Wedding Time!

Who doesn't love a good wedding?

Steve's cousin is getting married!

We're not super close...but we're not NOT close. Ya know? We could definitely hang with her - she's totally cool, totally normal, and we are SO happy for her. 

We're super excited she found her forever. 

We're not super close with this side of the family, so it will be nice to see them and catch up.

We don't know ANY of the friends of the bride and groom. And the Ruple family isn't that big. 

So...

We are excited to go to a wedding where we won't know a lot of people. We are excited to eat and drink on someone else's dime lol. Even though we are giving a monetary gift AND got a hotel room for the night but it's still worth it for a good time! 

It's a good reason to get a hotel room right on the water 4 minutes from the winery where the wedding is taking place. 

There weren't any normal hotel rooms anywhere near this winery...so I decided what the heck, let's stay at this boutique hotel that has a great restaurant and great ratings! 

Gorgeous room and venue. The doors all open up.

Steve and Uncle Danny, Father of the Bride

Colloca Winery, Sterling, NY. Absolutely stunning. Perfect weather for a wedding! 

Us and Chris, Steve's cousin

We knew she was pregnant, but they ALSO announced that they are having a BOY! They announced it during the ceremony.

We had a GREAT time! We ate, we drank, we chatted and caught up with people. I danced to some great 90's hip hop. 

They turned the lights on at 10pm and while we were invited to the after-party, we decided to be responsible and go back to the hotel. Steve had been drinking whiskey all night, so we figured going to bed was a good idea. 

The next morning we hit up breakfast before heading home. 

Love me some diner food. 

Congratulations Heather and Shane! 

Can't wait to hang with you guys and the BABY next year in Sodus! 

Family Photos

It's been like 7 years.

7 years since we've done family photos.

The last time we did official family photos, Ava was a newborn, and Mila was 2 years 8 months.

Oops.

Time kinda got away from me there.

About 2 years ago Steve gave me a very thoughtful gift for Christmas. It was for family photos with a photographer that a friend of ours recommended. 

He paid for the session and just needed to schedule it.

We scheduled it for October 2020.

You know, when Steve was straight broken and wasn't able to walk or sit or do ANYTHING?

Yeah.

So we had to cancel.

And then we wanted to figure out when would be a good time. Summer? Fall?

We ended up deciding that Fall photos would be beautiful, here on our property. 

We are doing them on September 21 and I'm just hoping the weather cooperates. 

I'm also excited that we had bought cute clothes for the girls for school and our video shoot, so I already have our outfits picked out.

I'm thinking we'll do two different outfits for me and the girls - Steve is wearing jeans and a T-shirt. I told him that I want him to wear what he normally wears - it's my favorite. Nothing fancy. No skinny jeans lol.

Dirty jeans and cowboy boots, thankyouverymuch.

One is more "formal" if you will, and the other outfit includes ripped jeans and a plaid shirt for me. 

I am not one for "posey" photos - but I know we need them. So I have a couple of spots picked out that I would love to get some nice family shots.

But then...I kinda want the photog to capture life with us and the girls just being outside and you know...being us. 

We lucked out with weather - it was partly sunny/cloudy which was perfect. It was about 73 degrees so also perfect. Not too hot and definitely not cold. We were all comfortable and the girls did amazingly well.

There's such a difference between a 6 year old (almost 7!) and a 2 year old lol.

Steve had a great thought as we walked in our backyard to capture Mila with this tree - the same shot we got when she was 2. I cannot wait to see how that turned out - and to put them side by side. 

I had always thought that we'd include the dogs...because well, they are such a part of our lives. 

But then Steve had second thoughts and said we didn't need to.

Okay...I didn't push it.

Towards the end though, with Mister being outside and being such a ham, we decided to get Bella too and get some shots with the kids and the dogs and all of us.

We got all the classic "necessary" photos of all of us together, me and Steve, just the girls, just us, etc. 

But then I really wanted the photog to just capture us being us. 

Having been in front of a camera before, it's not as awkward as I can imagine it being. I'm still talkative, trying to get genuine smiles out of my girls. I was saying things like "picture daddy in his underwear!" LOL.

Not only would I get the girls laughing, but I'd likely also get that look on Steve's face, shaking his head as if saying "only my wife..." haha. I'm just inappropriate like that. Yes, even in front of complete strangers. 

I have to say we all enjoyed this session and had a fun time. I wasn't stressed at all.

I remember last time, sweating, pregnant, trying to get Mila to give us some good shots. 

This time? I was saying "Ava, tell Mila a secret" and we'd get the cutest look. Or "should we do family photos in our underwear???" to get funny expressions. 

I cannot WAIT to see how these come out. 

Well That Didn't Go As Planned

One of my oldest friends turned 40 the other day.

I've known him since I was 10 years old. 

We were friends in elementary school, middle school, and high school.

He has always been a part of my life.

I'm very good friends with his wife Emily.

So for his 40th, the "big boys" (are what we call them because everyone has boys. We are the only couple with girls, really) arranged to take Andy out fishing - like far out on Lake Ontario to get the big fish.

They've had it planned for a few weeks now.

So us wives (Emily, Trista, and myself) decided to have a pool day at our house. The forecast said 80 and sunny. Perfect.

And as the week went on, the temperate kept dropping. 

Now it was forecasted to be 70 and sunny. 

Well, whatever because kids don't care as long as it's sunny. 

But then, as we were planning OUR stuff, things just got thwarted. 

Like, Emily ended up not having her car to get here. 

