Leslie & Darren

Leslie & Darren's beautiful cake


Kate & I

Dave & Kate

I just *LOVE* these guys!!

I love the look on Leslie's face, like "what the heck did he just do to ME, his new bride?!?"

First dance as Mr. & Mrs. Mills

Auntie "Cake" & one of Julie's girls

Dave

(did I mention I love these guys!!)

My Brother's 40th Birthday!!

HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY, SEAN !!

Chantale threw a fantastic party for my brothers 40th! Old friends, family and even a live singer with a beautiful voice. (sad, I didn't get a photo or her name...)

My brother is the laid-back type, likes to people watch and would rather be on the sidelines than the center of attention. But you only turn 40 once, right? He did a great job mingling and talking with all the guests.

Their lovely friends at Napoli, a family owned business - Otto, Maria and their mom, opened up the place just for Sean's party and it was perfect!

(Sorry it took so long to post!)

Chantale *hand made* this cake for Sean!

Amazing - what a beautiful job!!

Sean, Derek & Cole hanging out at Napoli
(we're allowed to be in the Kitchen - we know the family ;)


Shawn cornered by my Aunt Sharon & Mom -hehe!
(wedding talk??)


Sean & Chantale

I don't think he liked all the attention so much, but he sucked it up!
Again - isn't the cake gorgeous?!?


My brother - mingling

Grumpy & Cole

SHOTS!! - ruh-roh......

SEAHAWKS TICKETS!!

Single game Seahawks tickets went on sale last Monday and apparently sold out in just 14 minutes.

I am ELATED to report that we were able to get tickets!!! The Green Bay game is the day after the wedding and we snatched up 8 seats! I'm sad that I won't get to see Brett Favre play with the Packers, I will take a moment to mourn the loss at the game. But after that it's FULL ON 12TH MAN!!!!!!
I even have the 'green gloves' - thanks Aunt Linda =)
Time to start looking for my Patrick Kerney jersey online!

Now if I can only get my hands on some Jets tickets.......
(Hey - I can dream!)

Watermelon Smiles

SUMMERTIME !!

(before the summer buzz-cut)

Camping

Anna & Cole

Cole LOVED his mini 'beers'

Shawn, Cole & Anna digging for treasures

The Family =)

Cathartic/symbolic/(tearful) burning

Ahhhhhhhh..............!

For the girls BIRTHDAY weekend (Anna's is July 28th and mine is the 29th) we decided to go camping!

Technically, the long weekend started with our annual trip to Wild Waves for some fun in the sunshine! Thankfully for Shawn & Anna, I'm not so awe-struck anymore and don't walk around oooh-ing and awww-ing at the things that changed (or didn't change at all). It still brings back a HUGE memory rush, considering it was almost in my backyard and my girlfriends & I spent 2 or 3 solid summers there. Everyday. (Ok, I exaggerate) What a great way for our parents to get rid of us!

---------->Sorry for the delay on this post. Camping was almost a week ago. I got sick on my Birthday - Tuesday, and haven't felt 100% since. Sore throat, the aches, the kind where you just want to crawl in bed. All. Day. Long. And that's just what I did - had myself a nice little Nyquil martini and called it a (birth)day.

Anyway, camping was great! Great weather, long days filled with adventures on the beach and in the trail. And the CAMPFIRE!!! Did I mention the campfire?!?!? That's my favorite part - warm and toasty by the campfire, roasting marshmallows and then watching the embers glow into the wee hours. Heaven.

Hope you're all well, in every sense of the word. Being sick makes you realize that you can't control everything. Grrrrrrrr.

My brother's 40th BIRTHDAY PARTY is this weekend!!! Stay tuned for photos and stories, stories, stories!

Air Show!

Stealthy

Cole doing (one of the things that he does) best - "ARMY!"

More "Army" - the kid was in Heaven!

(I know it's the Air Force - everything to him is still 'army')

USAF Thunderbirds

Amazing what these guys - AND ONE GIRL (hell yeah!!) do in the air. In a jet. Flying inches from each other. Breathtaking!

Saturday at McChord Air Force Base was awesome. Just that plain and simple.

Okay, other than the sunburns we all got (except Cole).

It was free, it was kid friendly and it was LOUD!!!!! Did I mention how fierce we are - the US Military, that is? You would NOT want to be on the receiving end of any one of these planes.

We toured thru a C-17, which we see fly over the house quite frequently. But in person they are just mammoth! HUGE! "Imagine riding in one of these jump-seats aaaaall the waaaaay to Panama. Or Cuba." Shawn stated to me. Ouch! No thanks!

The most impressive display was one that I was not prepared for. Tora! Tora! Tora! did a reenactment of the Bombing at Pearl Harbor. Complete with Japanese fighter planes, explosions and narrated so eloquently I caught myself trying to catch my breath with tears running down my face. My heart was pounding! It was like you were there. The bombers swooped and looped and chased each other right in front of you! Very sombering to think that this actually happened.

My Grandfather, Bernard J. Vandervest, left Pearl Harbor 3 days before the attack.

He would've been so proud of the performance.

Cole and Shawn came running back to our blanket in the grass - Cole thought for sure one of the planes had exploded or they were doing real bombs! I think he was secretly hoping it was real.

I'm proud of our Military. And days like these make you appreciate them more than ever.

I will stop at that - we all have our own individual opinions. =)

M E M O R I E S

Or "Lynnae's crap" as Shawn lovingly refers to it.

~ My name is Lynnae, and I am a pack-rat ~

Where to begin?? July marks a year ago that Shawn moved in to "The Bungalow"

Seriously - it's about 800 square feet.

