Thursday, July 28, 2011

My Birthday and some photos from the beach trip

 Aunt Karen's amazing cupcakes for Megan and I
Dalton and his cousin Noel
Steak dinner to celebrate mine and Megan's birthdays
boy table
Grandpa Doug and the cousins
Jessica, Charlotte and Randall

Niece Raquel and I, after her makeover from her aunt, the fellow pimple victim
Shelby, Garrett and Ellison


Savannah and Garrett playing chicken on Jackson and Ali's shoulders

Me, Garrett and Shelby at the beach in front of our place
Our cousins, the Kosciusko Family- posing for a family photo
Brothers on the beach
My favorite photo from the trip...thanks Uncle Marc for taking it

Garrett is in to this new thing where he likes to pose as kooky as possible when he sees the camera
Which explains this face of his
Dalton's favorite silly cousin Jeffery
stylin'
Garrett's favorite cousin, Randall
Pretty Aunt Susan with baby Noel
The way too cute nieces, Deven and Raquel

With their grandpa
Shelby got a henna panther tattoo at the beach


It's my birthday.  Though it feels like that day has already come and gone.  We celebrated with Gavin's family yesterday at the beach and it was wonderful.  Who knew you could stick a Lindor ball chocolate inside of a cupcake?  It's like an other-worldly experience.  Thank you Karen for rocking my world with that invention!  Those were like the Ferrari's of the cupcake world.

Steaks, amazing shrimp by Susan, salad, baked potatoes and great company.  I taught Megan how to pose for the camera so that it looks like you had an instant neck lift...I know, it's a gift.  Later we took glamour shots at the beach.  I'll upload those later.  The kids played in the sand...got wet in the ocean again-of course.  Had baths for the second time that day, and then back to the rooms to play with the cousins.

We ended up vegging on the couches and skipping back and forth between Toddler's and Tiaras and America's Next Top Model.  One could say we saw the toddler and teenage version of the same train wreck.  It makes for some good TV while at the same time making you feel like maybe you're not such a bad parent after all.

I am 3/4ths of the way through Loving Frank.  I need to google him and see what parts have been fact and fiction.  It's a historical fiction book based on Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress.  I have not been able to put the book down.  In fact I am french fried on my bootie because I lost track of time reading at the beach today.  I am sure that Gav's family thinks I am about as social as a piece of sea weed, but I have to see what happens next.  Is Wright just a complete charlatan, or is he every woman's dream- passionate, creative, inspired.

I love and hate his mistress all at the same time.  Abandoning her children but at the same time finding her self and her true love.  She was a feminist before women could vote.  I can not imagine being denied that right.  Being denied any right really.

Shelby and her cousin Sam bogey (is that how you spell it?) boarded for most of the afternoon.  Gavin dug sand and buried kids, and made peanut butter sandwiches and brought them down.  I was like Shamu, happily beached with my book.

Gavin's brother John went diving in the ocean and caught lobsters which he brought back to show us.  He then took them up to his apartment, cooked them up, and brought them down to the beach where he served them to us.  It was like something out of Survivor and Iron Chef.

I was having some minor heart palpitations from sitting next to two young cousins who were lovingly torturing a crab that someone had caught in a bucket.  I don't know why I am such a bleeding heart.  It's not like I don't eat meat.  Does that crab know he's being tortured as he is being "tickled" with a stick?

Don't think about the crab, don't think about the crying baby that is not yours, or the little girl of a distant cousin who got stung by a bee and doesn't look like she is being comforted as she should.  Don't worry.  Don't worry.  Don't worry.  What is my problem?  As if I need to step in and right every wrong, solve every situation that doesn't look like it is going as it should.

Maybe that can be my goal for this 34th year of mine that begins tomorrow.  Have peace.  Trust that I can be powerful in some situations but I can not control all situations.  Do the best that I can.  Commit to only the things that are valuable.  Live in the moment.  Think things through before I act on them.  Think before I speak.  Try to see things from every one's point of view.  Breathe.

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