You can’t beat a long weekend.

This weekend, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

(We are very thorough people, especially when it comes to our fun.)

We spent Saturday evening, swimming and bribing the girls to re-discover their excitement for diving and going down the slide into the pool.  Lynn was the only brave one, but somehow we were all rewarded with ice cream treats from Arctic Circle.

Sunday, we went to my parents house where we cooked giant marshmallows (very delicious by the way..  I should know, I think I ate the most.) and cooked hot dogs.  The kids played, we visited, and then enjoyed quite the fireworks display.

Monday, we spent the day at Merrill’s parents.  We were in the pool for nearly a solid 5 hours.  It was awesome.

Ashley has quite the tan (she is my girl!!!) and cute little blonde streaks in her hair (see, MINE!!).  We ate, swam, ate, played, dove, went down the slide, played sharks with Dixon, raced (I lost by a body length to Merrill EVERY time), went after the dive toys..   see, too much fun.  We came home and changed to head over to Brooke and Austin’s to play volleyball and watch more fireworks.

It was quite the full weekend, and we loved every second of it!

Happy Fourth...

Before you begin your reading of this blog post, keep in mind the state of my mind..
I have had it up to here with many things.. (envision my hand at the level of my eye, which puts it at roughly 4 foot 8; my stature is 5 foot 2 and a half.. don't forget the half.)

1- this mystery illness that has had Ashley being a slightly different version of herself since Monday evening.
2- Peyton's sleep habits. The sleep habit that has her head on top of my own, and her feet in Merrill's face, instead of in her own bed. I have been so sleep deprived, that I usually wake, to find her in our bed, not knowing how or when she got there.
3- Girl hormones. Can't they just learn to get along already?!
4- Fireworks.

My rant today, is addressed to my dear, patriotic neighbors.

Dear Neighbors,
While I too, am ecstatic to be a citizen of this country, I am not ecstatic of the hour in which you choose to set off your celebratory fireworks (both legal and illegal).
I am well aware of the parameters in which we are all allowed to ignite the colorful and loud things made in China, but propose that we limit them to the day of the fourth itself. Why celebrate three days before and three days after the fourth?
Last night, while I was barely awake, trying to enjoy time with my husband, time I wished were alone time ;), I couldn't enjoy it. My 17 month old daughter was tossing and turning, she had stopped honking our noses and repeatedly demonstrating where our eyes were, but she was awake. Not asleep. I will tell you why the sandman wasn't able to take her off to dreamland.. your fireworks. With every "pop" her eyes would pop open themselves, and she would then sit up, then eventually settle down, only to be disturbed by another "pop". Cycle repeats, and I lose it even more.
That was fan-tastic.
It was nearly 11 pm. I was tired.
I still am.
I would like to suggest that we enjoy deploying our fireworks (I have them, I like them too..) on the day of the fourth, during the times that are reasonable... after 8 am to roughly noon-thirty.. a break would then commence for my youngest offspring's nap time, and the lighting of the fireworks my be continued at 3 pm until.. well, I'll be generous and say 11 pm. I think that is reasonable.
Now don't think of me as your neighborhood bitty, think of me as a mother on the brink..
I have no where else to go.
I do not have the desire to infect the rest of the nearby population with Miss Ashley's "mystery illness" (there is no sign of a rash.. yet.), and therefore, will not be visiting ANY public venue. The driveway of my own home will be sufficient this evening as we light, and enjoy, our LEGAL fireworks, during the agreed upon hours.
Thank you for your neighborly consideration.
Mindy Pitcher

Favorite thing about summertime...

'Tis a tie!!!
Fireworks AND thunderstorms...



















I love the smell of them both and the atmosphere that both create... I also love that both seem to gather my family to one common place... they also make awesome pics!
Peyton is 5 months old today...
Isn't she so stinkin' cute! I got this one on the FIRST shot! She is so fun... she loved the fireworks tonight and didn't cry, unlike Lynn's first time.
Church was okay today... it was "correlation Sunday..." that means lots of fun for the family no matter how prepared I am. Sharing time went especially well today, both Junior and Senior Primary were interested. It was about "obedience and faithfulness". I have many experiences in those departments...
Only a fraction of calls were extended based on my list, yes, a list. We'll just have to exercise more patience and that faithfulness! Poor Mer-Bear... in more ways than one... his arm, the cyst still hasn't drained, and he hurts. It's not a common thing for him to give up his Sunday's with Peyton in the nursery with him, but he just hurt too bad. Poor guy. We'll have to see about the "other thing"... later this week...
It was so funny thing tonight going to WSU for the concert and fireworks. No phone calls were made to meet, everyone just showed up. Well, Clint did call trying to find us, but everyone knows, where we are there. We have sat in the same spot on the soccer field since the first year we were married. Good times, fun memories.