A fun (but buggy!) Memorial Day at Raquette Lake

We returned late this afternoon (to some ridiculously warm temperatures!) after a wonderful, but too short, trip to Green Point. It's amazing what you can cram into a four day trip (2 of which are primarily spent in the car- thankfully it's our wonderful new van and there was more than enough room).
We went for hikes, drove the Gator, went for boat rides (thanks to BB and Gram getting a fast new engine we HAD to take the boat out each day to "break it in"), went for a swim (yes! the warm weather near 80 degrees helped make this possible!), ate lots of yummy meals, played games inside, danced to BB's silly music and the kids got TONS of bugbites. You'll see in our pictures that anytime we were outside we were covered from head to toe- and the little buggers still found a way to our skin. We also had to wear our boots anytime you went outside- the ground is so muddy that even the normally "dry" spots are mushy. Fortunately Gram couldn't kayak in the front yard- which she could a few weeks ago.
On Saturday night BB taught Kaitlyn how to smush her cake with her fork to get the "extra" pieces which were too small to fit onto the fork by themselves.... so on Sunday night she decided to smush all of her cake rather than eat it nicely... hmm... ;)
Watch out... look who's driving the boat...The kids were both "driving" the Gator to various places... Kaitlyn wore BB's headphones as well anytime they were "driving." Their imaginations were quite fun!This was another 30 minute adventure for 2 minutes of work... repairing the front screen door...
Another scary scene.... dancing to BB's bluegrass music! Kaitlyn never seemed to run out of energy while dancing!!
Another great event... watching BB tape up his ankles and shins... which the kids wanted to do as well. Little Paul would adjust and check his every now and then. We also got to participate in the "big" placement of the Moose Lodge Chip and Putt signs.... this took us 30 minutes of 'prep' to get everyting in the Gator (primarily due to all of our "help"), about 2 minutes of installation, and 5 minutes of pictures.... clearly BB has done too good of a job having the holes for the sign and pin prepared
Hello.....Goodbye.....At one point Paul and the gang drove right past BB at the Chip and Putt... vroom vroom! Even BB's new four wheeler couldn't keep up! Make sure to check out the look on little Paul's face if you can see it.... he seemed to learn to LOVE driving anything fast this trip!The kids also had a great time sitting in BB's loader.... I think Gram had to carry Kaitlyn away from the Gator and tractor this morning since she didn't want to say goodbye to them!
To finish off the trip was a "bath" - without any smelly soaps as to make the kids even more tasty for the bugs this morning as we headed home. In case you don't know, Moose Lodge doesn't have a bathtub... so we improvised (and have on our list for the next trip a bigger "bath"!!).

Uncle Ryan's College Graduation!!

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Ryan's graduation from Susquehanna University. We started with a delicious dinner at the Lewisburg Inn- Paul III wore his "Uncle Ry" outfit and it seemed that many of our group had on blue!
Let's just say that who got to press the elevator buttons was a very important decision all weekend....Couldn't resist this one of three generations of Paul Wayne Redferns walking down the street...Are we still at the restaurant? Mom and Dad, we're really trying to be on our best behavior... but it's not going to last long....

If you ask the kids, one of the highlights of the weekend (sorry, Uncle Ry!) was the TWO pools at the hotel. As Paul III will describe, "the big one was cold and the little one was warm. I could stand in the small pool on my toes." Note that the very smart adults in the picture, Uncle Chris and Aunt Megan, have coffee and the kids are about ready to jump up and down in excitement!

There was also a race between Paul, Uncle Chris and Paul III:

Uncle Chris- do you mind if I make some international calls? It's so nice of you to loan me your phone. (note- Kaitlyn asked to use Uncle Chris' phone during graduation and proceeded to dig into all of his pants pockets looking for it- even though he told her it was in the car... it was quite a sight- and she figured out that we might have been lying!)It was fun getting everyone ready- fortunately Paul III took some of his grooming into his own hands. He then watched some cartoons in his jacket and tie for at least 30 minutes... he loved his dress up outfit (until it was actually time for the graduation).What are you doing taking our picture, mom?Getting settled in with Nana- note Pop Pop in the right-hand side, the roving photographer for the ceremony. Thanks for keeping me entertained, Uncle Chris!But why face towards the ceremony?!A quick preview of the graduate after he walked in to the ceremony!

Yeah!! It's official!
The kids and I caught a glimpse of Uncle Ry as all of the graduates were processing out of the ceremony.

Ironically we ran right into Uncle Ryan outside within a few minutes as well- very lucky.

Paul has been asking for weeks about the funny hats the graduates have to wear- so he was lucky enough to try on Uncle Ry's!
A nice picture of Uncle Ryan and "Laur Laur" who is also a member of the Class of 2011.Yeah! More congratulations!And I'm done.... ready to pick grass in the corner...

The family pictures begin...
Unfortunately the kids were DONE by this time and we couldn't get a great picture...

Kaitlyn and her godfather and buddy :)
Mom- I made this sign for Uncle Ry but am way too tired to hold it nicely... can't we go to the party yet (we may have hyped up the post-graduation reception a bit too much... thankfully dinner with Uncle Chris and Aunt Megan at Red Robin made up for it!).

What an exciting weekend- we're so proud of Ryan!