Luci and the rest of this little group begin the big dance number that includes both the younger and older students.
Break time!
Drew in her small group dancing to Down to the River to Pray, from the movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
The big dance number was set to East Indian music called Bahngra. This dance was by far my favorite, both for the dance itself and the music! The younger girls had to wear turquoise or green shirts and the older girls wore deep pink. The colors were gorgeous together and fit perfectly with the theme of the dance.
Luci on 3/4 pointe! Pretty good for no shoes!
Luci's small group did a country line dance type of dance to Walking after Midnight by Patsy Cline.
The younger girls doing their warm-up number.
After the recital, the girls got their usual bouquets of roses from Meema.
The girls with Raul.
With Therese...their other favorite!
With Hillary.
And finally, with Rebecca Kelly.
The Watertown Daily Times, an area paper, ran this photo in their paper that week. Drew is in front.
Here, we see Luci sitting on Grandma's lap with a book. Believe it or not, Grandma was NOT reading to Luci...rather the other way around! Luci amazes us with her reading ability! She's going into first grade in the fall, but Grandma says she's reading at a second grade level! Way to go Luci!
At a local park.
My nephew, Max, tries the balance beam!
Sonja and Max loving up the cutest little puppy!
We've had some really HOT weather this summer and luckily, Julie has a really nice pool in her backyard! Here's Luci taking full advantage of it!
Goofy Drew!
Hannah!
The hot weather prompted Meema to give the girls the gift of a pool for our own yard! It is a 12 footer about 30" deep and the girls (and Papa, apparently!) love it!
Our next camping trip took us to Brennan Beach near Pulaski, NY on the shores of Lake Ontario. It's a pretty nice campground with 2 pools, an arcade, stores, restaraunts and a beach...but it's geared mostly for seasonal campers. The transient camp sites are crammed in so tightly, that we felt like sardines! And the golf-cart traffic was immense, and no one seemed to be able to read the speed limit signs! It was impossible to take the kids for walks as the speeding golf carts were just too much! The normally paved roads were very fine gravel and the dust was enough to choke a horse! The cars, campers and all our gear needed to be washed when we returned home. This is a campground we will not likely go to again. But we made the best of it since we were already there. Here is Luci jumping into one of the two pools. (If you don't like crowds, do NOT go here during a holiday weekend like we did!)
Drew at the beach. Unfortunately, the water was having an algae bloom, so swimming meant a shower afterwards to get all the bits of algae off you and your suit!
Here are all but 3 kids with whom we camped at Brennan. From the top: Jeb, Luci, Darien, Drew, Sonja, Connor and Max. Missing were Makenna, Nate and Hannah.
To avoid the crowds, we set up our own pool! Despite how it looks, Dean DOES have shorts on in this picture!! Jeb threw a ball at his head just as I snapped the picture!
Dean makes a rainbow!
Sue gets cannon-balled by her son! (You can only see his foot above the water!)
Our next camping trip was at one of our favorite campgrounds, Robert Moses. On this day, my brother and his girlfriend, Sarah came up to visit. They brought her daughter, Kaydence with them. It wasn't long before the hose came out again! Thadd attacks Max!
Luci on the attack!
Even Dan got involved!
Enough with the little streams of water...how bout a bucketful?!
Rub a dub dub, three kids in a...bucket! Kaydence, Sonja and Max.
So, you think hiding behind Grandma will keep me from getting you????
Max and his turban!
Monty takes advantage of Dan's lap!
Dan got the kids to play a game of Lacrosse. All four began it, but when I shot this picture, Drew and Luci were the only ones left!
The sun was cooperating, so I had the kids pose for me! Sonja
Max
Drew
Luci
I even got Dean to pose!
Tina on swing duty.
Dean took the 3 girls out in the canoe for a little paddle.
He was out there quite a while and I used the time to snap some pics.
And back again!
These three trolls got into the mud! Luci was too busy watching a movie and missed out on the fun!
Playing with mud inevitably ends with a hose-down!
Immediately after our Robert Moses trip, we took off again. This time for a week-long houseboat trip in Kipawa, Quebec. Luci mans the wheel!
On our first night, we found this cozy little bay that was perfect for swimming!
Some of the amazing scenery on this enormous and pristine lake!
One night of fishing netted us this bounty! We caught our limit (6 each) within 2 hours! Most of them were quite large, too!
The houseboat we rented. Not luxurious by any means, but comfortable!
The girls ride on the front deck while we drive to our next camping spot.
Drew finds a crawdad.
Thanks to Meema, the girls were able to watch movies on her portable dvd player.
Papa fishes off the boat.
And fishing is not his only interest...as it turns out, he likes to dance on the boat, too!
Luci perched atop the houseboat, getting ready to jump!
Daddy's turn!
The girls jump together!
The wildlife was just amazing! Here we see a mama duck and her 9 ducklings. Not sure what kind of ducks they are, but they had brown tufted heads.
Campfire!
Drew slides down a huge sand hill.
Papa and Luci next! (Um, no, I did NOT slide down the hill!)
Just a cool shot of my dad in sillhouette. We called him the king of the mountain after this!
