Five years home

August 26, 2006

Can it be possible? Five years to the day since this pic was taken. Two scared and tired little boys with their parents who felt the same....if not worse. Someone should have been pushing us in a stroller at that point. Five years later and the boys are off to first and second grade, doing great things and still tiring their parents out on occasion.

Ode to the Sandbar! The whole Marsh fam loves this little tropical oasis on Mass St. We went to their big street party last week and took some fun pics. if you're particularly observant, you'll notice a shark theme.



Definitely the boys' favorite: a two story inflatable shark slide! The little daredevils went up and down, up and down. The only drawback was a pretty impressive slide burn to the bottom of the boy pictured above. His expression kind of says, "that was fun, but I now have an embarrassing owey."



Now that we have said goodbye to one of the hottest Julys on record, the house project is moving along. It even looks like a house again! Above you see it tarped up to protect the exposed roof from an imminent rainstorm. Below you see it gift wrapped and adorned with all its windows.



We are crossing our fingers that we'll be done in six to eight weeks. It will be nice to have our kitchen back...our basement...dining room...family room...

Gotcha Day #5

Can it possibly be five years since the stern female Russian judge said, "congratulations, you are parents"? It does seem like a very long time ago that we were in Siberia trying to get these boys (and ourselves) safely home to Kansas.
Here is the original Gotcha Day post.



Some of you particulary astute blog readers will identify this as Chicago 2008. It's here because this is the first August since then that we've not included Chicago vacation pics (wipe tear), and because we owe a thank you to Jill for the important date reminder...



As promised, here are lots of Harvey's Lake pics from last month. Can you imagine squeezing this many people around the table for dinner each night?! We got the first of five New York cousins married off last summer, so we might have to knock a wall out or something...



The three CNMs cherish the time spent at the house built by CNM Sr. Of all the cool toys at the lakefront, would you believe the little row boat is the boys' fav? Daddy really enjoyed taking them sailing for the first time ever this year. "Daddy, I don't like it when the boat tips!"



There is no shortage of silly with the cousins while we are all together. It is so fun watching the young KS cousins goofing with the 20 and 30 something NY cousins, remembering back when Daddy and his siblings were in that role and it was the NY cousins who were the youngsters.



A very, very important past time is jumping off the dock. Carson has decided he can do it without a life vest, but it is Conner who gets serious air...



...as witnessed by Daddy in this shot. First there's airborn Conner with Daddy underneath...



...then airborn Daddy with Conner underneath.



Fireworks on the driveway, another tradition. Have no fear, we're just dancing to a relatively harmless strobelight firework.



No way, a shuffleboard court? Yep. A before and after pic of the court that hasn't seen as much action recently as it did when the Marsh fam built it in 1956. One reason is the great deal of effort to clean it. Wanna see how it's done?



You have to buff it! Much fun back when we were all younger, and now the little KS cousins have discovered the joy. Above, Cousin Jeff pulls Alex and the CNMs around to shine up mid court. Below you see the creative ways the court gets its high sheen.





The finished product is fun for all ages. Here is a game whose participants represent four generations. If memory serves, Conner and Carson whomped Jeff and Spencer...



So, lots of lake pics and not much update on the house. The lake was wonderful this year, and we've focused a lot of our attention since then on the house project. It seems every day is either 100 degrees or raining, so progress is painfully slow. Next entry will document house progress and first day of school. B-bye summer...