dirty bird...

Love this SYTYCD routine. Totally weird and dark. The same part of me that loves weird, dirty, tortured looking Johnny Depp...

happy bday matt!

The Cooks threw Matt a Bday BBQ.
And the city of Westfield threw him bday fireworks. Lots of fun!

Deb tried to teach me how to shoot things manually - um, yeah...

look, fireworks shooting out of Addie's head!

lame bay sunset...

Deb and I tried several times. The night she left Matt and I took the kids after Cobies (another CC tradition) Better than the previous attempts - but still lame. And I forgot my camera. Those were taken with my phone. Good thing I guess. I would have been bummed to be cameraless at an amazing sunset.

2002

2002

that is what I was looking for...
shot in the crappy still photo mode on my old video camera

2005

this would have worked too - love sunset at lowtide

Scargough Tower

No Odell trip to CC is complete without a trip up the tower. Like a 15 minute thing from start to finish - but it's tradition!

fun with Matt...

Matt is way more fun than I am. And he never tells anyone to pick up toys, go to bed or eat one more bite of vegetables. We have our "Good Cop, Bad Cop" thing down...

Emma loves kayaking - very much her thing

We Heart Sheep Pond

Sheep Pond is just a quick walk from my in-laws. Fresh water, small (but sandy beach) a raft to swim out to, and many Odell boats to use - kayaks, canoes and a rowboat. (more on those later) The kids totally love it. I love it too. So easy - no crazy crowds, no hot sandy car ride back, a little shady area for me to set up in.

Emma was all about the fish and the freaky tadpole/frogs this year. Can you see how her back ended up frying? She spent hours hunched over hunting and admiring her slimy little friends.

Jack and Jessica devised a very elaborate raft game in which they were dancing robots who danced around, powered down and then jumped in the water when they needed more energy (I think that was the jist of it anyway.) When Justin swam out and tried to play along they had many rules for his participation and a very specific role for him to play (the bad guy.) He was only supposed to come onto the raft once they had run out of energy. And he was only allowed to jump off the raft over their "sleeping" robot bodies. I'm hoping Deb can fix the last pic. It clearly shows what Justin thought about their rules. And it clearly shows Jack yelling the mantra of the bigger 2 Js, "Justinnnnn, noooooo!"

Cape Cod

Still digging out from sandy stuff/car and a pile of mail. But I'm starting to go through Cape Cod pics. Very fun week. By far the easiest and most relaxing yet. Good weather, good company, 2 good books. What more could you ask for? I will post some more pics and info tonight. For now just the crazy picture snapping lady who Justin befriended. One of, I should say... (I wish I had taken a pic for every friend Justin made/random person he approached - I would put them all into a book titled "Eh-Scuse Me" or "Talking to People is Nice, Right?")

Hello way over there across the beach...making 3 Odells very nervous

This tube? I should crawl in here so your accomplice can snatch me away?

This is the one for the Amber Alert...