happy birthday, kirsten

Okay, this pic is of the very hard fought Nok Hockey battle.   And battle, I do mean.  Kirsten brought this, arranged prizes, the whole works.  And then they fought, like scrappers will do.

Kirsten?  You are impressive, honestly.

And the cakes--we had two, five different flavors involved, all good, celebrating in the dark.

Gift second, after cake.  Changing up the birthday party order.  It's fine. 

Some pics from the past, always good:

I hope it was a great day.

Thanks for being ours.

Happy Birthday, with love forever, Mom and Dad

the end of the night

Fall colors here, peaked and gone, but still so golden, tawny, beautiful.

After everyone rolled out of here early in the afternoon, we had a moment about sealing the deck.

Yes.

We had three old cans, half used up, and then we got ambitious and did it. 

Voila!

Deck preserved for another year.

My dad is a tool and die maker, precision metals.  My parents own a machine shop. They are not casual do whatever people.  Get it right.

My dad told us about Thompson Water Seal and the deck, and they gave us this deck when they did their home remodel in 2010.

Do not want to screw this up.

But really.

It's the truth. This deck was not new when he gave it to us, and we've had it another eleven years and it is still not splintery or anything. Still looks good.

After we finished that, we went for a walk along the shoreline, checking out the draw-down the lake does to prevent ice ersosion.

It's just all so gorgeous, and so was this warm day.

 Love, Val

baby!

Oh my goodness.

It's been years since we've had any babies.   It's been ten years since we've had a baby boy.

We are so excited to meet this child, this lucky child, who has these people for parents!

Love forever, Grandma, Grandpa and Everybody

 

this and that

Fall colors on the downside this week, but still really pretty.

Driving there and back home again, evocative, memories rushing past, forests and fields, so much family, so many trips in the fall.

The last occasion we had to be with my grandma was in the fall. We ate ravioli together.  The nurses made popcorn for the kids.  It was lovely. We didn't know it was the last time.   Glad we didn't know and just freely enjoyed.  

These guys are in Mexico this week, a trip bought for a fundraiser at school pre-pandemic.

Time to redeem the fun. The kids are that much older and are able to appreciate and understand this trip so much more, and in the pictures I am seeing they love Mexico as much as I do.

More trees and overcast November-looking sky at the lake:

We were alone at the cabin, and then John came up to get some work done, so we had an entire evening with just one kid. That doesn't happen very often, and it was lovely.  We went to dinner, spent the evening together and this kid, our oldest grandson, an accomplished football player, decided to get a hair cut and dress up and go to the school dance.

Voila:

Looking so good, Buddy!  

Last week I went shopping for fabric to sew curtains at the cabin. The others were faded to nearly white, all the little apple print nearly gone.

I was looking for a retro print, and this is, and I had a  40% off coupon, which was good because this fabric cost...

Are you sitting down?

$35/yard.

At the cash register, that's when they told me that coupon doesn't apply to this brand of fabric.

Seriously?

You people are the WORST.

But I didn't have it in me to take it out on the cashier. I paid the green cash, annoyed money.

And now this golden fabric had to be turned into curtains. This was the first attempt.  

Okay fine.

But I didn't like them and the men didn't really either. John suggested valances, but I'm really not interested in buying MORE fabric.

So we cut them in half and all is good.

And that's the end of tonight.

So much love, Val

terrifying

This is Elin hiding from the chirping smoke detector.  Apparently stuffing herself under my desk will save her.  At first she got very close. Then all at once she dove between my knees and the desk and trembled.   Jay brought home a new battery between plumbing calls, and all was well again.

This was the sight out the front window this morning.   Not a fan, but it was gone by noon.
 

Onward. 

We are halfway through October. 

Love, Val

a pretty picture

It's Joe and the youngest child walking back from the field. Click on it to view full sized.  Love, Val
 

fall photos

 

Docks are out. Boats are out.

Love, Val