Sunday, June 26, 2011

Things I found in the woods

So the family reunion I mentioned in my last post happened in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin in the woods.  It sounds super sketchy but wasn't at all.  It was fun and provided many opportunities for me to avoid my family by walking around in the woods.  I found a lot of pretty things and some not so pretty things.  I'll post the not so pretty things later, but the pretty ones get the honor of being today's post.


Red leaves in June are a nice surprise.   


Little white flowers are fun, too.  These were under several very large trees, and they seemed to be the only things the sunlight could reach.


I love columbine flowers.  They're unique and wonderful.

I'm looking forward to some actual sunshine around here again.  I'm fed up with the constant rain and drearies. 
-Erika

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Family Reunion

Last weekend was my first camping outing of the summer.  It didn't get above 65 degrees until we left on Sunday.  There were 25 of us staying at my Uncle Tim's and Aunt Lisa's place.  I'm amazed we didn't burn anything down or destroy anything other than a frisbee.  Seriously, 25 of us.


Yep.  24 in the picture and Aunt Tracey yelling at everyone to look at the camera at the same time.  Unfortunately, we all have horrible timing, so some of us aren't quite paying attention (Baby O, mom).  I don't like being in front of the camera, but I allowed it for a while.  I was a little hesitant about the whole weekend, since there are so many of us and I'm slightly agoraphobic.  It worked out, and I spent the whole weekend in flannel.  It was awesome and smelly.

Oh yeah, there are three 4 year olds and a year-and-a-half old pile of adorable little girl.  It proved to be excellent birth control.  


LittleSpencer, my cousin's son was adorable when we had him play with fabric paints.  We made a shirt for Grandpa Jerry for Father's Day, and LittleSpencer claimed the first handprint.  He wasn't sure what to think of it until my brother taught him to play with the paints on cardboard and get really dirty.  He then proceeded to follow my brother around all weekend, much to Spencer's dismay.

Uncle Tim corralled the four-year-olds and let them drive the old tractor up and down his driveway.  


There's something about the blind leading the blind in here, but I'm fairly certain Little T can see.  He loved driving the tractor and pulling his sister and LittleSpencer around.  


Look at those little faces.  They had so much fun.  Even Little M was having fun.  She usually got left out when Little T and LittleSpencer were doing boy things and she was playing golf.  So adorable. 


The last time I saw these three was last June at my graduation party, and they would not talk to me at all.  Eventually I got Little T to give me a high-five and his sister Little M even told me about her sparkly shoes.  Those twins and LittleSpencer made me realize that I do want kids some day, some very far off day.  Like 10 years from now.  

I'm looking forward to the other family reunion in August, now.  It's going to be another massive group of relatives with small children.  Perhaps I'll be more prepared for this upcoming adventure, but I doubt it.

Avoiding children like the plague for now,
-Erika

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Say Uncle!

I'm leaving for a family reunion in the middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin in about negative 13 minutes.  Or as soon as my brother gets home.  I'n sure I'll have lots of stories on Monday, but until then...

Happy Birthday, Uncle Scott!  He's 50 today, and he's still as dorky as he was in high school.  According to my mom.  I wasn't around then, for obvious reasons.


Yep.  Still dorky.  I don't know why I claim him as a relative.


Terribly sorry, old man.

-Erika

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

98 Degrees and Rising

It has been really hot in Rochester lately.  Like, record-shattering highs in the triple digits hot.  Yeah, even hot enough to fry my brain cells into thinking a boy-band related title would be a good idea.  

Our air conditioning wasn't working until yesterday, so we have been living in the basement with the lights off like cave-dwellers who aren't used to sunlight.  So pretty much my normal behavior.  The dogs have been lethargic to say the least.  Sniper found her perfect respite, though.  


It's apparently nice under the tree.  No one could find her for a while, though, and I thought she ran away.  Nope.  She's just crazy.

Even with the ridiculous temperatures this week, our flowers have thrived.  The roses all bloomed.


Our first rosebud appeared on Sunday, right outside of my bedroom window.  I braved the sun in a black shirt for the first rosebud.  I hope it's grateful for its 15 seconds of fame.

The rest of the rosebushes have erupted in thorns and shades of red and pink.  The wind was even kind enough to knock them all down onto the patio so I didn't have to wade through the garden to get some good pictures.  (It has also been crazy windy here) Thanks wind!


I love this picture.  I think I'll tell my mom to keep the roses around.  

Still trying to remember that thorns hurt, 
-Erika

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Things in my yard

I was going through my pictures from this Spring and I realized that my yard is actually quite interesting.  We have pretty trees, pretty flowers, a lazy dog, a hyper dog, and sometimes really gross dead-things.  Here's a quick overview of my yard from April until today.

We have a couple of plum trees, and this one is my favorite.  You can see it from the kitchen, and sometimes Penny sits under it looking adorable.


She wasn't feeling up to the walk to the front yard when I took the picture, so there is only a pretty tree.  Sorry.

We had daffodils in the gardens, too.


This one reminded me of an egg.  Probably because I hadn't eaten breakfast yet when I took the picture, but whatever.  It's still pretty.

Almost every time I take a picture of Penny she is laying down.  The following two pictures are no exception. Here's some back story about why this is so disturbing, though.  Spencer and I woke up to find the dogs gone.  The gates were closed, but there was apparently a gap in the fence they had crawled through.  After looking for them for about a half an hour, the neighbor said they were behind his shop.  We found the dogs.  They barked at us, because they forgot who we were.  We brought them home and realized they needed a hosing.  They really don't like the hose, but they made it.  Penny went right back to her usual stance of laying wherever the hell she felt like laying.


This meant she dug a little spot for her in the dirt, walked in a couple of circles, and lay down.  Soaking wet.  In loose dirt.


Awesome, Penny.  Really awesome.  She got another hose down after that little incident.

Today, I went to look at the pond.  There was a fish floating in it.  The fish was alive the last time I saw it.


Not so much anymore.  No more fish for us.  Sniper wanted to eat the fish, but Fabian gave it a little fish funeral instead.  Sometimes I just shouldn't ask.

Happy June!
-Erika