While my dad and I were out fishing one evening, who should come strolling along but 2 moose!! Unfortunately, I only had my point and shoot on me which doesn't take the best of pictures, so this is as good as it gets.
Dean and Luci go for a swim and waaayyyy in the background, you can see my dad's boat. He and Drew were out fishing.
Vacations are for relaxing, right?
Dean gives Luci a toss into the air!
The girls enjoyed standing on the front deck while some waves washed water onto the deck.
The wildlife was just amazing! Here we see a mama duck and her 9 ducklings. Not sure what kind of ducks they are, but they had brown tufted heads.
Campfire!
Drew slides down a huge sand hill.
Papa and Luci next! (Um, no, I did NOT slide down the hill!)
Just a cool shot of my dad in sillhouette. We called him the king of the mountain after this!
While my dad and I were out fishing one evening, who should come strolling along but 2 moose!! Unfortunately, I only had my point and shoot on me which doesn't take the best of pictures, so this is as good as it gets.
Dean and Luci go for a swim and waaayyyy in the background, you can see my dad's boat. He and Drew were out fishing.
Vacations are for relaxing, right?
Dean gives Luci a toss into the air!
The girls enjoyed standing on the front deck while some waves washed water onto the deck.
The way some trees grew on a teeniest little rock ledge with no soil just astounded me!
I have never in my life seen more than 2 loons travelling together, but on this day we saw 9 or 10 swimming together! Here are five of them.
And on another day, something I have never seen before with my own eyes...a mama loon and two babies! It was awesome!
On what would be our last night on the houseboat, we tied off to this pretty little campsite. Someone had made a sort of fireplace with these rocks! It was far too windy to build a fire that night and I was diappointed not to get a picture with a fire in it! Oh well!
The girls line some of their Zhu Zhu pets up to watch a movie. Luci holds one of her Webkinz up to see, too!
What would we do without Meema??? 2 days ago, she gave the girls her old golf cart to drive around the yard. The batteries were beyond help, so Dean toosed them. He had 3 industrial sized batteries in the basement and rewired the golf cart to accept them. Now it goes at a pretty good clip and the girls love it! We started out sitting behind them and letting them do it...
Even Monty loves going for a ride!
The girls have figured out how to drive it themselves and now go whenever they want. (Luci still needs a bit of supervision, as I just don't trust her not to run into something!)
The girls drive along with Meema as she pulls away waving!
Yesterday, we took a little visit up to Dan and Tina's land in the woods. The boys have been doing some work there to make clearings to allow campers in. Once they get enough cleared, we can do some camping up there! Jim and Julie inherited some land in the woods, too and have been doing lots of work to it for the same reason. So we have 2 different spots to camp with friends and family and we don't have to pay a campground to do it! Also nice is that there are no quiet hours or rules! Our first trip to Jim and Julie's will be Labor Day weekend where we plan to camp with the S's, the C's, Jim and Julie and Dan and Tina! Looking forward to that! Anyway, here's Dan with ear protection up around his head. He looked like Mickey Mouse!
Dean on the bobcat doing what he loves to do!
I have never in my life seen more than 2 loons travelling together, but on this day we saw 9 or 10 swimming together! Here are five of them.
And on another day, something I have never seen before with my own eyes...a mama loon and two babies! It was awesome!
On what would be our last night on the houseboat, we tied off to this pretty little campsite. Someone had made a sort of fireplace with these rocks! It was far too windy to build a fire that night and I was diappointed not to get a picture with a fire in it! Oh well!
The girls line some of their Zhu Zhu pets up to watch a movie. Luci holds one of her Webkinz up to see, too!
What would we do without Meema??? 2 days ago, she gave the girls her old golf cart to drive around the yard. The batteries were beyond help, so Dean toosed them. He had 3 industrial sized batteries in the basement and rewired the golf cart to accept them. Now it goes at a pretty good clip and the girls love it! We started out sitting behind them and letting them do it...
Even Monty loves going for a ride!
The girls have figured out how to drive it themselves and now go whenever they want. (Luci still needs a bit of supervision, as I just don't trust her not to run into something!)
The girls drive along with Meema as she pulls away waving!
Yesterday, we took a little visit up to Dan and Tina's land in the woods. The boys have been doing some work there to make clearings to allow campers in. Once they get enough cleared, we can do some camping up there! Jim and Julie inherited some land in the woods, too and have been doing lots of work to it for the same reason. So we have 2 different spots to camp with friends and family and we don't have to pay a campground to do it! Also nice is that there are no quiet hours or rules! Our first trip to Jim and Julie's will be Labor Day weekend where we plan to camp with the S's, the C's, Jim and Julie and Dan and Tina! Looking forward to that! Anyway, here's Dan with ear protection up around his head. He looked like Mickey Mouse!
Dean on the bobcat doing what he loves to do!
Hopefully, I won't wait so long between posts next time! Sorry to keep you all waiting and I hope I didn't bore you too much!
Today's Quote: The world's best revenge is to be truly happy! And I am!
What a great summer you are having!! Great post!
ReplyDelete(We are still very jealous of your annual dance camp!!)