A day away, what else is new

Today my mom's beach bag and I played hooky from being a mom and drove up to Lake Erie to spent the day.  All By Myself.  No husband.  No kids. I ate at Sheetz, went to souvenir shops, fell asleep on my blanket, got sunburned and gave zero craps about how I looked in a bathing suit. It was glorious. 

I mean, look at this view.

Here are more pictures. 

Look at these!

I brought home some big rocks and a bag of beautiful pebbles to share.

Here was the view at Walnut Creek. The surf was pretty wild there. 

I felt like myself for the first time in a long time.

In other news:.

Finished this book last night. It's a story about a pandemic that causes the collapse of civilization within days of arrival in Canada.  The book opens with the death of an actor, from a heart attack,  onstage during King Lear. Mostly it takes place 20 years after the pandemic and follows the lives of serveral survivors who knew that man. It was beautiful and I did cry at one point.  I did not continue reading Fight Club.  My books are secondhand and I didn't realize that the previous owner had highlighted all through it. I'll look for another copy.

Love this hosta. Two hostas growing together? It's very pretty. 

Took the oldest 2 camping last weekend at a local place with our neighbor and her son. My husband stayed home with the baby. It rained at night but we had so much fun. 

Aldi had little strings of LED lights for $3. They look really cute in the camper.

Mr. H. turned 6 yesterday! Life is passing by so quickly. 

Morning at the lake, other stuff

A cool morning with a nice breeze. Win!

Still working my way through the "Couch to 5K in 8 weeks" app on my phone. Due to children and weather I am currently on week 5 when I should be done with it, oh well.  It absolutely amazes me that i can run for 8 minutes at a stretch now without dying. 

Hot, sweaty, probably stinky and suprised at myself. Who would have thought? Maybe this is my mid-life crisis.

I've started going to a local lake because 1) it's cooler 2) WAY more fun and 3) more private because, well, sweat (refer to selfie above)

This isn't even a hill, it's a small incline. Never before wished the world was flat.

Here she is, watching.

Something unexpected and delightful happened this morning,  I was actively followed by this doe. Running may not kill me, but by the end of the timed part it's pretty ugly. I think she was curious about the heaving panting noises I was making. Three times within a minute I turned around to see her a safe distance behind me, ears pricked, watching intently.  The sounds she was hearing were not unline a deer grunting.  She must have followed along each time my back was turned.

What else.

And there was a day when we were all climbing the walls and I sent them out to play. In the rain. I went too. No one melted. 

The oldest 2 and I slept out again one cool night.  It was nice to read by lantern light.

Not even sure where this book came from, found it cleaning. It was an engaging, easy read.  I would read it again. Yesterday I started the book Fight Club. Love, love the writing but it's a shame already knowing the big plot twist thanks to the movie.

Obligatory cat picture:

 

We were growing carrots in this basket.  It's now a cat bed.

July babies, summer

Mr. A turned 3 last week, very exciting stuff. He was certain that he wanted two things: frosting and a candle. Done and done! The cake was really fun to make, it's 3 small cake layers with a mini bundt cake on top. The center of the cake spilled out sprinkles and mini M&Ms when it was cut into. We had a small, fun, party with the grandparents and papa. There will be another with the cousins mid-month and a party for Mr. H's 6th birthday at the end of the month. 

This happened yesterday,  oops!

She has 5 perfect fluffy little babies. There were three other eggs in the nest that she got off of to take care of the hatched peeps. They are in the incubator and if they make it I'll slip then under her when she's sleeping.

We haven't slept out again, or actually left the property with the camper. I need to fix that. My dad found us this big heavy tire rim and I made a fire pit in front of the camper, very exciting. It's the perfect size to toast marshmallows. I need to get some plain bread so Mr H can make grilled cheese sandwiches using the pie iron. You can see my friends vintage Shasta across the street in this photo. She fixed up a 1400, which is the same one I had before buying the Metzendorf. 

Summer is in full swing, it's been very hot this year. We spend most mid-days inside the house. Our town had Heritage Days this weekend and Mr. H and I went to the car show and park with friends.

Here are the kids in these bubble suits, which is hilarious.  They could run into each other full speed and bounce into the air or roll away. It was great.

With the kids we didn't get to see many cars. Here is my favorite which was alot smaller inside than you would think.

There is usually a good turnout for the car show but this year there were *800 cars* participating.  Instead of just being along Main Street they overflowed onto all of the side streets and filled the small parking lots. It was so, so nice to see people out and life getting back to the old, pre-covid, normal.