My Dad's a Champ!

I'm not kidding. He and my mom have been here for the summer, and the two of them just serve and serve and serve. In the little song we made up for their 50th anniversary party, we took the song from My Fair Lady called Loverly and changed the words to fit. One line said, "We love your visits, we think they're great! Pop fixes stuff that our husband's hate." <--meaning the stuff they hate to fix. haha. You get it right?

Anyway, my mom prompted my dad to build us an outdoor shower--and he went right to town with the whole project. HE ROCKS! As you already know, the young bucks dug the hole last week (cuz afterall, my 72 year old pops underwent surgery only a couple months back).

Today, he was installing the pipes for the shower and whatnot. I was his primary assistant... well... after Caleigh, I suppose. We were drilling holes and crimping valves when suddenly Pops came rushing out of that tiny furnace room excitedly calling for a large wrench because there was a gas leak. Yup! I could hear it hissing loudly and the smell was obvious. That crummy, cheapo flexible hose that was installed with the crummy, cheapo furnace--the one that has needed $400 repairs every year for it's entire 10 yrs of life--sprung a leak!!

Uh-oh.

And finding tools in our garage can be quite a task (thanks to teenage-boyz). But leave it to me and my pops! I found a wrench, handed it to him, he ran to the outside meter to turn off the gas valve. And no one blew UP! HOORAY!!! Although, my dad did gash his eyebrow in the process of scrambling around. Thank God he didn't get knocked out--cuz then what would we have done? Buh-BOOM!

All is well now... we have no gas until tomorrow. No cooking on the stove. No hot water. No Laundry. But we'll live and we're alive. I'm totally NOT put out!!! Pop seems to feel responsible--but I feel thankful that it happened while we were in the furnace room doing something, rather than when no one was around to notice that there was a leak. The hose was obviously damaged before we ever started banging around in there.

Yup. I learned a lot in a few short hours. I don't think I'll ever become a plumber, but if I needed to, I could probably figure out how to fix a few things. I now know how to shut off the valve to the gas meter outside. It's an important thing to learn.

Thanks Pop!

Wasssuuup?

Where have YOU been???

I have been visiting with my out-of-town family. It's been great. Here is Anika, Sammy and Aubri. The cousins had a blast together.We had a lot of rain while they were here, but we made the best of it. I was EXHAUSTED yestesday once they left. I don't even know why, really. The week was easy and fun and enjoyable, but I felt wiped by the time it was over.

I only have ONE WEEK before the next house guest arrives... Mitch! Yeah! HIGH MAINTENANCE!!! hahhaah. Just Kidding! No. We're gonna have a Drama Camp for two weeks. Mitch is the instructor. It'll be a lot of fun--a riot, actually! I can't wait.

As for this past week... we had a 50th wedding anniversary party for my parents, which turned out great. Here's my mom and pops sharing their thanks with the 70+ guests.While everyone was here we spent some time at the beach; Monday and Friday.We had BBQs and parties every night. Isn't family great?

That's my sister, Jane with a picture of her grown kids when they were babies.

Here is her youngest of seven, Max, playing guitar hero with Candace--my brother John's daughter.

BJ, Anika and me.

Kris, Josh, their dad--Gary (Jane's husband)--and Derek, my neice's husband. Nice looking group.

We Luke, Sammyand Johnny also dug out a dry well for our soon coming outdoor shower--WOOHOO!!!

The boys decided to fixed the dirt bike (Nate's dirt bike) as well as some skate boards. Max loved the skateboards. Sammy, Luke and Gary went up in the parachute behind my brother's truck... THREE HUNDRED FEET ABOVE THE OCEAN AND THE MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR ESTATES!! (Several months ago, David bought a real parachute and some 300', 400', and 600' rope. He ties it to his truck and harnesses the willing candidates to the parachute--and as he drives down the beach, up... up... and away they go. I'll post a video once I find them on my multitude of files from the week. And just so you know... I'm next!

Here is the beautiful Sarah, my niece.

Noses and Profiles

Why? I don't really know. It was just a random thing to do on a rained out beach day!

Muscles Photo Contest

Submissions from the Hochstedler Hotel! (We have family up visiting this week).

Photo #1 Sambo Slick! (Getting a little help).

Photo #2 Johnny trying to force Sam's muscle bulk (HAHAHA)
Photo #3 BIG BAD JOHN (scary) He claims that he will break all five of your fingers on his face and YOU'LL be the one going to the hospital!
Photo #4 Anika's elongated muscle and Aubri's flexed. (The muscles are dinky but that butterfly bandage makes me a little scared).

Photo #5 Candace... and her skinny little twig.
Photo #6 Elizabeth with some definition.
Photo #6 Gary's packin' it!
Photo #7 Jane--layin' low with her amazing strength
Photo #8 Sarah, showing us that she KNOWS all about it!