The fishing trip got canceled because apparently, the guy didn't get not one fish earlier in the morning so he was worried they'd all go out there and basically do nothing. 

The big boys (along with a few other guys) had decided before fishing got canceled that they wanted to shoot guns beforehand. So Steve packed up his guns and off he went.

Since fishing didn't work out, they decided to stay home and shoot guns.

And since Emily didn't have a vehicle, it was easier for Trista to go get her and bring her back to her house, versus making the hour drive to my house. 

So we crashed my friend's 40th.

We were told "wives had to stay on the other side of the hill"

Also us: 

So we ended up hanging out with the boys for some of the afternoon lol. 

It was fun to watch the kids shoot. Steve was commenting about how he used to do the exact same thing with his dad and Turk and Turk's dad. Exact same thing.

We had such a good time. My girls were hanging in the back of a pick up eating snacks. Proud mom moment😂

Kenny pulling clay pigeons for Steve

#badmoms

throwing rocks in the creek

Jake did GREAT! 

My boy Frank. Rich has to hold his tiny shoulder...so cute. 

Kid life. 

My babies. I can't take how much I love them. 

I think us wives did a good job of staying out of the boys' way - they spent the entire time down at the big barn and us ladies spent time up at the smaller barn near the house. 

We ended up staying there until about 5pm and I had to drag the girls away. They wanted to stay and hang with dad. 

But, the boys had fun, we had fun and now it's time to start the week again! 

I'm in LOVE

We bought our boat very late in the season. 

Like, the second week in August. 

It just kinda happened.

I wasn't sure how much use we'd get out of it this season.

We've been so lucky that we've been able to get it out on the water every single week since we've bought it. (Except last weekend)

I'm LOVING EVERY FUCKING SECOND OF IT. 

I'm SO glad we are enjoying this boat as a family. Some people don't love it. I'm glad we do.

But on Saturday, I was planning on hanging on with Trista at her house since Rich happened to be away looking at a truck. 

Turned out that the truck was a POS and Rich was on his way home and wanted to go boating.

Well then.

I won't say no to that! 

He had texted me the night before telling me to bring life jackets since he was trying to get home in time to go boating, but since the truck didn't work out, I wasn't sure if he'd be in the mood or what.

But, I got to do my favorite thing with my favorite people! (Minus Steve).

The girls got to play on a huge sand mountain and Trista and I DID end up being able to day drink. 👌

Before Rich got home, and before we actually confirmed to go boating, we had decided to order pizza and wings for the kids. 

Some playing around before lunch arrived.

Ava to Kenny "will you jump on the trampoline with us" omg so cute. 

This freaking sand hill went up SO HIGH. Like, I could NOT see the kids when they got to the top. But this spot was awesome and shallow and WARM.

Burying Chuckles. 

Boys throwing the football around

SO MUCH FUN

We went for an insanely fast boat ride - I was screaming and laughing at the same time.

Me and My Bubba

Looking like an old kid, driving the boat! Kenny passed his boater certification too! So proud of this kid. 

Just a head. We lost her PFD on the way out last weekend so she's wearing mine...I gotta get her a new one ASAP. 

I'm SO grateful to have such amazing friends. 

We have such a nice time and our kids are growing up together and I just freaking love it. 

Working Out - 64 Weeks Into My Fitness Journey

You Guys.

I've been busy. So busy I forgot to post about completing my 64th week! (Last Wednesday)

Day Date

I took the last bit of PTO right as I celebrated my 1 year anniversary at my job. My PTO doesn't roll over year to year, so I need to make sure to use up every last minute.

So to end summer, I decided to take a couple of days off after Labor Day and before the girls start school.

We also used this opportunity to have the girls spend time with my mom and enjoy some alone-time. 

Tuesday happened to be a gorgeous day, so we decided to take the boat out.

The typical stuff - towels, snacks, and drinks

We launched the boat with no issues, well, other than we had to wait for this guy that was taking forever. Once he got the pontoon into the water, he just left his truck in the launch to go help the guy on the boat tie it up. 

So, Steve decided he trusted his trailer backing-up skills and launched on the other side of this guy.

We were successful!

#canandaigualake

We launched at the south end of the lake, and drove up to the north end and anchored. We brought subs from Wegmans for lunch and had ourselves a little picnic lunch.

The boat has 6 speakers, but none of them work. Naturally, he had to figure out what was going on, so he got up under there. lol. He realized quickly that the main power line wasn't attached to anything. So...yeah we'll be checking that out. It also has a sweet tape deck. 

my favorite spot - the sun pad

Cruising around looking at all the rich people's homes. 

The boathouse. The barn/carriage house, the main house. Good lord. 

It was a lovely day on the boat - we spent maybe 3 hours on the water and it was heavenly. We just need to learn how to anchor our boat the right way so that the anchors hold the boat in place. 

We've had the boat for about 4 weeks and have been out each week so far - 4 times this season! I'm pumped about that. This weekend actually looks good too - and next weekend too! I mean, it's way too early to really tell for next weekend, but this weekend is only 3 days away so the forecast has to be somewhat accurate. 

I highly suggest dating your spouse you guys. Just...do it. You just have to. 

Yes, we talked about our kids a lot, but we also managed to talk about other topics as well. 

I'm very excited that we were able to spend the day together on the lake. We hope to have one or two more days on the boat before putting it away for the winter.

However, Steve did mention taking the boat out in October so we could see all the pretty leaves...which sounds amazing.