Author Archive for Julie Paquette



26
Jul
10

pine cove day 3

On Tuesday, Rilyn got to shoot BB guns during her Wild Kids program!

wow, the counselor looks pretty intense here!

During free time, our family headed to the zipline! Both Rilyn and Ella were pretty scared (you start ziplining at about 3 stories high!) What is neat is that at Pine Cove all the counselors pray with you and your kids before every ‘event’. So when Rilyn was up there with James about to zip down, one of the counselors prayed with her for courage.

Rilyn with James on the zipline next to her in the back
rilyn
rilyn

Ella’s turn was next and I went with her. She acted so scared before she went up and I honestly thought she wouldn’t go through with it, but as soon as she climbed the stairs up there she never said a word and just went into ‘game time’ mode! She was so brave! We learned a lot this week about trusting God when you are fearful!

I am ziplining first in the yellow shirt.  Ella is next to me.
ella!
so ella screamed a little!  too cute!
ella

At night, the kids went to their programs and the adults got to have a romantic picnic dinner and then a sunset cruise on the lake. Well, our boat never started and so we technically had a ‘sunset boat park’ 😉 It was still fun because we were with all our friends who came to Pine Cove with us (sans the Barretts).
Warning: kissing picture!

me and James

The Pine Cove photographer took this picture of our ‘cruise’. 😉

can you spot me?  I’m fiddling with my camera of course!
from L to R:  Shawnda and Jason Kovacs, Jen and Jeff Richardson, Kevin and

Leslie Peck, James and me, Olivia and Todd Engstrom…oh and our boat captain

“Rando” trying to dodge our picture!

25
Jul
10

pine cove day 2

We got some swinging time in Monday morning!

daddy pushing rilyn
high flyin’ ella!

In the afternoon, we had free time. James and I signed up for the ‘Superman Swing’ at the ropes course. (You had to be over age 12.)  I volunteered to go first, (little known fact: I am an adrenaline junkie but have not had many chances since becoming a mom!)

all harnessed up-NOT COMFORTABLE!
posing like Superman before the freefall!  😉

To explain how this ‘swing’ works, I will have to show you the picture I took of James because I got a good angle of how high up they put you. (Estimation about 35 feet high)

James at the top ready to free fall  and swing into the trees
Here I am free falling!
I’m swinging in the trees free as a bird!
James looking all manly and stuff before his swing
James’ superman pose
James swinging in the trees…I wonder why his arms aren’t spread out free as a bird…
Looks like he’s having fun, but you can see he’s holding something… 
                                        

Here he is being taken down and you can only imagine how much pain he is in because of the tight harness!  And I thought I was uncomfortable…poor guy!        

Monday night was a theme night and our theme that night was “Great Scot!” and we were supposed to wear lots of plaid. Warning: this next picture goes against every grain in my well-being.

We were supposed to mix and match and clash-the sillier

the better!  This is the best I could do.

I know I have officially engrained Rilyn with my OCD in fashion because when I took out the red, white, and blue dress for her to wear she stared at it for awhile and then said, “Is it still July? Oh, ok, I guess I can wear this dress. But NOT in August, ok, mom?” 😉
Monday night we played games in the field that were supposed to be “Scottish”!

we had war paint because we were in teams

The pretty girl behind Ella is “Spirit Fingers”. She was our assigned counselor this past week and took care of my girls and loved on us! She is super sweet!

                                                               
Ella and Spirit Fingers
James participated in the dad tug of war.  He was the anchor, but unfortunately wore

flip flops.  So as you can guess, they didn’t win. 

24
Jul
10

Pine Cove day 1

We just got back from our week long family camp vacation at Pine Cove!  We had a great time and I can’t wait to wade through all 400 pictures!  😉  Day 1 was last Sunday afternoon. 

When you enter the camp you see this:

All the counselors are hooping and hollering while your car drives in!  I should of realized from

this scene that my week was going to be LOUD!!  (And it was!)  😉 

We are about to enter into camp and we let the girls go through the sun roof to see all

the counselors going crazy for them!

The couselors unload our car for us-so nice!  We are shown to our cabin which was also

SO NICE!  Two bunk beds and a queen with 2 showers and 2 toilet rooms!  Living in luxury!

checking out camp and the view of the lake

That night we had a pool party and the girls were not scared at all to jump off the high dive!

