Enchanted Forest Water Safari

They were *thrilled* after they went down this slide.

Don't ask why Alex looks like he just took a dip.

I think his tongue helps him go faster when it's out.
Who knew we would have some tree-huggers in the family?

Things that Make Me Happy

The bright, sunny sky
On an end-of-summer day

A healthy body to take me to work
Where I love what I do

A family to come home to
That welcomes me with a giant hug from an adoring two-year-old

A safe, warm, cozy bed
To lay my head to sleep

Until the next day
When I get to live it all again.

Happy Birthday to Chloe, the WONDER BEAGLE!

One year ago this month (August 5, to be exact!) Chloe entered this world. She comes from a long line of hunters, and they will never know the bliss of falling asleep around someone's neck. Little did she know that she was destined for the world of the Washburn house with three lil'uns and LOTS of cool toys (along with the bonus of furniture) to chew and ruin. It was like hitting the beagle lottery.

Her first year has been filled with lots of chasing, pig-ear-chewing, beagle-yowling, and all around fun with belly rubs.

I think she may even be growing up a little bit.

Here is a picture of her when she was just a blob - a few weeks old:
Here she is just a few weeks after moving into the Washburn house:


Here she is during the winter when we had a bad ice storm:


Here she is last week, with her birthday present:

School Supplies

I have no idea how to title my posts. And my friends and family think I'm soooo "computer savvy." =) (this just in! the title field was disabled. I found it, and enabled it!)

Today we went to church (for what I think was the first time this summer. YES I know the summer is almost over... I have enough catholic-guilt about it already..), then we went to the mall and to Walgreens. At Walgreens, they are having a kick-ass-crazy-cool sale on all-things school-supply-related. Woo!

Check out our stash:



At the mall I got a dvd player that was on sale at Best Buy, and some perfume I've been looking for all over the place. Like the school supplies, it is also kick-ass-crazy-cool.

Check out my stash:


While we were at the grocery store last night we rented three dvds from the Red Box. Have you seen these machines at the grocery store?? For $1 a day you can rent all kinds of movies. How does the Movie Gallery stay in business?? We rented College Roadtrip, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (guess who's pick that was??). We watched College Roadtrip today, and it left Emily and I in tears. Ryan thought something might have fallen on the dog, by the way we were crying. I told him we are just chicks, and that's what chicks do - cry at movies.

He's watching Transformers now, and that's why I'm blogging. =)

Have I been on the down-low??

No. I have been a blogger-slacker. Is this one of my journals with two entries, and the rest of the book blank? No. That is the beauty of blogging! No blank pages! Oh - and there are friends to ask where your next post will be up (thanks Rosie!).

I still plan on posting about our trip to CA, but I want to have some pictures ready to go up, and stories to tell, and it just seems like a big undertaking. So, I'll post this little mini-blog to get poor Tim Russert off the top of my blog for now.

Today I was all about domestication. Did some paper-sorting, some dishes, some drawing with the kidlets. I even took a little nap when the storm knocked the power out for about an hour. Whew ! Good d0-nothing day.

(and this is where I'm taking the lead of Pat Murphy...)

What do you guys like to do on a do-nothing day? Movies? Popcorn? Sourdough toast with butter and tea?