While We Were Away! #2

Also, the annual deep sea fishing trip to celebrate Rob's birthday was held. Darren was very brave and took Alex and Rachel along and Randy brought Aisling. Special thanks to Jenn who made it well known if any of the kids went in she was personally going after them. Not sure how the fishing went, but I do know they caught a shark. Here's a couple of pics from the night!

While We Were Away

So we are back from a fabulous vacation to Key West! I want to thank everyone that helped us out so we could go away, Jenn and Kristine for Airport Duty! Bob and Gail and Darren and Veronica for watching the kids!!!!!! We had a great time, the weather was awesome-hot, humid great drinking frosty beverage weather!

While we were away a few things happened that I wanted to share with everyone. There was a fantabulous party at Don & Pam's which 66 Becotte's and friends of attended to celebrate Bob's 75th birthday! Here's a snapshot from the day.

Let the games begin

So I have been playing fantasy football with the same guys for about 6 or 7 years. 16 Guys, super competitive. I actually won the whole league once. Michelle has been playing in various family and work leagues for about three or four years. Well this year she gets to put her money where where her mouth is. She is joining the I95 football league with all of the boys. To top it off, it is a keeper league (keeping many of the same players from year to year) and her team stinks. Let's see what magic she can do with this pile of poo poo.

10th Anniversay Vacation-t-Minus 2 days and a few hours!!!!

It's hard to believe but this upcoming Friday Allen and I will be married ten years. Wow, time has flown by. To celebrate we are going to Key West, Florida for 5 days of sun and fun. My guess, being that it is averaging around 97 degrees right now it will be equal amounts of both. We are staying, once again, at the La Te Da on the southern end of Duval Street. A little bit of a hike, about a mile, to the other end where all the action is but it helps burn off all the calories from eating and drinking. And there are all those bars along the way to stop by and rest!

Here's a peak at where we are staying!

B.O.T.L.O!

So our kids pictures having been popping up all over the place in the area free newspapers. There's an Itty Bitty Baseball picture of Alex and Rachel that was in Methuen Life and Rumbo and from what I hear a picture of Alex in the Valley Dispatch. I originally was told it was the Valley Patriot so I grabbed one but it's not. I did a little research and it is actually the Valley Dispatch. Now of course I can't find one. So please Be On The Lookout For a July edition of the Valley Dispatch for me.

Thanks!!!!!

Best Green Beans Ever!

So I realize this is a very random post. I usually talk about the kids, work, family that sort of thing but I have to share this. I've made this a few times now and honestly the best green beans ever. So feel free to try and them and I am sure you will love them.

Parboil enough green beans for however many people you are serving. (Trim the ends first)
You want them with a good bite to them so not too long.

Once they are done rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.
Spring with coarse salt, a light drizzle of olive oil, the zest of one lemon (lookout for that pith-yuck!) and a 1/4 cup of pine nuts.

Seriously awesome green beans!

Those Food Network people have nothing on me!

Battle Burger

This past Saturday the Ramsden family competed in Battle Burger at my Dad's. Everyone prepared their choice of burger, we had a buffalo turkey burger, steakhouse burger, Cajun burger, another cheeseburger of some sort and a take on Alice Springs Chicken sandwich from The Outback. Dad and Lyn were the judges and by some strange reasoning I only got 2Nd place. Let the record show I am calling shenanigans! No actually I'm just a sore loser. It was a great time and we are all looking forward to doing it again.

But be warned next year I will kick all y'alls butts!!!!

More from Camp Otter

We wind down week 3 at Otter with Alex receiving the Adventure Award for being the only kid that was brave enough to try the Giant Rope Swing! He's moved up a level in archery to Advanced Archer and is having a blast. Now if only we could get him to partake in swim lessons to move beyond Pollywog 1. He has to be Minnow 2 to use the kayaks, that may happen when he's around 10 years old at this rate. Here's a pic from Camp!

Camp Otter and my banged up boys

Following the completion of the school year both Allen and Alex are at Camp Otter for the summer, Allen as a counselor and Alex a camper. We are now 2 weeks into the 10 week season and both boys are having a blast, minus some injuries. The two of them are basically walking boo boos. Both are covered with numerous band-aids of different sizes. And that is only half of them.

Besides all the cuts, bruises, scrapes and one major rope burn they are both having a lot of fun. Alex received an advanced archer award during his second week of camp. He told me he feels like Robin Hood. He also is swimming, boating, playing sports and overall having a ball. Allen watches over a group(this week will be 23 kids) of 7-8 year old boys. God bless him! This week was Carnival Craze week and Allen took a pie in the face on pie the counselor day. A nice sticky mess of cool whip he was when he got home.

8 more weeks to go and probably a whole new box of band-aids but more importantly a bunch of awesome memories!

St. Monica's Year One Down....8 to go!

So Alex wrapped up his first year at St. Monica's in mid-June. Kindergarten is over.....I'm a little sad. They had a great graduation which included about 7 songs and a little play. Mrs. Alaimo and Mrs. Arasi were great during the year. We (Alex) started off a little rocky but it evened out about half way through and he did a great job.

We got his last report card the other day, all exceeds expectations and a few meets. No bad remarks about listening, sitting still, talking non stop, all the stuff he previously had problems with. With his report card we also received his summer reading list-no I am not kidding 1st grade has a summer reading list and they also have a project due the first day of school. We also got his school supply list, well at least I can look for sales, since we have it early.

The uniforms have now arrived as well. Little ties, button down shirts, belt the whole shebang. From what we hear the first grade teacher, Mrs. Sylvia, is no joke. She's tough but everyone leaves that class better than they started. So let's kick back and enjoy the summer before the new school year begins!