No boys allowed! (except Grampa!)

First of all, have I mentioned I'm dying without a camera? It's been a MONTH since I've been able to put new pictures on my site and it's really starting to get to me!

Ok, onto the blog....

My parents 50th anniversary was in July, but we're having the big party next month. I've been put in charge of doing a photo montage, so have spent several months collecting pictures of the last 50 years. This was NO easy task! My parents have moved/combined/divided houses 3 times in the last 6 years, so most things were in storage, only nobody knew exactly where! I'm still missing some critical pictures of my brother growing up. I keep thinking there is no way I'm going to get this done, while at the same time having NO CLUE what order I want to put these pictures in. Do I want to do it chronologically, or by event, or what? I know this is one of those God inspired projects and that in the end it will be exactly what he intended, but still....

Anyway, in my quest for more pictures I decided Angela and I needed a girls only trip away. My parents live 4 hours away (if you don't stop) and the weather was beautiful so we decided to take the sidecar up. Angela LOVES her sidecar! She is a great traveler in it, but on a long trip like this it does require more stopping! I try to divide the food and gas stops so there are more opportunities for her to move around.

Because we got a late start (had to have some friends over to play Wii, right Kathy?) we didn't get to Mom and Dad's until 9:00. Dad is alone for a few weeks since mom is in Ireland, so we broke up his bachelor time a bit. We spent Thursday evening chatting with Grandpa, and Angela gave him lots of love'in that she doesn't get many opportunities to do!

Friday morning was spent in the "shed" digging through boxes. While I was doing that Angela found a wagon and had a blast pulling her imaginary friends over my parent's place.

I also took the memory card out of my mom's camera and uploaded it to her computer because there were family pics on there I needed. (before she left she told me I could do this, I promise!) and burned those to a disk. AND, I stumbled on a box that has one of my favorite pictures of Angela in it! It's a favorite because I only have a couple of pictures with her with her favorite uncle, my brother Lynn.

For a year or so after our divorce, my brother lived with Angela's dad, so she became VERY close to him, but for the past 5 years he's lived up north near my parents. Her dad does take her fishing up there once in awhile so she gets to see him more than her other aunts/uncles. When she was little she couldn't say his name, so she called him Uncle Dee, which she sometimes still uses. Uncle Dee is pretty rough around the edges, and is one of those men who frighten small children with his laugh. But, if you remember from my biker posts, Angela likes the scary looking guys! LOL

Anyway, the photo hunt was a partial success. Then Angela and I headed home by noon on Friday (yep, a short trip) and met her dad on the way so she could spend the weekend with him, and I could come home and help prepare for Aaron's graduation party. Again...NO CAMERA! UGH!

Here's the picture of Angela and her Uncle Dee taken a couple years ago. (this is his cleaned-up look. We must have had a recent wedding or something! LOL)