Long Overdue

I realize that I've neglected my blog for far too long.  So in attempt to get back to it I'm going to blindly throw a bunch of pictures from our summer up and pretend like they sum up our entire summer.  First of all, we had gorgeous weather all summer and enjoyed our home and land.  Then came Laura's and Manny's wedding.  Our family all flew to Huntington Beach for the glorious occasion and enjoyed it very much.  I'm so happy for Laura, she found a really great guy.  Their wedding was in Newport Beach on a yacht.  It was a small, cozy and intimate affair.

Richard's family and ours rented a great beach house right down by downtown Huntington.  My kids loved being in the water and boogie boarding.  There were also beach cruiser bikes that we used to ride to the beach or shops.  I love California, the sunshine, and the sand between my toes at the beach.  

Drew started middle school and takes great care in choosing her outfits for the day.  She always looks so cute and is enjoying school.  She joined the cross country team and did very well in her races.  She was always the second 7th grade girl in her school to finish.  

More to come...... I promise!

In the weeds

When I used to wait tables at Chili's there was a saying if you were very busy and running behind.  You would just say "I'm in the weeds."  Well, I can say that now about my live both literally and figuratively.  We have 10 acres and a lot of it has been overtaken by an obnoxious weed called curly dock.  I have spent many many hours over the past month pulling weeds.  My fingers are actually swollen at this point because of these darn weeds.

And that is how I feel in general about my life right now.  School ended abruptly, or so it seemed, and I'm constantly behind in everything.  The kids are just wanting to have fun and I'm just wanting to get stuff done around here. The weather is not very summery so it just doesn't feel like summer.  The weeds have taken over my life for the past few weeks.  I pull them, poison them, dream about them, and then pull more of them.  There is no time to ride horses.  There is barely time to keep up with the laundry.

Another project that we have going on around here is building a chicken coop off the barn.  We will be painting the barn soon and we started on the section that has the coop on it.  I love seeing the difference that a fresh coat of paint makes.  Ever since I was little I dreamed of having a red barn, and now I have one.  It is awesome, and it is one of my favorite places to hang out.  I actually love the smell of it.  Darren and I still can't believe that we are actually living here.  Even though I am constantly in the weeds I love it.

The girls had a fun lacrosse season.

Gillian's nickname on her team was killer because she did so well for her first year.   She also got the "speedy" award for her team because she was so fast.

Drew had fun playing on a team with a bunch of her classmates

This is the Plague....

This is what I've been doing to the plague.

This is what Shadow has been doing.  Destroying everything around.  This was a brand new Sonicare that I had used just once.  

Darren's awesome painting outfit for the barn.

 A frog the size of Roxy outside of our garage.

 We went river rafting last month with our friends to Wenatchee.  Gillian hung out with Kellen Richey. They were like two peas in a pod.  After the trip Gillian said "Kellen is my best friend."

Gillian caught a snake and was really upset that I wouldn't let her keep it.  

Almost done with the chicken coop addition

This past week we went to Lake Chelan with Joelle and her kids.  Drew is looking so old!

Spring and projects

The past two months we have been working very hard on cleaning up the barn area.  We had tons of gravel delivered and rented a tractor and bulldozer to spread it.  I had so much fun driving a skid steer.  I want a tractor.

I'm old

So many things are changing. Gavin has his first girlfriend. Drew wears mascara to school. I turned 43 last week. I have wrinkles. Life is good.

On my birthday I spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to get a bird out of our wood burning stove. It flew down the flue into the stove. Gillian took video which I will have to try to upload tonight between the hours of 11pm and 4am thanks to our lovely satellite internet. Speaking of old, this computer is 5 years old and verrrrryyyy slow. Five year old computer coupled with satellite internet makes blogging, web surfing, downloading, uploading, writing papers, or doing anything, very very frustrating. But I will post proof of the bird drama later. Also, the bird brought a friend back a few days later. So we had two birds flying around our house and banging into the windows. It was soooo exciting for the kids and the dogs.

Darren took me to the Salish Lodge spa last Saturday night. It is at Snoqualmie Falls. I got a massage and we had a late dinner. It was so nice to get away with him if only for a few hours. He is always so thoughtful and knows how badly my neck and head have been hurting. I had hot rocks, hot towels, and a deep massage. I wish that the relaxing effects could last forever.

Did I mention that Gavin has a girlfriend???!!!!!!!

HB visit

My mom flew me down to Huntington Beach last week to visit with my family. It was so nice. Alice kept me busy playing "animal puzzo piece." She never tires of her animal puzzle. I also played with Alice at the beach while Suzy went for a run. The fact that it is warm enough and sunny enough to go the beach in March blows my mind. The morning I flew out of Seattle it was snowing.

We celebrated mine and Laura's birthday. Mama hen was singing to us too. It's a battery operated hen that lays plastic eggs. Glad that the hen lives at Suzy's house because it has a very catchy tune that tends to get stuck in my head. "Mama hen's back again squakalakin lets begin......"

I also got to meet Manny, Laura's fiance. He's a pilot and has a small plane that he took me, dad, and Laura up in. He let me sit in the front and fly the plane. We flew over Catalina and the Queen Mary. The sunset was beautiful.

And of course, no Crockett family get together is complete without a word game of some kind

President's Day

President's day was last week and the kids and Darren had the day off. The weather was very Seattle-ish but that didn't stop us from having fun. Nasca and her boys came over with their quads and motorcycles and so did Bryan and his kids. We rode motorcycles and horses and roasted hot dogs. Now Drew really really wants a motorcycle. Sigh.

I've learned that even when it rains in Washington you just have to go ahead and follow through with your plans or you would rarely do anything outside. That's what hats and coats are for.

Turds

Last week Drew came home from school and proclaimed "it's like we are living in a giant turd." Hmmm..... I was a little confused by this because this is by far the loveliest house I've ever lived in. So she started furiously cleaning. "Joelle doesn't have laundry all over her couch!" "The Peay's house is ALWAYS clean!!!" On and on this went while she angrily vacuumed. The thing is that I had spent most of the morning doing laundry and cleaning the girls' extremely cluttered rooms. When I pointed out her bedroom disaster to her that I had spent the morning on she just said "well, nobody LIVES in my bedroom!" Oh boy, I'm so excited for when she becomes a teen. And by the way, with 5 horses and 4 dogs I spend a good portion of my day cleaning ACTUAL turds. That's all.