Boy Meets Girl

Try to forget for a moment that these two are cousins and just enjoy the story.

Meet BOY. Lost and looking for love. Searching for the yin to his yang, the apple for his pie, the milk for his cookie.

Meet GIRL. Waiting for Mr. Right to stumble upon her.

With his eyes on the ground and her head in the clouds, they nearly miss their date with destiny.

Fate intervenes and they go on their first date to a fun house to make silly faces in the mirror.

Boy has great time with Girl and tries to hold her hand.

Girl reluctantly agrees. Boy is smitten. Girl is secretly smitten too.

Boy gives token of his affection (golf tee, of course) to girl who's shocked.

Girl takes gift from Boy and hugs her appreciation. Boy leaves.

Girl texts her BFF to talk about Boy and golf tee and being smitten.

TIME PASSES. LOVE GROWS.

Boy proposes to Girl. Girl says Yes!

Girl gets cold feet.

Boy chases her down to give her some socks for those cold feet and tell her everything will be ok.

Girl is reassured. Boy and Girl walk down the aisle in front of their closest friends and family.

Boy and girl dance the night away and live happily ever after.

THE END.

To see pictures from the actual Bride and Groom from this wedding that featured the cutest flower girl and most handsome ring bearer ever, click on over to Melissa Devoe photography. Congratulations to Audrey and Anthony and thank you for letting our daughter be a part of your special day!

Fishing Frenzy

Katie nuzzled up next to Doug's Uncle Tim every chance she got like they were long lost best friends. He was great with her all weekend, teaching her about S'mores and fishing and skipping rocks.

 

He brought fishing poles for the kids and got them all lined up on the edge of Pine Cradle Lake. At any given moment, there were 6-8 people fishing at the same time. I tried to cast a line a few times and realized it is not like riding a bicycle at all. I have totally forgotten how to do it and definitely looked like a big dork as my bobber plopped down in the lake about 2 feet away from me.

 

Katie and Jamie enjoyed each other a lot...They are only 8 days apart in age and had a blast being 2 year olds together!

 

Katie tried her hand at fishing but mainly just wanted to reel the line in and out. She didn't have the patience to watch for a bite or anything.

 

For those that did have the patience, here are the fruits of their labor (or non labor - as in standing and waiting for a bite). It's a catch and release lake, so this little guy was sent right back in the water after the picture was snapped!

 

Child's Play

Pine Cradle Lake had several different playgrounds so we tried to scope most of them out. Katie would seriously swing all day long if you'd keep pushing her, so this one was just perfect.

 

She gets braver than brave when swinging constantly asking to go higher and higher. She has quite the death grip on the chains though.

 

I told her it was safe to let go and let her arms fly! As she threw out her arms, she started yelling "Hey everybody, look at me." Hmm...wonder where she gets that from?

 

Pastoral...

Anyone else remember this term from high school english? Nope? Just me - the boring English major? OK - well it has nothing to do with a church pastor - as I found out when answering incorrectly on an English test I didn't study for in high school. But it means pertaining to the country or to life in the country; rural; rustic. (Quoted from the dictionary)

Is this not pastoral at its best right here? Camera set to AUTO (still trying to learn - sorry Melissa) and this is not photoshopped. Just beautiful. I kept expecting to see Belle from Beauty and the Beast come up over this hill.

 

The pasture/hill was just a two minute walk from our cabin at Pine Cradle Lake. We strolled up there in the mild 80 degrees (sans humidity) and let Katie run wild. Here's just a few shots of her playing with flowers, etc and her best Maria (Sound of Music) impersonation at the end.

 

Can't you just hear "I am 16, going on 17."

 

Or..."These are a few of my favorite things."

 

The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Yelling! I think this was right in the middle of an "E-I-E-I-O!"

 

Katie - if you're reading this one day when you're grown and reading on your own - and you don't recognize the song references, please sit down and make us watch The Sound of Music on whatever we're watching movies on in the future!

Kumbaya

Is that not the quintessential campfire song? One of my favorite parts about our trip to PA, was our campfire night. Doug's Uncle Tim made a big campfire at their cabin and we made...you guess it - SMORES! But we had chocolate and coconut marshmallows so we cranked the normal smores up a notch!

Katie enjoyed watching the fire come to life with her Nana Baggerly and cousin Zian(probably 2nd cousin or twice removed - genealogy is not my strong suit).

 

Katie and Zian and Jamie spent a large portion of the evening racing each other around parts of the lake. They were very careful to FREEZE when golf carts were coming by and then they picked right back up running.

 

The weather was perfect...down in the low 60s at night (maybe cooler) and the campfire provided the perfect amount of warmth. Katie also enjoyed telling her Daddy to watch out because the fire was "very hot." Hmmm, I must've made an impression with my "Touch it and you'll be sorry" lecture beforehand!

 

You can also see the wet spots on Katie's jeans from a few spills she took while running around the lake. It had rained earlier in the day and everything was wet and muddy, but she loved it!

Splash Pad Fun...Not so much

We arrived at Pine Cradle Lake Campgrounds in Rome, PA on Friday afternoon. We got checked into our cabin and then made a bee-line for the splash pad. We had already scoped out the splash pad while checking in and it was all Katie could talk about. There were frogs and turtles that squirted water and water guns you could squirt at other people.

There was also this bucket. Similar to the bucket at Great Wolf Lodge but nowhere near the volume. But not in Katie's eyes. Once she eyed the bucket, she was done. She wanted nothing to do with any of the splash pad. But Doug got to enjoy it!

 

And so did Michael. (Doug's cousin's husband.) Although they definitely kept out of the main splash zone, they still got a little wet.

 

Which didn't make Katie happy. She was concerned for their safety. She kept yelling, "No daddy, that bucket!" Doug kept frolicking in the splash pad in hopes that she'd see it was no big deal and would come back to play. But no such luck. She kept her disgruntled face on the whole time. No additional visits to the splash pad were made but we found lots of other fun things to do!

 

Road Trip Pit Stop!

Just after the 4th of July, we headed north for a road trip to Pennsylvania for a Baggerly Family Reunion. We took our time getting there (2 days) and tried to make stops along the way for everyone to stretch their legs. On day 2 of the trip up there, we stopped at a Penn State campus to walk around and buy some official Penn State merchandise. We stopped in Hazelton, PA where there is a PSU campus less than a mile from the highway. The campus was really pretty and had some great mountain views! Lots of stone buildings and gazebos and flowers...and LIONS! Nittany Lions, to be exact! We spent a little over an hour shopping in the bookstore and running around the main part of the campus. Katie picked out a lion stuffed animal who has been named "Joe" (as in Paterno). We also couldn't resist plopping her down on this lion statue for a father-daughter picture!