into a former teammate working at the register, so she gave me a bit of a discount and I ended up paying $20 :)

Dub Day!

This afternoon, Mom, Bren, Soph, and I met Aunt Anne and W at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison. Mom brought Little Sarah, the girl she mentors, too. We had a ton of fun :)


Aside from seeing all of the animals (orky-pine! peepock!), W and some of the girls rode the merry go round. W enjoyed it- all he said until we left the building was, "again? again?" It was quite adorable.


Little Sarah and I got a couple pictures together, but this one is my favorite. Right now, the zoo has a number of new art animal statues on display- giraffes, bears, turtles, flamingoes, and penguins, to name a few- and later they'll be auctioned off to raise money for the zoo.


After the zoo, we got lunch at the Great Dane. I rode there with W, Aunt Anne, and Sophie. W took the opportunity to play with his hat for most of the ride.


Little Sarah ditched Mom to hang out with Sophie part of the way through the zoo. They sat together at lunch for awhile, too.

Coffee date

This morning, I met my friend Phil for coffee at a local coffee house, the Firefly. It was really nice to hang out and catch up, since we go to different schools now. The Firefly is a good place to meet up, since it's relatively close to both of us, and it's got great drinks which they serve in the cutest clay mugs:


I think they're made locally, but I'm not 100%. I do know that all of the art displayed on the walls is done by local artists, though. One of the most exciting things this morning was walking in to the shop and realizing that it had undergone a huge expansion and remodeling since last summer. It's not done yet, but it looks like it will be quite nice when it's done.


I love the big comfy couches and chairs :)

Ninja Sister

Apparently, Sophie is a ninja. According to this picture that she took yesterday, which I was completely unaware of.


Apparently, the flash went off and everything. I had no idea that this picture existed until I went to upload today's picture and saw it on my camera. Anyway, today's picture is another construction one, since it looks like they're starting to put a floor in.


It's supposed to be done in September, which I think is kind of crazy. I had no idea a house could be built that fast. But I guess it looks like they're moving pretty quickly, so maybe I'm crazy.

Yay Dad!

Well, I tried getting my camera to work again after I charged the battery, but it still wouldn't turn on. I took the battery out, and the memory card, and blew on them to make sure they didn't somehow get gunk on them or anything. I put them back in. The camera still wouldn't turn on. Then Dad told me he'd take a look at it after dinner. He did the exact same things I did. Or course, it worked when he did it.


My dad, fixer of all technical difficulties and strange camera malfunctions in our home. Victory tootsie pop!

I heart nook

Just to clarify, I LOVE my Nook! It's absolutely wonderful. I mention this again because some of my relatives gave me Barnes and Noble gift cards (some of the best gifts ever, btw) for my birthday, so I downloaded some books yesterday. Also, I bought a cover for it, and it's cool!


There are 46 quotes on the cover (front and back). Right now, I can name the source of 22 of them. Eventually, of course, I hope to be able to name all of them :)

Boys

I spent Saturday and a good portion of Sunday at Jon and Ben's apartment, and I have learned several things from that stay. Saturday, I learned that boys can't make a shopping list, because is will end up looking like this:



On Sunday, I learned that Jon doesn't do dishes so much as he plays with the bubbles...


Yep, this is him doing dishes.


At least he was having fun, right? And the dishes did get clean.

Technical Difficulties

Hey everyone! Pictures from this weekend and today will hopefully be up tomorrow. Right now I'm having a little bit of trouble with my camera- it's refusing to turn on. I've got the battery charging now and hopefully that will fix it, but it should have still had a few days in it so I'm not 100%. Either way, I'll do my best to get them posted sometime tomorrow.

Aftermath

Ever have those days where you wake up in kind of a haze and stumble around for a bit before you actually start paying attention to your surroundings (you know, like most school days)? That's what I did this morning. And this was the first thing I was awake enough to notice:


I believe the first thing I said this morning was something like, "Gross! Gross! Mom, did you SEE what the house next to us looks like?!! Gross!" Then Mom wished me a happy birthday, and I remembered it was my 21st birthday! So tomorrow night I'm going to go out with my friends and have fun, and probably have a really boring picture for the day. lol

TONS of Rain

It is absolutely crazy outside right now. It's been pouring for a couple of hours now, and raining on and off all the rest of the day. Take a look at the street outside my house:


See those shiny spots in the middle of the road? That's the part that isn't submerged. Now check out our backyard:



We have a river! Maybe it will be more convenient for kayaking?

