mountains again

moun·tain
noun
a natural elevation of the earth's surface rising more or less abruptly to a summit, and attaining an altitude greater than that of a hill, usually greater than 2000 feet (610 meters).

The first thing I always notice when we go up to our cabin is how crystal clear the air is. My lungs drink it in, reveling in how they can actually breathe. I take great gulps of it, and immediately the filthy smog that is called "city air" is flushed out of my system, leaving me refreshed and awake.
Through vacuuming bugs, unloading the car and unpacking my stuff, all I can think of is getting outside to do something, anything. As it turned out, I shot slingshots with Mark for about a half hour. I wasn't too bad, getting the feel for it pretty quickly. And, I can't lie, I got insanely giddy excited every time my stone hit the desired target.
The real fun began when our family friends arrived. Softball games, frisbee, quad rides, and bocce occupied the next few hours, with brief intermissions for lunch and chats. Despite the ridiculously hot and sticky weather, we enjoyed ourselves immensely and were disappointed when the day was over.

The next day consisted of church, grasshopper hunting, and fishing. Coming home was something I looked forward to after our day of wonderful chaos, but I would miss the fresh mountain air and the other little country novelties I've come to know and love every time we visit.
Now we're home again, and instead of sweating in an open field, a fan is blowing on me as I sit composing this post.

It's good to be home.

-hannah
p.s. vote on the sidebar poll! And don't forget about my design sale!

pre-birthday/anniversary post

hey guys, just wanted to let you know that tomorrow is not only Luke's birthday, but my parents anniversary! Give 'em some love and leave a comment sayin' happy birthday and anniversary. (of course, you don't have to, but it would be a nice gesture ;])

-hannah
p.s. eeep! School starts on Wednesday!

a quick post with two photos and two random subjects ;)

okay, what is up with this new blogger dashboard? I mean, what was wrong with the old one? Nothing. *sigh* change is good when you want it, not good when you don't. :P

Aannd Luke's other baseball team won the league championship!

right before his last pitch, which by the way, he won the game with a strike-out :D

-hannah
p.s. sorry for the slightly boring posts, I have't gotten a chance to go out and take some photos for a while, I've been so busy. I promise a few nice, long picture posts when this hectic week is over :)

did i forget to mention...

that Luke's baseball team won the championship?

and he got the mvp. Yep, my little bro rocks :)

(sorry the photos are so pixelated, it's really hard to shoot in manual at night :P)

by the way, literally two minutes ago (no, seriously, my mom just called) Luke hit his first homerun. Over the fence. And I wasn't there to witness it. I. am. so. dissapointed. Congratulate Luke on his first homerun! *sob*

-hannah

p.s. don't forget to enter the blog design giveaway!

Photo challenge

I'm entering the "In A Yellow House" photo challenge. The theme is on the water

I love this photo!

I promised photos....

Here they are!

 I couldn't get a good photo of Mark while he was on the tube and I didn't get any at all of Kate :/

There's me! :)

It was so fun!!

Mark had some trouble getting off the tube..................

The Lakehouse

The day before his birthday, Luke went with our neighbors up to their lakehouse. He stayed overnight and we came the next day. It was so awesome!!!

I went swimming in a lake for the first time and tubing for the first time. Swimming in the lake was cool but tubing was amazing. I'm a huge roller coaster fan and tubing is sort of like a flat roller coaster with an occasional big bump. It wasn't a windy day so the lake was pretty flat with only a few waves here and there. Photos are soon to come! 

We had hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch and went back out on the lake. Kate wasn't sure if she wanted to tube at first but after our neighbors (ages 13 and 9) and us persuading her she changed into her bathing suit. All-in-all, it was a super fun day but when we got home we were all so tired and this morning I was practically asleep while eating breakfast :)

And yesterday it was my mom and dad's anniversary! Yes, the same day as Luke's birthday :)

Happy anniversary Mummy and Daddy! Love you!

Do you know Luke?

Luke is my brother. A very amazing, awesome, talented, athletic brother. From sports to, well, sports, he can do it all! Today he turned twelve, and though it might be annoying that he turns twelve before I turn thirteen, I'd still like to wish him a very happy birthday!

Love you Luke!

~Hannah~

I'm BAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!

Yes blog world, I have returned! My vacation was amazing, relaxing and just generally fun.

At first being by myself was strange, but after the first day I was perfectly fine.

Did I cry when my family drove away? Almost.

Did I cry when I had to leave my aunt's? Almost.

Did I cry when I saw my family waiting for me in a parking lot? Did I cry when I saw Mark hanging out the window waving and then dancing around like a maniac when we pulled into the parking lot? Did I cry when they all came running towards me? Did I cry when they gave me a huge group hug?

Of course not. :)

I didn't snap too many photos at my aunt's but when I was at the mountains with my family I went crazy :)

Above is a picture of Pink Piggy. I've had her since I was a baby and of course she had to come ;)

When me and my grandma and my other great aunt were driving to meet my family we stopped at a bead store. 

It. Was. So. Beautiful. In. There.

And then in the mountains:

"I'm the tin man!"

For a week I read, wrote, drew, took photos, watched TV and enjoyed my peace and quiet. I said to my mom, "I could easily have stayed for another week." (Just because it was so relaxing, nothing against my family!)

