Lake Weekend Recap

In all the engagement excitement, I missed posting pictures from our recent family lake trip.  We had a lovely time on a perfect summer day at the lake.  Lots of swimming and skiing, only minimal sunburns, and no major injuries.  Win, win, win.  There were two minor incidents involving Little Brian losing a paddle and he and Cousin Whitney managing to strand me in the middle of the lake when the boat got blown into some rocks.  Eh, live and learn, I say.

Here are some photos from the day!

Right before that paddle got lost.

Cousin Whitney

That's me

Me again

Right before he dunked me in the water.

Posing with the ol' boat.  1974 model, still runs like a charm.

Dad and Little Brian

Cousin Whitney's crew.

My dad.

Uncle Rusty

Traditional father/daughters photo

Two of my favorite guys

Family Ski Trip 2013

Once again, I'm late on blogging about it, but never fear, the Annual Family Ski Trip did happen.  It was a smaller group and we almost even followed Tiffany's three rules set out the first day of the trip:  (1)  no police officers; (2) no throwing up; and (3) no fist fights.  (For those of you that are wondering, past years have indeed involved one or all of these events.)  My father, of all people, broke one the last day.   You can ask him about that.

The crew this year was my dad, The Boy from Texas, Sweet Talker, Almost Gypsy Soul (who wins the award for coming the farthest after she drove down from Wyoming!), Ski Trip John and Ski Trip Jerry.

Here's a little photo recap of the festivities.

Possibly worst photo ever?  Yep!



That happened.

This would be my boyfriend who decided to use sunscreen as
lighter fluid to get the fire going.

 I am already for the 2014 version.  Everyone be ready in December!

 

A Birthday Surprise

"Seize the day. Remember all those women on the Titanic who passed on the dessert plate." ~ Erma Bombeck (via my friend Mama Rock)

A couple of weekends ago, I pulled off a pretty clever birthday surprise for The Boy from Texas.  We had been trying to figure out a plan to see each other the weekend before his birthday, but had basically given up because we failed to plan in advance and plane tickets were too expensive.  So, alas, we decided I would stay here and clean the house and he would stay there and mow his lawn.

But you know that I'm a girl who LOVES birthdays.  I mean seriously LOVES them.  It all started when I was a little kid and Aunt Elaine introduced me to birthday cakes and my mom hired her students to come to my party dressed up as clowns and two grandmas spoiled us with lots of presents.

Childhood birthday party with my grandmas

So the thought of The Boy from Texas spending his birthday weekend mowing the lawn was not going to fly with this girl.  So on Friday at about 3:00, I sent him a text message containing only this picture.  Then I got on a plane.

By the time I got to Dallas, he texted back saying, "Does that say you arrive at 7:30 today?  TODAY?"  I wrote back and just said, "Airport.  7:30.  Don't be late."  He called me a turkey (I was going for being called "girlfriend of the year," but I'll take what I can get) and said he would be there.

And from there we spent the weekend on the lake with the family just skiing and swimming and hanging out.  Cousin Whitney and her new husband even joined us on the last day of their honeymoon.  My mom made The Boy from Texas a strawberry birthday cake (I would whine that she never makes me a homemade cake, but you guys would just tell me to shut up after reading about the clowns above) and my parents took us to dinner.  And then, well because it's my family, we took pictures of ram lambs.

The old classic 1970's model boat

The yearly father/daughter lake photo

Swimming in the cove

With the honeymooners

Gambler checking out what was going on across the fence

Completely worth the price of that plane ticket to pull off the birthday surprise.  At least I'm telling myself that.  Ask me again when I'm broke and living in a cardboard box under a bridge.

Elk Steaks and Hoe Cakes: 2012 Ski Trip Report

"If I wasn't fat, I'd eat one of those cookies."  ~Ski Trip Jerry (deemed quote of the ski trip)

Today I'm recapping the last weekend in December when I headed to Red River with a group of crazies for our annual family ski trip.  There were fun nights at The Lift House, making smores, cooking elk steaks that one of the Hepburns shot that morning, laughing until I couldn't breathe, hoe cakes and Natty Light, relationship advice from Ski Trip Jerry, naming another portion of the mountain after a curseword, green chile chicken alfredo, and lots of fun!

Traditional first stop:  The Lift House Bar

Me and the Hepburn children (who I used to babysit..I'm officially old!)

Me and the Old Man

The men cooked while the women watched football...my kind of set up!

Hoe cakes and Natty Light....a Ski Trip Jerry tradition.

Fresh elk steaks courtesy of One Shot Pat 12 hours before!

Hittin' the slopes.

Me and Cousin Whitney

Daddies and daughters

When we started this ski trip 7 years ago, we were just a bunch of kids who wanted to do something more fun than lambing out ewes on Christmas break from college.  It's sort of taken on a life of its own and ended up creating a ski trip family of people who I can't really imagine my life without.  It accidentally became a tradition, but it's one I am so grateful for!

2012 Ski Trip Family Photo

*Linking up with This Weekend I and Weekend Update.

Peace Out....

"Go that way really fast. If something gets in your way, turn!"  ~Skiing advice

No time to blog today because.....

I'm here:

Hello, Red River!

To do this:

And a little of this:

And hopefully not too much of this:

In my defense I made it all the way down the face before I fell.

With these crazy people:

I've been listening to this song for a week in preparation for the fun:



The 7th annual family ski trip has commenced.

See you suckers next week!