AuntieCamp 2009, The final chapter

Mr. Wildthing has this awesome telescope. I was duly impressed with his knowledge of the stars, planets, ect. We took my camera and put it up to the lens to get this shot. It may not look like much but it is Jupiter WITH 4 of it's moons circling it. I had no idea Jupiter had multiple moons let alone having ever seen it. Very, very cool!

See! This is near the end of my trip and Mr. Wildthing understands to just go with the flow of goofey Auntie, smile, and take the picture!

I love this picture! You see, I thought for sure I could whoop him at Guitar Hero. Ha! What an egotistical such and such I am!! LOLOL!! He is GOOD! He just calmly sat there and whooped me but good! Of course he then smuggly smiled to himself when the whooping was particularly dramatic!

One day "Auntie Camp on the Road" went on the road. We went to visit my/our grandma. We had the requisite lunch at Milk & Honey and then turned around and went back home. You can tell from the pictures that Grandma was thrilled that "Auntie Camp on the Road," went on the road!!

Cheergirl came to visit during Auntie Camp. Here they are together, Wildthing and Cheergirl. I tell you, I'm not too sure who had more fun during Auntie Camp. I think we'll keep it our little secret that it was probably the one that took the longest to recuperate afterwards! These guys are so much fun and I think that they may be the closest thing to grandchildren that I will get. I'm already looking forward to Auntie Camp 2010. Perhaps the two of them will come together to Texas!

Auntie Camp on the Road #2

All week Wildthing couldn't wait to cut the grass. Can you blame him?? They just bought a brand new lawnmower. Does this look like fun or what!? He's getting good at mugging for the camera! Besides, I was there at his every move, documenting it on film! Every self respecting Auntie must teach their niece or nephew something their parents would frown on. My contribution.....teaching WT (wildthing) to whistle through his fingers. It's loud. It's piercing. It can be annoying to parents. It's perfect!! LOL!! I can create a loud, piercing, whee-oo-whit! with my whistle. WT practiced and practiced (it's really harder than you think) and by the time I left was creating a very respectable whee-ooo-whit sound himself. I think I've taught him a life skill that he can pass on to his unsuspecting relatives!

We visited the zoo. I tell you, I haven't been to a zoo in YEARS! It was a beautiful day and it was alot of fun. Unfortunately we discovered that one of us is wayyy smaller than an adult male ape and one of us weighs the same as a couple of female orangatuns............

One more installment of Auntie Camp 2009..........

Auntie Camp. On the Road

My nephew was unable to come to Texas for the first annual Auntie Camp this summer so....If Wildthing (his baseball name) is unable to come to Auntie, Auntie goes to Wildthing!!! Auntie Camp #2, was in N.E. Ohio! (Auntie Camp #1 was here earlier in July) I know that this is months late but, because I use my blog as a journal, I really wanted to include it.

We went here....and to the locks that were there but Auntie forgets the name. I've never been on a boat that goes through a lock system. It was interesting. Unfortunately, we were stuck with a camp group. Needless to say it wasn't a relaxing tour!

Mr.Wildthing wasn't quite used to me and my loud and camera happy ways on day 1. He is looking at me a bit like "What is this woman thinking and why does she keep taking my picture!" It didn't stop me!



We took a lot of "self portraits." I wish I had longer arms.




Here is Wildthing at Fridays. Again, he is not too sure WHY I have out the camera but we are having a good time. By the time I left he he was rolling his eyes when he caught sight of my camera!

With Cheergirl, I taught her to sew. Wildthing and I baked. We stuck to the easy stuff that tweens love....PIZZA and CINNAMON ROLLS! We made the pizza dough, kneaded it, added the toppings and ate it all week!

Another day we made Auntie M's famous (according to me that is) cinnamon rolls. Again, yeast dough, rising, rolling....

All the while, the peanut gallery waited impatiently while the delicious smells wafted into the other room!

I dragged him to the Bass Pro Shop. Why? No idea. I just wanted to go there.

Besides, he dragged me to a baseball game! Yikes! Me. Baseball. Uhmmm. Well, it IS Auntie camp and that means it is his choice. Luckily I really like the eating before the game. If you are a M*A*S*H fan you will appreciate that we went to see the Toledo Mud Hens and ate at Tony Packos!

Look at the size of this hot dog! It was called the MOAD, the mother of all dogs! Here we all are, mugging for the camera, myself, Wildthing, My SIL and brother.
More in the next post.

Auntie Camp.....Auntie Style

Auntie Camp is long over and I have finally recovered. It seems I'm not 25 anymore. Here is Cheergirl learning to quilt. Yes, she is capable of matching clothing as well as a quilt! For some reason she is wearing her pj top with her shorts!! LOL. I let her loose on my 5" squares and she assembled, arranged and sewed.

I set her machine up across from me so this was the view from my sewing machine.

Her first seam!!

The final quilt. It is finished and bound. I am delivering it to her this weekend. I am off to visit with my family. Next post...the quilting on this quilt. I had a ball just trying out different quilting techniques.

Auntie Camp. Tuesday

Oy! I've been keeping this a big secret. I know this will be a surprise/shock but, I'm not 25 anymore. Nope. Ahemmm.....not even 30! We went to the beach and used our boogie boards (sorta like a small surfboard that you lay on to catch a wave). The water wasn't very rough but it still beats ya' around. Today....today I wish I hadn't stopped exercising 8 months ago. My biceps are sore, my legs, my shoulders....UH! The best part is that our 50 sunscreen worked just fine and we are not burned. The worst part is that we are doing it again today. Oh my aching muscles!

Here she is, the first moment on the beach.This is the jetty we walked out on. We are lookingback at how far we walked. To the right is the ship channel, to the left the bay.

We went across the ferry. It's pretty cool because between the island and the mainland is a small strip of water. For whatever reason, they cannot build a bridge. We drove all the way there just so we could ride on the ferry. We had a wait to go across the first time and CheerGirl was very hot! She is fanning herself with her hand.

I have a dear, dear friend who thinks of everything. She had a present waiting here when CG arrived. It was a waterproof, whoopdee doopdie watch. Here they are showing it off.

Auntie Camp. Monday

This week is Auntie Camp and my dear niece, CheerGirl, is visiting . I have been waiting for this week for the past 6 years! Can you imagine the thrill for an 11 year old girl to leave mom & dad, drive to the airport with one MARRIED cousin.and her other cousin and BOYFRIEND, fly to Texas, spend the night in Austin, and finally drive to Aunties house?! Can you imagine the apprehension of letting your 11 year old go with your nieces, who in your mind, are still 11 themselves? Add to this that I'm not so sure about my girls parenting abilities.....It seems that all of the Ohio relatives (read great-grandma) were certain that they were going to starve, so they were loaded down with various goodies to "hold them over during the loooonnng trip.!" They ate those. One the WAY TO THE airport, the boys insisted on visiting White Castle. Next, they fed CheerGirl Cinnabon at the airport and then pizza for dinner. Yesterday morning they ate the leftovers from Cinnabon and pizza for breakfast. Then Mrs. S called to say that they would get a late start because they were taking CheerGirl to Amy's Ice Cream. They had mini burgers and ice cream. All this and the trip was only 24 hours old. The poor child will need Pepto and a dentist before she goes home!! LOL!! After finally arriving here, we played Guitar Hero....oh yeah and ate dinner! She fairly collapsed at 10 pm.! Our agenda today? The beach of course!

We took this picture by holding the camera ourselves....not the greatest, but what we have!

(because I use this blog as a journal, I will be posting about our adventures all week!)