We got a storage unit to house the extras until we had time and space to go through it. Or eventually moved into a bigger place. But I *LOVE* this house, this neighborhood, this area! So we decided to get rid of the $130. monthly storage payment and sift thru our stuff. Okay, my stuff. Mainly.

You would not BELIEVE the stuff I kept..... I have memories from Elementary, Jr High, High School and beyond. I found a shoebox stuffed full of notes. You know the ones: "Do you like him/her? Check Yes or No" and the "He said, she said, did you see what she was wearing" crap-ola from our younger years.

I found my colored mascara, circa 1987-88 - in teal AND purple.

The pale-pink shimmery Cover Girl lipstick ALL the girls wore.

All of my movie stubbs from every. single. movie. I ever saw!!!

(special thanks to Julie Lavin :)

And then High School - ALL of my Cheer stuff. Everything. From the hall pass from Giste for the squad announcement to our daily practice schedule & what to wear to each game to my cheer socks, cheer 'undies' (with DHS on the bum!) and even my Cheer shoes........

I'm telling you, it was exhausting. I'm emotionally drained.

This was the start of it - "the sorting"

A huge drawing from Danny. I *knew* he was gonna be famous one day ;)


A small box of the memorabelia I found
(my retainer, tix stub from the Tacoma Rockets, the mascara!)

the box stuffed full of notes......

old calendars ???

(I don't know either)

just ONE of the hundreds of movie ticket stubs

(sorry I couldn't find a cooler one, like Dirty Dancing or Mannequin or Stand By Me)

but I always wrote who I saw it with :)

graduation cards

(again - I don't know.....)

more movie tix, my one-way flight to SLC, Utah to pick up Cami, a card from Archies Diner (that cool 50's diner in Browns Point that I served at) and a punch card from Temple of the Bean on North I street in Tacoma (long since replaced a zillion times)

manilla envelope o' cheer crap

We're going camping this weekend and I'm burning about 90% of the crap I found. Some was just too precious to trash. It's true what they say - all of this stuff becomes "baggage" - emotional & literal. Time to let it GO.

Ode to Candice and Pete

The happy couple

Pete & Candice Williams

Our friends Candice & Pete were married July 5th at the fantasy setting of Tracey Castle in Buckley. It was elegant and fun and all around a

fantastic time!

Candice looked gorgeous in her strapless, beaded, simply elegant gown. Pete's white tie and vest was the perfect compliment. Candice is normally casual & easy-going in jeans, hoodies and flip-flops. But to see her in her dress looking so beautiful was not surprising at all! She fit the part perfectly!

The night progressed with the usuall dinner and dancing. But mixing the two groups of friends from Candice and Pete made it The Party of the Year!! We had such a great time, eventhough it rained, drinking and dancing all night long.

What a great way to celebrate the 4th of July holiday! I haven't had this much fun at a wedding in a long, long time! I only hope ours will be as energetic! (reminder: October 11th)

Cake!


First dance as a couple


Candice rocked with her white, diamond-studded Vans!



Candice & I

Candice & Joyce

Stephanie & Pete

Shawn & I

(yep, it was a GREAT party!)

Steph & Shawn

err... Gandolfini!

Candice & Shawn - he's so sweet!

Pacific Beach

We finally got some sunshine here in Washington!!!

(Or..... HOLY CRAP, can it get any hotter??)

We needed it, we love it and then we complain about how HOT it is. Or at least I do. hehe.

We spent Saturday (94 degrees?) painting Mom & Dad's exterior of their house. This was a birthday/Mother's Day/Father's Day gift from Sean, Chantale, Shawn & I. (insert awwwww here)

I'm all about practical gifts - things you can USE. So when their birthdays came around in April we were all racking our brains on what to get them. I remember Mom saying they wanted to paint th house this year and bingo!, that sparked my idea.

A BIG THANK YOU to our friends for helping out, so unselfishly!! We had Sean, Chantale, Shawn, myself, Derek, Jo, Otto, Sammy, Glen, Anna & Cole. When all was finished, we painted my parents 1600 square foot rambler and my Dad's HUGE 4 car shop/garage. All in about 6 hours! In 90 degree heat. Did I mention the heat?? Thank God for Grammy's pool!! (I forgot my camera for the day, so mom has all the photos. poop)

We knew Sunday was going to be another scorcher, so we had to have a plan. I suggested Owen's Beach, since it's just down the road at Pt. Defiance or even Dash Point State Park. Anything with water. Shawn said, "How about the ocean?" "The ocean-ocean??", I asked

So we hopped in the Pathfinder and set out on a road trip. We often forget that the ocean is really only about a 1.5 to 2 hour trip from Tacoma. That's it! It was a gorgeous drive! By the time we left the house, it was already hotter inside the house than it was outside. ugh. We drove through beautiful Olympia and Shelton (I waved to you Tracey, did you see??). Hoquiam & Aberdeen were just perfect!! Breezy and 75-80 degrees!! Perfection!

Then we got to the coast. I'm reading the outside temp. gauge and it says 64. It's cloudy, overcast and FOGGY! Driving big black onto the beach, we couldn't even see the ocean! How strange is that?? Here we are in shorts and tanks and I have to wrap a towel around me to stay warm. Hahaha!!

Shawn, Cole & the Pathfinder on the beach

can you see the ocean?
digging to China


monkey


We had a GREAT time though. It wasn't crowded and we were able to walk the beach and look for treasures. Made us all hungry for crab too!