Cartouche

My Aunt Debbie recently went on vacation to Egypt, and I was insanely jealous. Looking at the pictures she has on Facebook didn't help. lol. While she was there, though, she got souvenirs for my mom, sisters, and myself: cartouche necklaces with our names on the front, and a trio of other hieroglyphs on the back. They're REALLY cool :)


According to the card that came with it, the symbols for my name mean "independent one" (S), "powerful and strong person" (A), "talk too much" (R), and "diplomatic person" (H).


The signs stamped on the back are for long life (the ankh), protection (the eye of Horus, one of the ancient Egyptian gods), and good luck (the scarab).

Construction at Home

Just recently (sometime toward the end of last week, while we were camping), the huge tree that's been in the empty lot next to us was cut down, and construction started for a new home. If I had known about it ahead of time, I would have got a picture of the tree, for before and after shots. As it is, I didn't know, so the best I can do it a picture of the stump with the house foundation.


That stump is probably close to being the same size as our dinner table. It is absolutely huge. It's a shame that such an old tree had to be torn down, but it wasn't a very healthy tree, either. I'll keep things posted on how the construction is going- I think it will be interesting to see the progress and how quickly it goes up.

Sophie's Friends

Shortly before we left to go camping, our air conditioner broke. Since our return, I've spent a lot of time in Sophie's room. Her room is much more likely to catch a nice breeze than mine is. While I was bored yesterday, I noticed two of Soph's friends. Jibba Jabba, an old friend, and Hubert the Viking, a fairly new friend.


Jibba Jabba's been around since Soph was really little, and Hubert came back from Denmark with her last summer.

Post-Camping

Yesterday was a pretty nice day- I mostly just lounged around and enjoyed being home. We did go out for a little bit in the afternoon to bum around the mall (air conditioning!) and meet Grandma Joyce and Grandpa Jim for lunch. fyi, Chili's has really good chicken fajitas. Anyway, while I was enjoying being a bum, mom was doing things like working her way through the mountains of laundry that camping produced.


Yeah. That's not even the clothes. That's just towels and bedding. Crazy, right?

Day 8/the End

We were going to stay tonight and leave tomorrow morning, but then we discovered that there were chances of thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow. So, change of plans! We packed up and left this afternoon.


Dad packing up some of the stuff around the campsite. We were out around noon.


Before we left, however, Roger the chipmunk showed up to say goodbye and try to scavenge out of our garbage bag one last time.

Day 7

Another nice bike ride, made even sweeter by the destination: the Corner Store. (where else?)


Michael and Colleen do really well on the rides there and back- they never have to stop for breaks or to walk their bikes, even though they're on little bikes with training wheels. Although, I doubt that they'll have training wheels on their bikes for much longer.

Day 6

Brenna's birthday! She turned 14, and we spent the 4th or 5th year in a row by celebrating with breakfast at Paul Bunyan's.


She has the pins to prove it, too. Happy birthday B :)

Day 5

Aunt Katie made the mistake of mentioning to my sisters and I that she would braid our hair for us if we wanted. Of course we did. Braids are so much easier when you're camping, for about a million different reasons.


I think she ended up doing mine on 3 different occasions. Thanks Aunt Katie!

Day 4

On Tuesday, there was a flea market in one of the small towns near the campground. A number of us got new sunglasses while we were there.


Colleen's were particularly awesome. Isn't she cute?!!

Like most of the things we did during camping, going to the flea market left us in need of a sweet pick me up.


So of course we biked down to the Corner Store for ice cream!

Day 3

Monday morning we hit Paul Bunyan's for breakfast for the first time this year.


As always, there was a TON of food and it was pretty good. The potatoes are my favorite, but Angela likes the ham. Mom, of course, likes the doughnuts the best.

