End of the summer

Whew! I'm normally a 'summer lover' but I'm afraid this summer we nearly bit off more than we could chew...currently we are hosting our last official summer group at the lodge...they arrived Thursday and will depart Sunday evening. I seriously want to throw a huge party to celebrate the close of this crazy busy season! And even though I am a hunting widow the months of September, October, and November, hunting season has never looked so good...cooking for only one or two guests instead of 8 or more sounds divine. And although hunters are the ones that pay the big bucks, for the most part they don't make any over the top requests...well, except to get a good trophy buck or bull, but that's acceptable and entirely D.R.'s terrain.

This weekend, as mentioned, we have a full house, its 90+ degrees, no a.c., Landon's birthday, and he gets the flu. Yesterday was a comedy of errors: I'm getting the boys ready to head over to the lodge and start dinner and Landon starts ejecting the contents of his tummy onto the kitchen surfaces...as I clean it up, I follow suit (pregnancy and a weak stomach don't make a good vomit cleaning combo). I give up, throw a towel over it and dump half a bottle of pine sol on top, then head to the lodge. Fifteen minutes after arriving, getting in to my cooking groove and saying a silent prayer of thanks that apparently it was a one time thing for Landon, and I hear 'the sound' and turn around to see my son covered in an indescribable array of colors and chunks, as well as most of the lodge kitchen floor. To make matters worse, Colt yells at the top of his lungs, "mama, Landon PUKED EVERYWHERE!" So much for keeping it a secret from the guests in the next room. Alas, it all worked out~a dear neighbor came and scooped the boys up and took them home long enough for D.R. to get home and take over as Mr. Mom. I still don't know which one of them cleaned up the pile of towels, pine sol, and puke, but it certainly wasn't me. One day down, three more to go...here's to summer's end!

Colt and Landon sticking popsicle wrappers on their bellies on a hot summer day.

Summer evening looking over the pond in front of our house...mid July.

The boys on 'Ol Blue, riding solo (duo?) for the first time.