Vacation Time

Here are a few pics from the past weekend ---

Hank & I relaxing after a long day at work:



Some beautiful pictures from my visit to Horseneck Beach:







I probably won't be posting for the next two weeks. My sister, Becky, and I are leaving the boys behind and heading to Maui! I'll take lots of pictures and update sometime in the first few days of September. Aloha!

Happy Anniversary, Rebecca & Danny

A year ago (okay a year and three days ago) my sister and her husband were married. Congratulations on your first year as newly-weds. Here are some pictures of their special day.

Well, we can't start this off without a picture of Becky's crazy bachelorette party - on a boat in Plymouth!



And here are the bride and groom jamming with the band!



Becky and Grandpa George share a dance.



The four Nelson Girls. One married, two engaged, and one with a long time to go before she has to think about these things!



The Girls!



This was the funnest wedding I've ever been to. I'm next - if only Jay and I could pick a date and location. In due time, my friends.

Books & Back Pain

I've been dealing with back pain and stomach yuckies for the past week, but I think I'm *almost* better.

I spent some time reading at the cottage this weekend while trying to recover. I finished "Ordinary Wolves" by Seth Kantner. It was excellent.

I found this list on another blog. Evidently these are the top 100 books as voted by the public. Books I've read are in bold. Books I've never heard of are in itals. My comments in brackets.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien) [I can't believe that I've never read this series.]
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) [One day I will visit PEI.]
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) [This is on my list - I almost picked it up at the library last week. Now I have to.]
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel) [I loved this series - although there was a lot of werid caveman sex]
42. Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) [I started it, but never finished for some reason]
50. She's Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) [Ha! This one's on my nightstand!]
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)[One of my alltime favorite stories.]
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davies)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones' Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. Tigana (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard's First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)[Loved, loved, loved S.E. Hinton books when I was in Jr. High!)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield) [Well, I started it. Never finished.]
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

The Birthday Weekend

Had a great time at Dad's 60th Birthday Party at the cottage. It was a beautiful day with a short sun shower in the afternoon. I don't think I've ever seen this many people at the cottage before - there had to be over 60 people!

Here's Tim! Isn't he so handsome. He's basically like my brother since I've grown up right alongside him my whole life. Love ya, Tim!



One of our favorite things to do at camp is catch turtles. I'm 31 and still get excited to go 'turtle hunting.' Becky caught this little guy and Thea wasn't too sure about it.



After the rain - swimming, boating, and playing with babies and dogs. Perfect!



Jay and Hank enjoying the party.



Here's the Birthday Boy!



Auntie Amy and Thea!



The Nelson Girls.



The Fearing Pond Brat Pack!

Beware: You Might Cry

I did...