My Luca

funny, sweet, fiery little boy.

love you.

Ava

so in love and amazed with my girl

Buggy Bayou with Tim and Anjee

little boys love to pee on tress

wait till you hear the full story...

frog catcher

amazingly, no sparkler injuries from this one

cutest kids ever

Tim and Anjee surviving the almost swamped boat.

Ditte Dog drinking up the fruity blended drink

"Hey guys, do you want to see what I can do?"

repeat...about 87 times.

giving Tim the spa mud treatment

The Big Bobber

fishing with daddy

thanks Tim and Anjee for joining us (and putting up with us)

Good times.

McFarland Sunset

More Lake Ripley Beach

our favorite place to go this summer...

less funky than Madison lakes but

probably not funk free.

Bye Bye Busse

Bye bye Busse Street

It's amazing how many boxes of "random crap"

there are at the final stages of packing.

Unpacking will bring so many surprises.

Our whole house, crammed into this storage space.

Empty house.

If you've heard the squirrel story you will be

thoroughly impressed by the current state of our garage.

It's been a good little house. I was a little teary

but excited to change things up.

When my parents moved out of our house on Regent Street

we each painted our names on the wall of the attic staircase.

It made me happy that the next families to live there would

see our names and maybe wonder what we were all about.

Maybe they painted the staircase and didn't think twice about it

but I like to think positive and romanticize the memory.

In the Busse house basement a previous owner had written

their family name and the date into the concrete floor.

When we moved in it made me smile.

I wish I had remembered to look once again at who

they were and what year it was left.

So, the Dolezalek family is on the basement wall.

I had intended to have the kids paint a picture but the

chaos of moving took over and it never happened.

We were supposed to close on the house today.

A small glitch on the buyer's part and it's been postponed

until August 1st but we're all out, packed and gone.

Bye bye Busse Street.

Clouds

lovely clouds...couldn't have been out yesterday

when we moved furniture and cleaned out the garage in

sunny, sweltering 99 degree weather.

lovely though.

Big Bobber

friends Ruthie and Luke having a kiss under the trees

"Uncle Charley" helping the Ava's fish

Dustin trying to get cell reception at the top of Mema's cabin

Big Ava and Little Ava

Luke taking a swig of the mango rum juice

(no longer in slushy form)

The Avas

Ancho - intolerant of heat and exercise

Luca - with two Buzz Lightyears and fighting off a fever all weekend

Trisha scoring a Coors from the Big Bobber

Ruthie and I chilling on the beach

Charley the beaver scores a big one

Trisha and Dustin, AKA "Whitey McWhiterson"

The Zahms

"Uncle Charley" earning his babysitting money

Ava, Ava, Luca and Ben getting ready to leave the cabin

Friends at the cabin for frog catching, fishing and swimming.

Despite the hot humid weather we had a good time,

made better by a boat ride to a sweet swimming spot and

the launch of the Big Bobber beer cooler.

Union with Avery

I asked Ava what I should say about these pictures

She said, "I like Avery and I like summer".

Works for me.

She Wanted a Puppy...

Meet Arianna and Princess

or Cinderella and Belle.

The names have changed a few times,

pretty sure they may change again.

Beach Birthday