Say Good Bye to Summer

Noah, Broden and Clayton came over for the last shot of summer on Sept 12.  It was 85 degrees just ahead of the cold front that is predicted to take us down to the 30's

The pool will be closed this week

Noah ready for underwater exploration

Baths should always be this fun!

last Chance to learn how to do that "Canopener"

sigh!

Kissing the pool goodbye

He almost did it!

A Visit to North Carolina

Labor Day weekend offered us the opportunity to go visit Adam and Sandra and Tahlia.

she is already practicing her cheer leading moves



I don't know about you - but I am ready for dinner...anytime!

We took one sunny afternoon for a few photo ops just after nap time....not sayin who took naps

The Proud mom and dad with Tahlia

Watch this blog in the next week or so for baby news from Clayton and Michelle

Late in the weekend the rain bands from Hurricane Lee made it's way to NC and kept us from being outside.  Adam had wondered how difficult it would be to put a fan in the bathroom - and I said - Not too hard at all - so off to Home Depot for parts and the father son project takes off.  Uh yes it was a tad bit warm working in the attic!

Hey - it worked the first time!



Tahlia is here!

Tahlia Ava Bretschneider, Born To Adam and Sandra Sunday morning 8-14-11 at 8:16AM. She weighed 7 lbs, 8oz.

Her name, pronounced TAH-LEE-UH, means "gentle dew from heaven".

Stults and Bretschneider's children's picnic with children!

What began about 30 years ago was a friendship with Ken and Sharon Stults - their Jennifer and Clayton and Adam grew up playing together - and now have children of their own...that are playing together.  We thought it was time to get the whole clan together for one fun afternoon at Mark and Jennifer's back yard.  Yes we missed Adam and Sandra and ???, but hope quite possibly they can join us at their earliest convenience - as you can see by the photos - we should be adding more babies to this very soon.

to our knowledge - watching a corn-hole game has not caused a woman to go into labor.

Ken is reading a birthing book to the kids...seriously - check the illustrations...Broden seems to have just gotten the point!

Clayton and I won!  beating Nancy and Sharon!

There is so much to talk about you can barely get some food in edgewise

"you can play all the games ya want - but this mouth is the true "cornhole"

Noah working on his "first" plate of food

We figured it would come to this

It really sucks when the pool pump doesn't suck, but yeah we figured that was a problem all along.  Interestingly two different neighbors told us that the previous owner had some leaks in the pool pipes - and even as I was trying to get the pump to quit sucking air - it was still an ongoing problem - then we noticed that we were losing water, and determined that it was only when the pump was running.

Then last week we had two neighbor kids come over and ask to swim - they and another neighbor told us the pool has not been open for "Years"  (much more that two that we supposed) and, when they could come swimming ..."if they would skim the pool as the skimmer line has a leak in it"...so the problem has been there for a long time.

In this hot summer season the pool guys are 2 - 3  weeks out for repair, and some would not even come out - But Lance - Michelle's friend's father was able to make it and make the repairs.

They interestingly pressure test all the pipes with air - which shows the ones that leak.  Then they add water to the mix and listen...lay with an ear to the cement and if that fails..bring out the stethoscope...Pretty cool!

We had two leaks in the suction line from the skimmer and one in the return line to the pool.   he also realigned the pump and piped it correctly and like he said - It pumps like it is on steroids.

So the pool's working...just call first to see if it there is a vacancy : )

Nothing like peering into a hole in the concrete and seeing your pool from the inside out...I imagined a lot worse scenario!

Shutter Shudder

In case you think all we do is pool stuff - that is not the case.  The other day Doug finished staining the deck, power washed the house, took all the shutters down, painted them, and put them all back up.  Yes he was tired - but it felt good to stay home and do projects....however.   Even though we had custom matched paint to the color of the "terra cotta" in the shingles....somehow it looked a tad bit too bright.  So in the first picture you can see one of them has come down for a different "Terra Cotta"

So here is the "new" color on the shutter on the right - feel free to cast your vote.  

hmm - wonder who will take them all down and paint them...again 

This is a before picture of the brown roof -  shutters and very green bush..shows the landscaping change as well - although that was not done on the same day

(wonder why those ladders always jump into the pictures?)



"Noah's Day"

Noah came over the other night but it was storming with thunder and lightning so he could not swim...such a sad face I have rarely seen.  So we picked him up today for some Garage sale shopping and some pool fun.
Noah said we should also go out to a restaurant...after all "It is MY day"  We made sure he had plenty of pool time.

This is just lookin kool at the pool

This is a posed shot as we were mostly playing "monster"

(grandpa was the monster...go figure)