After such a huge breakfast, we had to do something to work it off.


A nice long bike ride around the lake and campground, with a trip into a few neighboring campgrounds, was perfect :)

Day 2

Due to some car issues, we weren't able to bring the SUV (and by extension, the camper) up right away, so we spent the first few nights in the tent.


Note the red Ford Focus, our "full sized" sedan loaner. lol

There were all kinds of pretty wildflowers around the campground, but these little white clusters were some of my favorites :)


It rained a little during our first morning there, and I thought the flower/shrub was quite pretty with the raindrops still holding on to it.

Fortunately, it didn't rain all day, and I got to take my kayak out for a bit.

This was a huge improvement on last year, when it rained the whole time and we never got to take them out.

First Day of Camping, 2010

Sunday was the first day of our annual family camping trip/mini-reunion. During a walk around the lake, my sisters and I found this:


Someone else must have made it on the beach earlier, and I thought it would be a great way to start off this year's camping pics :)

We started out the trip by celebrating our arrival at the campground, and the fact that we got a pretty sweet site.

Side-bananas are by far the best way to celebrate something.


More from our walk around the beach :)

A quick note

Since I'll be camping for the next week and a bit, I won't be updating the blog until I get back. I'll have my camera for daily pictures, but I won't have any way to upload them. So heads up!

Packed and ready to go

Well, tomorrow is day one of our summer camping trip, so this morning I packed up all of the gear I'll be needing. You know, important things like a cuddly animal, bananagrams, and my magic cards :P


And, you know, other important things like clothes and reading material (though the nook will get packed later).

Camping prep

Still getting ready for camping. This is what the garage looks like right now, while we're getting everything assembled to pack up:


Kinda scary, but it has most of the ingredients for a good camping trip (missing, of course, are smores supplies and good weather). While Dad and Mom were busy bringing stuff up from the basement and organizing things, Sophie and I took a few moments for a quick jousting match with the kayak paddles.


Getting ready...


Charge!


Aaaaand, contact! We may or may not have been Monty Python-ing the horses.

Ice cream!

Four words: Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream.


Look it up. Right here. It's like the God of all other ice creams. It's what other ice cream aspires to be. It is delicious and amazing and you will NEVER find better ice cream anywhere.

Office Space Day

You know the scene in Office Space where Ron Livingston's character is explaining that if he had a million dollars and could do whatever he wanted, that he'd do nothing? That was my basic inspiration for today. I didn't even get dressed. I sat around and read, and watched Harry Potter with my sisters. And you know what? It was everything I thought it could be. So today's pictures are brought to you from the dining room, where we're assembling our camping stuff. Some of the important things:


The non-frozen food. But you know what's even more important than the food? (hey, we can go shopping when we get there if we really need to)


The blankets. As we learned last year, it can get REALLY cold at night. Especially when it's been raining all day. BUT! This year will be better. It will be sunny and lovely and I will be able to sit on the beach and read or take my baby out to go kayaking. Or else.

I am a slacker.

Terribly sorry. Here are the pictures I haven't posted yet, including today's.

Wednesday
Shep, my elephant/pillow on guard duty.


Thursday
Soph and Bren had fun chilling in Bren's room for awhile after dinner. Dork and dorkier? lol, at least they were having fun :)


Probably they were saving woobies. You can find the game here :)

Friday
My grandma brought doughnuts over from the good bakery where she lives! AND W came over! It was def. a good day. Here's a shot of W playing with Soph and Bren.


His favorite new phrase of the day? "Trooper come here?"

Saturday
Saturday was a Farmer's Market day. We got some good snacks (bison jerky) and some potatoes to make with dinner on the 4th. We also found this guy sitting on top of one of the buildings. I'm not sure that I've ever noticed him before, but it seems kind of hard to miss now.


Sunday
What did we do on the 4th of July? Not go to fireworks. It was too drizzly. Instead, we took the shaggy puppy to get groomed.


He loooooves the car. And taking up Soph's entire seat.

Monday
My parents gave me my birthday present early this year, and it.was.AWESOME!


YAY!