I hope I get to do it next year!! And I got a very special gift from my aunt. I don't feel comfortable posting the gift here so if you would care to know, just shoot me an email!

Championship match for Luke

Good luck Luke!!!!!
My brother Luke is in the finals of a tournament! Win or lose he gets a trophy :)

Update on stuff goin' on around here

Hey guys! Wow has this week been busy (or at least it seems like it)! Today I played with a highschool tennis team and babysat my cousins, ages 1 and 4. Yesterday Luke had a playoff baseball game and his team is in the championship!! The game was amazing!! There were five home runs in it and four of them were hit by our team! But the crazy thing was that one kid from Luke's team hit three of them. Wow.
Tonight Luke and Mark have a basketball games and Mark is playing his game against his good friend's team. Thats gonna be interesting ;)
And the best part of all is that we're having, drumroll please...................... WE'RE HAVING PANCAKES FOR DINNER!!!!!!! lol ;)

An Update on life in my house:)

Hey guys, I haven't posted for a while, huh? Just thought I'd tell you what's goin' on around here:)
Everyone's enjoying summer and two nights ago we went to see the new "Karate Kid" at a drive in movie theater! It was so fun! I'll write a review about it later! It's probably one of my favorite movies.
I've been practicing rollerblading! I'm now good enough to make it down our rough slightly downhill driveway without a walker!;)
Also, (this is completely random) Luke's baseball team is #1 in the league so far! They've only lost one game!
And (this is also completely random) we have to go to the dentist at the end of the month D: I can't stand the dentist! But the worst part is, I think i might have a cavity :((((( I've never had one before and i want it to stay that way!!!
lol oh well :/ remember to go to Bleah's blog and follow!!!!

Almost done with school!

Guess what?!?! We only have one more day of school! YES!!!!!!!!! Not that I don't like school, but i mean, who doesn't like summer?

Caption Contest Canceled :(

I'm so sorry but I had to cancel the caption contest *sad sigh* something went wrong with the pictures. An update on things going on around here: Luke almost broke my dad's foot, Luke himself pulled a muscle in his leg and Mark is sick.
haha Luke did not try to break my dad's foot, my dad was pitching to him and Luke hit a line drive right at his foot D:

Baseball Season

Don't ya just love watching little league games? I do. My brother Luke plays on a team with kids we've known for about four years now. I used to play baseball when i was eight so I love going to the games and watching my old teammates and Luke. He has a game tonight at a field my dad played on when he was a kid. My dad calls it "the new field" because it was new when he was a kid :) 

He hit two homeruns on the new field and i know Luke's gonna try to do the same tonight! I think they're playing a tough team so it's going to be exciting! I can't wait! 

Another thing I love about baseball games: the candy stand!!! 

A random quote: 

"Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

I Have Returned!!!

So I'm finally back,

and I have a lot to tell!

About two weeks ago my family went to our mountain house.

It was so so so beautiful up there! 

I took like, a gazillion pictures and had a very hard time choosing which one to put into this post :)

The snow was melting which meant that there were those little rivers on the side of the paths and I just had to stop and look at every one!

When it was time to leave, we were hoping to be able to sled down the driveway but weren't getting the hang of it, so Luke decided he would give rides on his sled:

We had a blast!

The Great Grilled Cheese Episode (haha)

So, this I think is kind of funny:

This looks like an ordinary grilled cheese sandwich, right?

Yes, but as the old gypsies or whoever said, "Do not let appearances deceive you!" (I actually don't know if gypsies said that, but, who cares.)

Here is what the sandwich really looks like:

I get the feeling it's dangerous!

No, actually my mom accidently left it on one side too long.

But my brother and I were developing an evil plan.

We said to just put it on Mark's plate and see how long he didn't notice. 

We kind of meant to leave it on there until he bit into it, but we chickened out. (Actually our mom said not to because if we did, it was very likely that Mark would throw up)

So Luke, (the brother that helped me with the scheme) called Kate and Mark for lunch and walked back in the kitchen while they came charging downstairs.

Now, Luke is a horrible actor, and as soon as he looked at Mark, he cracked up.

I had to do some quick thinking or our plan would go down the drain, so, I said to Kate and Mark that he was laughing at my new amigurumi doll, which was supposed to be a hippo, but looked a little more like a slightly chubby dog.

That would have convinced them, but Luke just kept on hahahahaing and of course, they got suspicious.

Mark kept saying "What? What?" 

Meanwhile he was holding the sandwich in his hand and peeling off the crust, not once bothering to turn it over.

Finally, I just told him, and he said, "It's all burnt!"

He wasn't mad, just confused.

So we explained the joke and our mom said he was a good sport for not getting mad and luckily, she had a backup sandwich ready. 

We all laughed over the joke during lunch, and Luke was still upset that he hadn't eaten it.

I pointed out that, "Of course he wouldn't eat it! Not with you laughing in his face!" And I made a pretty good, but exaggerated, imitation of Luke laughing his head off and trying not to show it.

We all cracked up and enjoyed the rest of our lunch.

Skiing!

We went skiing for the first time yesterday!

It was SOOOOO fun!!!

The first time I went down the "big hill" I was kind of going faster than I expected,

but I didn't crash until I got to the bottom! :D