Rilyn taking the plunge!

I’m reminded again how thankful I am for the swimming lessons we took this summer!

Ella jumping from the high dive!
I guess this is James’ attempt at a dive?!?  😉
17
Jul
10

summertime blues

Asher this summer:

blue frosted cupcakes!

Ella last summer:

I can’t imagine what flavor ice cream this is!

And just because I didn’t want Rilyn feeling left out, and I’m feeling patriotic:

Rilyn 16 months old eating ravoli.  
16
Jul
10

flashback friday-camp edition

Growing up, I had the privilege of attending a Christian-based camp each summer (really all throughout the year!) at Forest Home in California.  Some of my best memories come from camp.  I went to mother/daughter, father/daughter, family camp, jr. high camp, high school camp, winter camp, and I worked as a childcare assistant one summer.  It has always been my dream since we had kids to provide that same camp experience for my kids. 

On Sunday, we leave with 5 other families from our church to go to Pine Cove for family camp!  (Well, for us it really is ‘almost’ family camp.  We opted not to take Asher this year due to his age.) 

So, in honor of us going to camp I’m posting a few pics from my camp days!

Mud pit!  (arrow is pointing to me)  This is probably from freshmen year of high school.
That is me flying off of ‘the blob’ at the lake.  If you got a fat man launching you, prepare

to rocket!  Fun times!  I even bought a shirt at camp that said, “I survived the blob”

me sliding down the tall slide. 
paddleboating with my dad, brother, and a friend
That is me in the innertube sledding down at winter camp
my mom and me in front of our cabin (did I have shorts on?)
horseback riding on one of the trails
13
Jul
10

summer lovin’

We were able to hit a small water park yesterday and then my parent’s pool for some summer splashin’, jumpin’ and slidin’!

The lazy river was a hit!
can you see Ella behind the downpour?
Rilyn showing off her jumping skills
Rilyn sliding in my parent’s pool
swimming lessons has really given Ella confidence jumping in the ‘deep end’ now!
Ella sliding in!  (I love her shadow in the pool!)
10
Jul
10

“why do you hate God’s creation?”

I don’t know what is up with all the critters in our house as of late, but I’m getting sick of it!  (mouse in the kitchen in May(didn’t blog that), snake last week, and now…)  

So before I tell you what happened this morning, I have to tell you what happened last night. 

While I was cooking dinner on the stove, I turned on the overhead stove fan and I heard thumpity thump thump!  First thought was that the fan was broken.  Second thought was there was a dead mouse up there, and my third thought was a bird.  I had remembered hearing faint chirping noises in the vent last week.  

Now if you know me, you know I loathe birds. This happened to me a year and a half ago and I still get chills thinking about it.  So anyway, I tell James I think our fan is broken or there is an animal up there and so he turns it on and of course, it works fine. 

This morning James wants to make breakfast on the stove.  He turns the fan on and the thumpity thump thump happens and my first words were “I told you so!”  (I love saying that a little too much.)  He turns the fan off and on again and no noise.  “I’ll deal with it later” is James’ response.  Now I’m cleaning up the kitchen after breakfast and I see a bird’s head peeking at me from the vent!!!! (Bird must of used his beak to pry open the vent a little.)

bird’s eye and beak creepily looking at me in the upper left hand corner of vent

So of course I immediately scream bloody murder but James is outside and can’t hear me. But all the kids can and Asher and Ella immediately start crying. Rilyn comes running in the kitchen and I am yelling “There’s a bird in there! I hate birds!” and more screaming ensues from me. Rilyn looks at me and asks, “Why do you hate God’s creation?”
Ouch. That one hurt, but have no time to deal with my sinful state because THERE’S A BIRD IN MY HOUSE! (God understands me.)
So, I calm down enough to take a picture for the blog, (your welcome), and James comes in and I tell him he will get the bird NOW.
Here is James brainstorming.

“Maybe I can catch the bird in the bag?!?”

So James decides the bag probably won’t work and he goes into the garage to think of something else to do. Meanwhile, THE BIRD FLIES OUT OF THE VENT INTO MY LIVING ROOM!!! At this point I lose it and start screaming again (but still remain cool enough to take a picture-give me some credit!).

