Jen D. Turns 22!

Our sister-in-law, Jen, had her 22nd birthday last Friday...Happy Birthday!! We celebrated at Roy & Pauline's on Saturday with a backyard fire, smores, and cheesecake. All the kids had fun running around the yard and playing with flashlights as it got dark. And, the rest of us had a relaxing time sitting around the fire sharing stories.

On Sunday we celebrated Father's Day and Jen's B-Day again with a round of golf and lunch at her dad's country club. I took the lead golfing in the high-score category!

Joeli's First Popsicle

This weekend, Grandpa Roy gave Joeli her first popsicle. It is one of the greatest joys to watch children discover new things! She would suck and lick on the popsicle and then she would stretch her little tongue out to try and lick all the juice off her chin. She was SO excited and happy...and had all of us laughing!!

Tonfa

I recently puchased as set of custom Tonfa to play with this summer and get the basics down. I've had them sitting around the house so I can grab them throughout the day to practice and get use to handling them. Rae's been watching me and at her first chance, picked them up...such a little martial artist!

Daniel's Shodan

Sunday, June 8th, we attended a shodan board of review for Daniel. We were quite impressed to say the least. Daniel has been in Okinawan Shorei Kempo Karate for 14 years. He has come a long way in that time, and even in just the last couple of years, to become a great martial artist. Congratulations Daniel!

Boathouse Deck

We just did a big project up at the cottage. The boathouse top has been leaking pretty significantly, so it was time to rip it off and put a new one on. We were all pretty sick of the old outdoor carpet...it held water like a sponge and had stuff growing on it.

A couple of our students came to help for the weekend, May 31 - June 1. TJ was there all weekend, and Gary came up for the day Saturday. Jean was there all day Saturday to help and Karen cooked for us all weekend! With the extra help, the old deck was ripped off in no time.

By early afternoon Rodnie was there and constructing a new floor/roof went really fast! How many times did you sweep that thing Rodnie?

Next was the "fun" part. It was the first time any of had worked with rubber roofing...and quite possibly the last. It took us the last couple hours Saturday to put the main sheets down, and then all day Sunday to put on the wear strips. Nothing real difficult, just a lot of tedious work that seems to take forever. We were all covered in adhesive, primer, and caulk by the end. And, battling the insane winds while trying to manage 20' strips of rubber without letting them stick in the wrong spots was a pain. But it all worked out and we got a little storm Sunday afternoon that proved the new roofing was doing it's job!

The following Saturday, June 7th, we put the new deck on top. We had to dodge a few showers, but got enough clear skies to finish the decking. Jean and Karen were up and Rodnie was over again. Matt, Jen, & Chase came up too.

Jen was amazing with the girls both weekends. She put in long days during full-on teething to keep Rae & Jo busy, so we could keep working! And, she grabbed a drill and jumped right in to help whenever she could.

Now there is just some finishing work to do. Jean is having the railing sandblasted and powder coated. It will be a few weeks before that is done and we get it back to put on. Grandpa Lutsey hand made the entire railing, twisting the wrought iron and welding it all himself. So, it will be nice to keep that as part of the deck, and with the powder coating it should last forever. We also have to finish up the soffit and painting.