we are all in awe

june 24, 1961.

the day my parents, ted bryant and joan elizabeth "toby" long, wed.

 july 19, 2011.

four children, eight grandchildren later.

we celebrated this awesome occasion on kiawah island, south carolina.

wow.

look how beautiful they are.

all they've ever wanted was for their children to be happy.

we are.

they've never given us grief over not living in north carolina.

they believe we should explore the world.

they bask in the fact that we are all responsible, happy kids with families of our own.

we are in awe of them.

i'm sure they would say that they love us more than we know...

well, i know we would say the same.

we had a great night celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

i think we all hope to make it that far.....in tact...

with cake...

thank you for being our inspiration.

for giving us the love and care and space that we needed.

you guys seemed to have the recipe right.

we had a great party...

especially this one...

quite an imagination

i'm sure i won't do this justice....at all...i told jason today that i needed to bring out the video camera again and record him but i'm pretty sure that once the camera is out he'll retreat and not be his natural cute self - i mean - he'll be cute but not natural.

he has quite the imagination.  not new news to us, but when someone else notices it and says something it really starts to become more and more evident (at least to me).

it all really started when we were in kiawah.

cashel:  we're in the forest - how we gonna get outta here?

me (or jason): we're gonna follow the road bud

cashel:  there's a bear....and a red hole...the bear's in the hole...and there's a rabbit...

this kind of thing would go on almost every time we were in the car on the island.

now we're in la

this is what has been happening lately:

cashel: let's play a game

me or jason:  ok, how do we play

cashel:  you stand on this and do this (waving his arms in the air or something) and i'll do this and then you'll jump and we'll crash

me or jason:  ok (of course, doing a version of what he asks

he often say's "red light!" when he wants me or jason to stop walking

he often twirls his arms in our direction and says, "i tied you up" if he doesn't want us to move

we often "turn" each other into things - most often he's a shark and i'm a baby frog.  he then proceeds to chase me around the house and eat me.  never the other way around.

he often goes to a door (that he doesn't want us to walk out of) and says, "i locked it, now you can't get out"

...and yesterday takes the cake so far...we're at a park in glendale...

we're on the basketball court and this happens:

cashel:  let's play a game

jason:  ok, how do we play bud?

cashel: you go in the hoop then climb the tree and fly over there and come over here

robin:  ok...(I pretend to do all these things)

robin: ok, cashel, you're turn

cashel:  no, i'm too little

ok......

cashel:  daddy....dance with mama

jason:  dance?

cashel:  dance with mama

jason:  ok...(he and i hold hands and dance while cashel runs away from us)

we let go

he turns around

cashel:  (yelling) dance wif mama!

so we dance

we let go as he runs away

cashel: (yelling) dance wif mama!

so we dance

you get the picture....

....who's in charge here?

kiawah 2011

on july 11, 2011 cashel and i headed back east in a jet plane.  it was a great ride.  we landed in raleigh, nc, and were picked up by my high school bestie, lori.  she hasn't changed a bit - she's beautiful.

we made our way to kernersville to mimi and papa's and all the ice cream you can eat. oh...cashel had a super fun time with lloyd's boys - jon and sam.

next stop, kiawah island, south carolina, where we stayed in a beautiful home and were hosted by my wonderful uncle gary and aunt lee.

first night there cashel was in molly and emma bliss.  we had delicious food.

we played at the pool, the beach, we rode bikes, we made sand castles, we found a starfish, we saw shrek (about a million times)...we had a great time.

fun with aimee and eli

fun with reagan and addison

fun with family

naked on the beach

aunt mary's birthday fun

more fun with molly and emma

i love the pool

aquarium with mimi

more beach fun with aimee and eli

emily and marc's anniversary

spontaneous pool dance

trying to push papa into the pool

beautiful sisters

oh say can you see....

the fourth of july was a fun filled day this year.  we started off by sleeping in!  yes!  i said sleeping in!  well.....if until 7:00 counts then it was sleeping in.  jason did bikram yoga, i walked the dogs and enjoyed a new neighborhood in atwater village then we drove to pick cashel up from nana's.  they had had a sleep over so that jason and i could attend a wedding the night before.  we had a great time at the wedding by the way.  while we were at nana's we went to her pool to cool off and have a cook out at her house. 

afterwards we went home to hang out before taking cashel to his first fireworks!  we went to south pasadena high school to watch a fireworks show.  it was a great place to watch and we'll probably go earlier next year...there was a bunch of food and a band before the fireworks.  jason had cashel practice saying "oooo.....aaaaa....." for the fireworks and he was ready to go when the fireworks started.  he loved it!  he wasn't scared at all.  it was another great barnes family day!