Of colds and coughs and lovely things!

Over Christmas, with all the Vaughans gathered in together, I assumed that we would all swap bugs and leave with sickening momentos of each other. That didn't happen. This past week made up for it. We have had terrible coughs, fevers, vomiting, and this morning, I woke up with one of those sickening colds where the whole world just seems a bit much for me. I want to snuggle under blankets, rub my head, blow my nose, and moan. (Actually, with the exception of snuggling under blankets, I am doing all those things....) Elsie ran a high-ish fever of 102/103 on Friday with vomiting, which is why I didn't do  my happy post. I wrote it several times in my head, but somehow, never managed to sit down and write it.

But we had a lovely, lovely week with all sorts of reasons to be happy!

The library book sale was everything it should be. Great books! And then Saturday, was the BMC maple school, which Evan, Justin, and Dave Barkley went to.

So we had Cheyenne and the Barkley kids over for the day on Saturday. I didn't get many pictures. But the girls all made headbands out of elastic and buttons. One of those Oh-this-will-be-so-much-fun! exercises that turned into a lot of tearful I can't DO this! But as Dave said, they won't remember that part. They will just remember the day we made headbands--wasn't that fun? Hopefully anyway!  

Orianna scowling at something or someone.

Daddy read Gilbert to sleep on Lily's beanbag.

Then we went to Browns for union meeting. Weavers were there.

David and Elsie

Talking, Lori excited about something. 

Jean and Gilbert. The oldest one and the second youngest. And sunshine. And houseplants. I love this picture.

Jeff, carving

Bonnie, mid talk

Beautiful AND yummy cupcakes Bonnie made. She filled them with a whoopie pie filling and then iced them and sprinkled them. 

Katherine, who was quite the baby sitter this weekend!

Gilbert, and his pal Ashley

David working the kids up

Driving down 87 to Lake George, where we stayed at the Great Escape water park with the Whites.

Our hotel room after a quick pizza supper and getting back into bathing suits. Yowza! Like an eight child tornado!

Cousinly chats

Knitting and discussing

Grandpa Dana and lots of kids

Elsie was a little unsure of the water at first

Gilbert, however was in love.

Happy, fat baby!

Look at that grin!

They have a nice 1 foot deep max place for kids. With shallow edges and water spouts. And slides for slightly bigger kids. I stayed in this part the most. 

There was also this part, where the large bucket up top occasionally falls down on everyone waiting to go down the slides. The kids loved this.

Friends

Daddies and kids

Coming down the big tube slide. For the record, I hated this. Tori told me I had to try it, since she loved it so much. It was dark and hot, rushing who knows where. Sort of claustrophobic. I had to remind myself to breathe. I am such an adrenaline junkie. Ha! As you can see in this picture, my six year old daughter loved it. 

Tori

Cheyenne

Sweet girl

The lazy river. More my speed. I really liked this.

Cheyenne and Orianna told me they were having the best time of their life. As Marilyn said, there were no fussy kids at the water park--everyone was pretty pleased with life! 

Daddy and his two wee ones

Under the waterfall 

These two are such friends

A quick warm up

Elliott and Grandma 

Getting ready to leave

Gilbert and the bears

Leaving

Then the kids, Tori, and I went down to Dana and Marilyn for a few days. On Tuesday, we went to see the house that the guys built and are finishing inside. 

And they had a birthday banner for me. 30 years old. I am so special! 

Evan's idea of funny. This is the little piece of wood that they hit with the hammer when they are needing to get the other piece of hardwood that they don't want to damage, in. It is called the beater.

Gilbert got to fes-tool it up

He did not like the loud noise of the something or other though.

He was also worried about Elsie's ears.

Evan's very neat wiring.

From the outside. It is always amazing to me that they can just BUILD this. It all seems totally overwhelming to me, but the guys just do it. They know all this stuff. So impressive. But don't tell them I said that.

Later, we went outside to run around Marilyn and Dana's back yard

And swing

Sweet red nose

Concerned. Probably she realized, even before me, that we had locked ourselves outside. Those doors that open from the inside, but are completely locked from the outside? Yeah, I didn't think about that. And it wouldn't have been a problem, except Marilyn was gone. Fortunately I had left the keys in the van for once, so we hopped in there and drove over to the job site and got a key. 

Then Marilyn watched the kids while Justin and I went out to eat at this yummy wood-fired pizza place. It was really good And we hadn't been out to eat together in... well... awhile. We came home to shouts of "Don't look over here, Mummy!" Marilyn had helped the kids make a cake, ice it, and then make cards for me. They were so terribly proud of themselves. Seriously, it was all so sweet. Lucky me! 

Bearing their labors

Blowing out the candles

Opening cards. AND Marilyn even gave them each a little lotion that they could give me. It was awesome. 

A little black squirrel, which I have never seen before. Marilyn and Dana have lots of birdfeeders, which we all enjoyed watching. Thinking we will have to set ourselves up with some....

Then the drive home through the Adirondacks, a "quick" stop to my favorite thrift store in Wilmington and then GAP outlet in Lake Placid that had their super low February clear out prices. $3.97 for kids hoodies? 97 cents for girls skirts? $6  for womens hoodies? 47 cents for a tank top for me? Oh boy! And on top of that, I had a coupon. AND rewards from my Gap card. Oh happiness. And we had to go to Lake Placid library, where the kids played and looked out at the lake while I nursed Elsie and read them so books in their huge, gigantic bean bag chair. It sounds idyllic. And I did  have a good day, but the kids were a little less than pleased about all that shopping. The ladies working in the kid section in GAP saved the day by bringing out a tote bag of books for the kids to look at. Hooray for GAP.

 The ice castle in Saranac Lake. 

Cute dollhouse furniture I got for 25 cents. 

Playmobil pirate ship and dragon for 75 cents.

Books, books, books.

Lots of nice clothes, which we didn't need. But how could I pass up a Ralph Lauren striped sweater or Gymboree cupcake overalls, both for 50 cents? I couldn't. So I didn't. 

And finally, the quilt. Diana, is an incredible quilter and she decided to "adopt" Justin as her son, so said we had to have one of her quilts. Rough hm? I had to choose a quilt out of several she had done, which was  hard. I know, you all feel so bad for me! I chose this one. Love, love, love it! 

Snowflake and snowman quilting.

It is the perfect weight, making the blankets feel snug and cozy. I like blankets to have a little weight to them. And this is perfect. Yesterday, I laid down in clean sheets, under this quilt, for a little rest with Elsie cooing happily next to me and Justin reading his book next to us. And sunshine coming in the window, warming us up and the older kids having quiet time in their room. Bliss. I could take a lot of being 30 like this! 

Except it is Monday morning. And I have a cold. And massive piles of washing to do after our sickly weekend. But, taken all in all, life is pretty fabulous.