Yep! She's 20!

Happy Birthday, Kathryn!

Our Visit to Pine Crest

A few weeks ago we had the wonderful opportunity to take a mini vacation up to Door County. Dad's secretary's brother owns a beautiful house up there that he let us use!

The house was all of stone and looked like something out of a BBC movie. :-)

The terrace in back

The back view... pretty big, eh? :-)

This is a historic restaurant in the area and is apparently THE place to go for ice cream or lunch. It was packed!

They had a really neat old phone in the kitchen! The whole house had a lot of antiques.

Dad in the "study." See, even the inside looks like a movie! Dad's just missing a top hat and a cravat.

Tara took some pictures of me with my harp

(here's a slideshow of more pictures if you're interested)

And I took some of her in various outfits.

You can see more of this on my photography blog.

(I only have photos from the bridesmaid dress shoot so far, but I've got more coming :-)

We had breakfast at the Old Post Office restaurant, which sounds a lot cuter than it was, but it was pretty good food. :-)

The lovely two-room kitchen (no coveting going on here at all... nope)

Adorable dining room (it had two tables)

Blurry picture of the study leading into the living room

The upstairs extra room which housed the TV, and some couches which were certainly not my style. :-)

One of the pretty beds.

We had a nice time relaxing, shopping, eating and enjoying the house. If you'd like to see more pictures of the knick-knacks in the house, I'll be putting up some of those more "artsy" pictures on my blog tomorrow!

(and we finally got a family picture without us dressed up in our Reformation Day outfits!!! :-)

Ashlei's Visit

Last week we had the immense pleasure of having my friend Ashlei come to visit me for my birthday! And not just for that day, actually for 10 days! I haven't seen her in two years and the last time was only a brief lunch visit, so this was a great time to spend time together and get to know each other better.

Our first stop was JoAnn! Ashlei lives in a tiny tourist town in Alaska, and doesn't have many fabric options for her sewing projects (to give you an idea of how small her town is, there is no McDonald's and there is no Starbucks! The horror!). We got fabric to make skirts together and were busy with that for the next two days.

Girly night! Rag curls, smearing our faces in Alaskan mud, foot soaks and watching Emma! 

And frightening ourselves when we looked in the mirror. Yep.

Here's what happens when you take those rag curls and brush them out... well, except for Tara's. She washed hers out too early so Ashlei invented something to make her fit in. :-)

Time for tea... we did the whole nine yards - dressing up, fine china, and lots of goodies!

Friends!

Thursday rolled around, and after our visit to the retirement home, we came home for a harp trio! Yes, Ashlei plays harp too! Here she is playing my harp. She will be getting one just like it in a few weeks!

It was going to be a harp quartet, but Kristen wasn't well and couldn't make it. :-( (We missed you, Kristen!)

Laura and Mrs. LaPrise still came, though, and we very much enjoyed their company!

(Very spontaneous photo... I smile too big :-)

Sorry, Raeanne, it seems we entirely missed you in the photographic record of the occasion. :-( We do, however, have videographic (if that's a word) proof of you, which I may post. *naughty grin*

Next up was a shopping trip to Target, where Ashlei has not been in 3 years. Per her brother Nathaniel's instructions, she tried on a trench coat, and looked quite... well, yeah.

Friday (Dad's birthday) was birthday dinner out at Texas de Brazil... here is my delicious papaya cream dessert. Mmmmm....

Since my birthday fell on Sunday this year, we did presents, etc. on Saturday.

On Saturday night, Dad took Ashlei and me to a harp concert downtown at the Lyon & Healy concert hall! Before the concert started, the harp showroom was open so Ashlei and I played on the pedal harps for nearly an hour. :-) Heaven! (sorry, we have kind of a lot of pictures from this... if you aren't as crazy about harps as we are, you can stop reading now. :-)

"Ashlei, you are playing a $32,000 harp!"

The two of us in front of the stage after the concert. Jana Bouskova (the harpist we saw) was simply incredible! We were in awe. Thanks for taking us, Daddy!!!

It was wonderful having you, Ashlei... we need to do it again soon!

Good Times with Good Friends

Kristen and Kathryn practicing for an up-coming performance

Laura and I are their official photographers....except we like taking pictures of each other more than of the harpists! :-)

Some YUMMY cinnamon chips with berry salsa that Laura made

*bliss*

Quelf! Talk about laughter!

Here is Laura trying to keep her confidential card secret, while I try to pry in and see it!

The four of us with our friend Joyce

SMOOCHIE!!!!! The Chidlows new baby!

We had a very belated birthday tea for Kathryn and Emily. White dresses are in order!

The HARP goes for her first outing to......

The LaPrises' house!

More practicing and more pictures!

Kristen!

Laura's sweet dog Molly.... awwww

Laura!

And just a pretty orchid to finish this post.

My Harp!!!

If you watched the video in the previous post you will know that my long-awaited harp has arrived, 3 months early! And you will also know that I was a bit shocked about it. :-) Pleasantly shocked, mind you! Ecstatically shocked! Mom and Tara sneakily got it unpacked and in place before I came up from the basement where I was sewing.

I LOVE it and I am sooo happy! :-) I played it all afternoon and as a result I have a blisters forming on my fingers; but I don't think that will stop me from playing it today. I love the full sound and how big it is. *grin* Well, you probably don't want to hear me sing its praises all day, so I'll shut up and give you a few pictures instead.

There she is... my baby! :-)

Look at all those strings....

One very happy girl. :-)