Photo #9 My Pops... OK... this one cracks me up EVERY TIME!! And the muscle rocks!
Photo #10 and then MA--WOWZA is RIGHT!!!!
Photo #11 Luke... I'd say he's been working out!
Send in YOUR muscle photo to karenkool@optonline.net. There are no rules (except that you must be clothed--haha). I don't know if there will be a prize. I suck at prizes!!! Does anyone else have a prize for someone to win? Oh Wait!!! I have one. I have one.

There will be a trophy awarded to the winner--one that can be proudly displayed in his or her trophy case or on the mantle. So submit your photo, give it a title, and write your email and mailing address. Be creative. Be convincing. Be smart. Don't drink and drive!

Have your submission in by August 1st at noon eastern standard time! Good luck.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELANIE!!

It's the birthday girl!!!
Here she is with her handsome son--the eldest. I hope you were TREATED RIGHT on your big day. ;-)
Mel usually tries to avoid me when I have my camera out. Probably because she knows that I could post these pictures on my blog one day. Was that it? So camera shy!Mel works hard and is a huge asset to our school and the PTO. Here she was serving huge sandwiches in the shape of BHS (our school letters). In the end everyone ate most of the "H" and on that day there was only a lot of BS left. har har har
There she is with some other great ladies... selling raffle tickets for a 50/50. It was cold in the foyer. Who's idea was it to keep the outside doors open in January anyway?
Let's not forget our infamous sock hop when Mel worked the rootbeer float table with her younger son. Isn't she adorable?? If only she had roller skates, she may have won best dressed!
I just wanted to make you feel special today, Melanie. (Although you're probably pissed that I posted all these pictures). Hee. Cheers!

Beach Parties and Corn on the Grill

Summer birthday's are basically an excuse for a big beach bash!!! The Hemby's throw the best!Happy Birthday India. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of you, but my camera malfunctioned in the damp air. I was greatly upset! But this photo of your mom and my mom was GREAAAT!!
Go Mom! Go Nicki! Go Mom! Go Nicki! I did get a picture of your pop doing the Grill-a-man Dance. HAHA
And I got a picture of MY pop with his bride of 50 years. (Summer anniversaries are another reason for having Big Beach Bashes--which happens to be coming up this Friday).

I got of picture of your brother digging out the fire pit. (He looks kind of little in there).
And of course, a couple of love birds walking into the sunset.

It was a beautiful night. Hope you enjoyed the night. That game of freeze-tag-after-dark with the neon bracelets was BRILLIANT!

Radio Silence

We miss Nate! He hasn't called since the day he arrive in CO (and I wasn't home from the airport to even get that call). I can't imagine there would be much of a signal at 14,000 ft anyway.


I hope he remembered the sunscreen!I had a dream where he was telling me all about his adventures backpacking. He started out saying that it sucked! and then he let on that he was joking and claimed that it was AWESOME! proceeding to give me loads of details about this and that. (I also had an anxiety dream about Luke not brushing his teeth enough--could NOT get back to sleep after that one).

The suspense about Nate's 7-day expedition is killing me. I'm not sleeping well. Blaagh.

We visited our dear friends last week when we dropped Nate at the airport. Haven is playin' it KOOL with the shades. Anika's encouraging his koolness factor.
Jen's sportin' a new baby girl! Miya. She's beautiful and so tiny.
And, of course, there's the proud papa--Dave.Three cheers for the Cardines--Hip hip hoorah! Hip hip hoorah! Hip hip hoorah. <--it's an offical Kool Daze shout out!

So, I'm feeling tired. But not the way a momma-with-a-newborn feels--although I HAVE experienced MY OWN fair share of that kind of tired!! Nothing feels quite like that kind of tired. But later on you reach a parenting season where there's sleepless nights based on worry and concern, and you don't sleep because you're mind won't stop. It's exhausting in a whole different way.

Oh well, it's another beach day. I'll try to sleep there.It's suppose to be HOT and HUMID, so with that, there's no better place to be then the beach.

My sister and her whole family are coming up for a visit this upcoming week. My aunt is coming too. HOW EXCITING!!! I can't wait. I wish it didn't get hot right when I was mentally gearing myself up to clean the house. Heat and humidity are two VERY unmotivating factors when it comes to cleaning.

(Oh... and the bluestone has arrived for the pool patio--woohoo). By the end of the summer maybe our pool coping will be finished and the lovely patio to boot. GLORY!

I'll be taking lots of pictures this next week. Get ready.

Doing the Jig Anywhere and Everywhere

Found this clip at Mark's Miscellaneous Creativity and loved it so much I had to post it as well.

Back to that PERFECT BEACH DAY...

It all begins with the ice cream truck...

And you can leave your shoes at the top of the beach. The first view upon arrival.

And then the second look.

Elizabeth wants to go in ASAP!

The girls think they are sooooo cute... and they are.Ok--beware of that DEEP water!
It's a little deep for you girls to swim.

Keep practicing!

This is Nates first time catching a wave--and I CAUGHT IT ON MY NIKON!!!

Way to go Nate.

A beautiful day to sail.

Anika... up to her shenanigans again.

Storm debris.

The End.