The bird perches on top of the middle curtain rod. 

James comes running in from the garage to find this:

rilyn
ella (with some MAJOR bed head)
asher

So you can safely say that I’ve managed to make sure that all three of my kids will be scared to death of birds for the rest of their life. At least they can look back on this blog and find the exact incident where mommy screwed them up and not have to go to a psychiatrist for it.
So James gets a broom and after about 5 minutes gets the bird to fly out of our house via the back door. I grabbed the kids and put them in their room like it was a scene from the Panic Room. 

James now has a new honey-do list and you can bet the first item is “go into attic and do what needs to be done.”

09
Jul
10

flashback friday-cow appreciation day

I walk into Chick-fil-A today and I am bombarded with cows!  What the heck?  Apparently it is Cow Appreciation Day and if you dress like a cow you get a free meal!  I saw little boys with udders on-(eww).  I saw moms who drew black spots all over their babies.  Grown men with horns and moms with tails.  Entire daycares came dressed as cows.  There were cow balloons, cow bells, their cow mascot taking pictures…  It was a zoo farm!  (I was a little peeved at the people I saw that walked in with a white t-shirt and black sharpie spots they just drew in the car.  They should only get a free drink.)
But that is why everyone loves Chick-fil-A.  They are so kind and always tell me “it’s my pleasure” when serving me with a smile.  They take my meal to my table and refill my diet coke.  They have a playground!  They close on Sundays so their employees can go to church.  Their fries feel healthier to me than McDonalds, (please don’t tell me if they are or aren’t, I don’t care, I just said “feel healthier”.)  So I will always sing Chick-fil-A’s praises!

Umm, do you think I could of got a free meal today if I pulled out my 1980’s cow shirt?  😉

What?!? You don’t think I could get away with wearing biker shorts and purple socks with black shoes?!?
(As you can tell, I don’t mind humiliating myself on the internet. Laughter is the best medicine!)

08
Jul
10

A bonding moment

Last Friday night James and 3 of his friends walked over to our house from our neighbor’s house to get Rock Band for the Wii.  Me and the kids were at my neighbor’s house hanging out.  They were gone a long time. 

Too long.

When they finally came back to the house you could tell they had a bonding moment.  A GUY bonding moment, (not a coffee house, long talk with tears kind of bonding moment that girls like to have.)  This was an adrenaline pumping, BB gun shooting, slicing open a snake kind of bonding moment AT MY HOUSE!

So as the story goes, they were walking up to my house and one of James’ friends saw a coiled snake in our vent above our garage.

vent above our garage

They immediately get their weapons of choice (a stick, a BB gun, a shovel, a rake…) and go after the snake.

captured!

They get it down and discover it is a texas rat snake 2 feet long.  So they shoot it about 4 times with a BB gun.

You can see some of the bb’s bulging out of the snakes neck in this pic

After it is dead they notice a bulging in the snake’s belly.

the bulge

Being guys, they slice open the body to discover that he had recently eaten one of our resident birds that nest in the vent. (If you want to see the picture click here.) Then they proceed to chop it’s head off and put it in an old gatorade bottle so James can show off their conquest to me (like I want to see!) Gross!
I am just glad that the snake was discovered by them and not me! Apparently the snake had to have had slithered up our garage doors to get it’s tasty bird treat. It gives me chills just thinking about it!!!  Ewwww!

*And I must give props to James for taking pictures.  I’m not necessarily excited to see these type of pictures BUT at least he is learning to have the foresight to get the camera when something important is happening!   That’s my guy!

07
Jul
10

tutu cute!

My friend, Jen, wanted to get some cool photos of the girls in their dance recital costumes in downtown Austin.  Her idea is to use some shots for her Dancelife website.  (Enroll now for the fall!)   There was a professional photographer there, but I was still allowed to bring my own camera to shoot!  I had so much fun!  The photo shoot lasted 3 hours and it was hot, but the results were worth it, don’t you think?  So cute!

downtown skyline
rilyn
rilyn
jump
tired
 
ella
ella
bffs-ella and anna
rilyn
ella waiting for ice cream at Amy’s
ella
Rilyn didn’t know I was taking pictures here
This is what Ella and Anna’s tights looked like when we were done shooting-dirty!
tutu cute!