15 years ago...

my Melanie finally joined the world! This past weekend we celebrated her birthday with family and will continue that celebration when we join the rest of the family in Chicago later this week!

She is very excited to be 15 - she is going today to get her driver's permit! Watch out Castle Rock, stay off the street! I'm sure sh'ee be a good driver, it just takes lots of practice - right?? She has to have her permit for 365 days and then when she's 16 she can get her license! Then she can be my charuffer!! Can't wait!!

60 Years!!!

Back at the end of June, we took a roadtrip to North Dakota to attend Dan's Aunt Kazia and Uncle Bob's 60th wedding anniversary! It was the first real roadtrip that Melanie could remember and I'm not sure it convinced her by any means to do this often!! It was fairly uneventful, hot, humid, but lots and lots of fun to visit with the family! Many of them we hadn't seen since our wedding, so it was fun to see how everyone has aged!

We arrived in Grand Forks on Thursday night around dinner, got situated, and had a good night sleep. On Friday we checked out town, got a pedicure and did a little shopping to keep us entertained! Then on Friday night we went to a gathering at Randy's house. Bob and Kazia were surprised when we walked through the garage into the backyard as they had no idea we were coming! Randy had an awesome yard for a party and the kids and dogs had fun running all around! Eventually Mom and Dad showed up, along with Susan, Bill and Betsy! Bob and Kazia were thrilled to see all of us!

I finally got to meet his cousin Ken, who lives in Oregon. Dan hasn't seen him since he was a kid, and of course I've never met him! Ken and his wife Nancy actually rode their bicycles from Oregon - it took 22 days and a whole lot of determination in my mind! What an achievement for them!

On Saturday we headed to Mayville for the actual party! Kazia treated all of her guests to her famous pancakes and Polish sausage! It was delicious!! I could have eaten them all day if she would have just kept cooking!! Kazia has always been known for putting on "big" meals - well she did have 6 kids, 17 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren! (And still counting!)

During the afternoon we wandered down to the picnic area by the lake and enjoyed watching the kids play and talking with all the cousins while trying to stay cool in the shade! We loved talking with Ray and Shirley, their daughter Sarah, cousin Randy and her son Jared, among all the others! There were a lot of "old" childhood stories as well as stores about what we're doing today! Then we headed back to the senior center where they catered in a great dinner for everyone!

All of Dan's Zurowski cousins also made the journey from Wisconsin and Minnesota! What fun it was to hang out and talk with them as well! This was the first time in well over 20 years since they had all been together! We made sure that we got a picture of that!

After a really long day, we headed back to Grand Forks, hung out in the pool with the girls and relaxed! On Sunday we hit the road and headed home! After 15 hours in the car, we finally pulled into our garage and sighed with relief that we were finally back home in our "heaven"! It was a fun weekend, but next time - let's FLY!

CJ Challenge - August

It's been a few weeks (or more than a few) since I last posted. It's been a busy summer, so I'll try to recap it over the next few days so not to bore you all at once!!! :) /div>

This great LO was completed for Debbie as her challenge! She recently went to NYC and Chicago and asked us to take some of those photos and make a great LO. I kinda wish I got Chicago, since I can relate to that much easier, but I got NYC instead! I've never been there, so it was interesting to scrap something I was unfamiliar with! In the end, it came together well and I actually LOVE it! The colors that she picked are great and I think I used them well! I love all the little pieces that make it seem warm and friendly! I hope she will enjoy it as much as I do! And that it will fit well with the other pages she gets back as well!

CJ Challenge - July

Yep, I said July... you see my challenge is June and well, I didn't play yet. :) Why? Because I was too busy playing with the July challenge! Patty sent us 10 random envelopes and a pile of scrap paper and then asked us to make 3 birthday, 3 thank you, and 4 blank cards for her personal stash. It was fun using other peoples paper and coming up with different size cards from the typical 4 1/4 x 5 1/2! Unfortunately when I started to take pictures tonight, my camera died, then Melanie's camera died, so all I got was 2 pictures of cards I used my own paper on! Oh well, I suppose you get the idea!

We're taking off on Wednesday for ND to visit with Dan's family. It's Aunt Kazia and Uncle Bob's 60th wedding anniversary and all the family is getting together to help celebrate! They had 6 children, who knows how many grandchildren, even more great-grandchildren and countless nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, grand-nephews, ....well you get the picture right? There's going to be lots of us! Kazia is making her famous pancakes and polish sausage for breakfast and we will do nothing but eat, eat, eat all weekend! Unfortunately we'll spend more time in the car (1,000 miles each way) then we will in ND, but it's all for a good cause!

CJ Challenge - May

A few weeks ago I completed the "Day in my Life" pages for Patti's scrapbook challenge! I do like the way it turned out, however I thought my content was so blah that it was a huge struggle for me to complete it. She really threw some challenges my way... first off the fact that I had to scrap a day in my life... BORING! Then we had to scrap on a circle page - yikes! And we had to sew - does she not know I can't sew? And lastly we had to add a clock... whew, got that one in a picture! I used the sewing theme of a whip stitch on all my pages to keep them coherent. And I used the same papers throughout so that they matched. Then I just used flowers... a favorite of mine. I really hope that it works in her book and that she liked it. Enjoy!

Did I mention....

I have an honors student? Melanie received an achievement award during the final days of school for a GPA between 3.75 and 4.0. They didn't have their final grades yet, so we didn't know her final GPA. She received a school letter for her achievement. We are so very proud of her for doing so well her freshman year! She makes no big deal out of it and really doesn't seem to care - YET! Someday she will and I hope she can realize that sooner rather than when it's too late! My baby is growing up fast and I don't like it!

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent Memorial Day weekend at a favorite spot - O'Haver Lake. It was a gorgeous weekend with sunshine, warm temps and lots and lots of wind! OK, the wind wasn't my favorite, but we survived anyway! We did what most campers do - relax! We just hung out and relaxed! It was quite enjoyable and we can't wait to try that again!

Dan took Moira's kids fishing - Melanie and I just hung back out of the way! The lake had been stocked earlier that week, so you can imagine the success they had! It didn't even take 5 minutes and they were reeling in trout! In all they caught over 12 fish and kept a total of 7 over 2 days. Now, they were happy to catch the fish, but touching them was quite another story! Moira did all the "dirty" work for her kids while they had all the fun! Dan then taught them how to clean and cook them as well. Of course, the girls just watched!

It was so great to enjoy a campfire once again! That has to be one of my favorite parts of the trip! I'm not big on s'mores - I love all the parts, just not mushed together! But just watching and listening to the fire crackle, feeling the warmth as the air cools and sharing stories are what makes being outdoors fun!

This weekend we're headed off to another favorite - RMNP! No relaxing this weekend; we're planning a good hike on Saturday! Just the 3 of us!