What a camping trip!

We spent last weekend at Carter Lake, just South of Florence. We brought our friends Emily and Arlo with us. Arlo is Jovanna's friend. We were able to get an idea of just how much time they can spend with each other before it is too much. Well, unfortunately, that would be about the time it took to drive to the campground. They ended up in constant competition with each other and were triggering each other all over the place. It is interesting, if you look at the pictures I took you would think that we had a wonderful time. The pictures would suggest that at least there were some good moments...hard for me to remember those though. We were constantly intervening between the two of them and trying to keep them from killing each other!

The area was wonderful. We had the lake, the dunes, the ocean, crabbing, and camping. It was truly a beautiful area.
When we first got to the site, the wire that is part of rolling up and down the tent trailer popped! I was thinking we weren't going to have anywhere to sleep but with some borrowed tools and after Scotty arrived, we were able to get it fixed. Whew!









Here is Emily rolling down the dunes...








Jovanna and Arlo after making the mile and 1/2 trek on the trail through the dunes to the ocean...


Scotty and Kelcie joined us at the beach


Jovanna at the campsite


Scotty by the lake


After a whole lot of whining, Arlo finally agreed to help Jovanna across the water to the other side. Aren't they cute?


A very sweet camp neighbor loaned us her canoe boat and was so tickled to see it getting some use. Here is Scotty and Jovanna on the lake...


And before we left our trip, we stopped off at a beach in Florence to let Jovanna play in the sand a little bit. Warning signs were up about some water quality issues so we didn't play in the water though.

We are getting tired!

I always thought that it would be Jovanna that would be the death of me, but now I'm thinking it's gonna be this darn house! My body is so exhausted. There is still so much to do. We got most of the living room flooring in and we are heading down the hallway but we ran out of laminate flooring. I have to wait till I have a little extra money to buy the rest of what we need. We are taking a break for a few weeks because we are tired (and grumpy!). We are going camping this weekend for some R&R. We are going with our friends Emily and Arlo. Arlo and Jovanna have recently discovered each other...they are both eleven, both on the Autism Spectrum, both identical in so many ways - like two peas in a pod. They quite the romance developing right now. It is very cute to watch. I heard that they actually stole a first kiss with each other too!

I have a feeling that I'm in trouble if she is already kissing boys!

Here they are...

Notice how they are both barefoot? If you don't know much about children on the Autism Spectrum then you probably wouldn't understand the significance of that, but I assure you...the two of them together is quite significant!

Wow! It is starting to show!

All the work and time and bruises and energy are starting to show! This weekend we textured the new walls (what a mess that is!) and so I can get back to work, we focused on my office. We painted the walls and laid the laminate flooring. I chose a color called Aztec Brick and the photos don't exactly do the color justice but it is close. Here is a shot of the flooring going in...


And at the end of the day, I was so tired. So, so tired. Jose let me use the chop saw to cut some of the pieces and I got comfortable with that by the end.

Here's a shot of me at the end of the day.

We just have to finish the molding around the bottom and the windows and doors. I think we decided on white.

Here's a shot looking down the hallway to the office.

It's Perfect!

Just what I was hoping for! The wall is almost complete, well, technically...the hole in the wall is almost complete! Here is some pictures of where we are...

These first two were at the beginning of the day.






These are views from each side of the opening. One is looking in from the kitchen and one is looking into the kitchen from the living room.

I happened to see this shot. I didn't stage it at all. That's the way it looked and I thought, wow, that says alot! Really captures exactly what we are doing right now. Love it!

He cracks me up!
He won't let me get a good shot of him because he knows I post these pictures everywhere! LOL!











Look at it now! We removed the temporary support walls and...it didn't all come crashing down! Yeah!











And here's the view from the other side with drywall now up! I am so happy. Short of removing the entire wall, this is exactly what I wanted!