Spa Day and Happy Birthday, Raymond - 146/365

It was our last day at Great Wolf Lodge. 

This morning, we went outside to take our annual cousin's picture. Every year we get Jillian and Reagan matching dresses, Evan something that blends and take their picture. The photoshoot went really well at first! It was great! We got some great shots. 

Reagan was resisting taking a "running" photo, but eventually she joined in. We ended up just letting them run around and chase grandma and papa.  

After pictures, we hit the pools for a little bit and Reagan went down her favorite slides a few more times.

After we got cleaned up, we headed over to the Scoops Kid's Spa for Reagan's mani/pedi. She just loves having her nails done. She does a great job sitting still, too! 

The place was pretty adorable, the benches looked like huge banana splits. They gave her a little robe and tiara when she first sat down. Once they got started, she was able to pick her colors and flavors. All the bath bombs and scrubs they used were ice cream scented. Reagan chose chocolate and strawberry and she chose purple for her toes and pink for her fingers. Towards the end, they even gave her a spritz of watermelon flavor for her hair and grape lip gloss. She looked and smelled fantastic. They finished her off with an "I'm a princess sash", and a scoop of ice cream! YUM! She had a ball! 

Eventually, it was time to head home. We were going over Ray and Jenn's this evening for Raymond's birthday! We had a great time and they had quite the spread. Jennifer grilled chicken and steak and had a ton of yummy sides. She even made buttered noodles, especially for Reagan, how sweet! 

Reagan helped Uncle Raymond blow out his candles on his awesome ice cream cake and also helped him open all his presents! He loved it! We had a blast! 

This evening, Reagan turned into a "crazy banshee" as we called her. She was so exhausted from her weekend of fun, that she just decided she was going to do the opposite of everything we wanted her to do tonight. In the words of Jim, "we had to hold her down as if she was a wild animal or mental institution patient." We could not get her pajamas off, we both had to hold her down while she was kicking and screaming. We went through the same thing trying to get her dressed again after the bath. She wouldn't use the potty, wouldn't brush her teeth, nothing. It was totally shocking and exhausting all at the same time. She had never behaved that way before. We were both like, "what just happened?" Hopefully, that will be a one and done episode! 

Overall, we had a awesome day! 

First up, the kiddos!

Next, Reagan at the spa! 

Next, Reagan helping Uncle Ray blow out his candles...

Finally, a group pic!

Stormy Weather - 191/365

It was a stormy day today! 

Jim and I were both up around 5am from the sounds of thunder and lightening! I never really got back to sleep, but I gave it a go. Reagan, of course, slept through it all! 

Nana came to pick up Reagan around 9:00. They were going to spend the day together, so I could get some editing done. It was the perfect day for it, with all the rain that came through. 

It really revved up around 4 and went strong till nearly 6 o'clock. Paul Wetzl was LIVE on WKBN during the worst of it, because there were possible tornadoes with the system. Luckily, everything was fine in this area, just a ton of rain. 

Nana and Reagan had a good day playing color-forms and her counting chickens game. They even went to late register for Tales for Tots tomorrow morning. We weren't able to register at the last class, since it was at the cabin. I almost forgot! Good save, Nana!

When Jim got home, he made us some pasta for dinner! What a wonderful hubby he is! 

After we ate, we both vegged out until Reagan showed up. Reagan, nana & papa had gone to dinner at the Phoenix. 

That was about it for today! 

The photo of the day is the flag getting blown around in the storms...

The next is the computer screen I stared at all day...it's fun though! 

Pictures & Children's Circle of Friends Dinner - 188/365

Another busy day today!

Jim started his day at Austintown Urgent Care, to finally see what was going on with his throat. He was in and out fairly quickly, with a diagnosis of Pharyngitis. They gave him an antibiotic and antihistamine. Hopefully, once the antibiotic kicks in, he'll feel better. He keeps saying it's so weird because it's just his throat. No other symptoms...no congestion, no cough, no fever. Weird!

When he got home, we took Reagan out back to do a little swimming in her pool. She just LOVES it! She was in there a good hour and a half! She has some Disney Princesses that are actually pool toys, but yesterday, she wouldn't put them in because she didn't want "their gowns to get wet for the ball!" LOL!

While she finished up swimming, I headed over to Jennifer's mom and dad's to take some family pictures for them. My mom came to be my "assistant" since there were so many people! We just wanted to make sure everyone was seen with eyes open! LOL!

We followed Raymond and Jennifer down, and got right to work! What a fun group to photograph. Each family wore a different color, it was so cool! We would just yell, "Ok, orange family you're up next!" I had such fun photographing them and can't wait to see how the pictures came out!

This evening, Jim, Reagan, Jim's mom, my mom, my dad and I, all headed over to The Lake Club for Greg's, Children's Circle of Friends Golf Outing dinner. The outing is actually tomorrow, but they have a nice pre-tournament dinner and putting contest the night before, to welcome and thank everyone for coming. Ed Muransky has been kind enough to host this year and in years past. It's always such a nice event and the food was fabulous. It was a BBQ style buffet with ribs, pulled pork and baked potatoes the size of footballs! They even made special for Reagan, chicken tenders and smiley fries!

This year, Jim, Nana and Reagan joined in the putting contest! None of them won, but they still had a great time! It was such a perfect night and Reagan was really well behaved! Looking forward to the outing tomorrow!

The photo of the day is all of us at the end of the evening.

The next is Jim, Reagan and Nana in the putting contest....

And finally, a sneak peak of Raymond and Jennifer's family picture!

On the Fritz - 11/365

Today, every free second that I had, went into trying to rescue picture files from an older external hard drive. I knew that it was older and I knew that it was getting to be time to clear it off and send it on it's way...but it was always "I'll get to it". We'll today "I got to it" and it was a frustrating nightmare. Most files seem to be saveable and thankfully I had some of them already backed up on discs, but transferring WAS SO SLOW and a few here and there had become corrupt. I know better than this and every photography blog, book and magazine preaches, "if you don't have your files in three places, you don't have them." Well it turns out, that could be true! I have recently signed up for Smugmug and I have been pretty good at backing up there but all my older files are very susceptible to damage. I think I have saved the majority of them and thankfully most pictures of my precious baby girl are safe. I have to admit, that going back four or five years was fun today when things were going well. I cherish all those memories and appreciate being able to look back and be right in that moment. It makes all the picture taking worth while.

 I leave you with my friends the computer and infamous hard drive.

 BACK UP your files, too!