The Kugler Family Adventures: Green. Beer. Good.

Payton "climbing" at the Whitewater Center

I wonder what they put in the water to turn it green?

Happy St. Patty's Day little leprechauns! Green is the color of money. Green is the color of the leaves right now. Green is the color you wear on St. Patty's Day when you don't want to be pinched. Green was the color of the river at the White Water Center, and green beer tastes especially good on an 80+ degree day in March! The funny thing is, neither of us had any green beer this St. Patrick's Day, but the beers we did have tasted great!

Let me back up...we like to eat. We do that regularly, and a lot of the time it's with friends. Friends make food taste better. We had a nice dinner with Julie McKinney, along with her daughter, Mattie, and step-daughter, Megann. Payton and Mattie (4 yrs old) loved dancing on the dance floor in the restaurant. Payton looks up to Mattie, and Mattie loves being the older kid in the friendship. In other words, Mattie likes to tell Payton what to do :) They had a lot of fun together, as they always do. Payton will always be "Baby Payton" to Mattie. A couple nights later we had dinner at the Kennington's house on Lake Wylie. The boat is still not in the water yet (nor even close to being cleaned up) so we took the conventional mode of transportation over, which was probably a good thing since we have to pack the entire house up just to visit anyone for an evening! It was a gorgeous night, and after dinner Chris and Brian built us a lakeside fire. It was perfect, BUT since I had run the Corporate Cup half marathon that morning, and had been up since 6:30am, I didn't last long. Home we went so I could rest my tired bones!

Speaking of the half marathon, this was not the race I've been training for. That one is the Charlotte Racefest which is on April 14th. This was a "practice" half marathon for me, and yes, I'm crazy! This was the third half marathon I have run, and I was pretty proud of my hard work. The last two half marathons were run back in 2007 and 2008, before Brian and I were married. My times, respectively, were 2:18, 2:10, and 2:13 last weekend. Overall I'm really happy with my 10 min/mile pace, and hope to do as well in April. Until then...run, run, run! Hey, bathing suit season is upon us. I was in one last Thursday, but we'll get to that in a minute.

Porch wine. It's a staple in our neighborhood. We have it often; probably too often. We rotate porches, having wine, beer, and sometimes gourmet dinners outdoors. Since we're ~~stuck~~ in a townhouse community, everyone is packed in tight, and we've all become really close over the years. These people are like family to us. There is a different "air" about living on the water. I've always loved water, been around water, and couldn't imagine living too far away from a body of it, so everyday I complain about still living in our tiny 1700 sq ft townhouse, I really feel quite lucky to be able to see something so beautiful every day. I love that our kids are being raised on the water, and so far it appears that we have two water babies.

Well, the past week has been filled with spectacular SUMMER weather. Since we've already had no winter, why not skip the spring and fast-forward to summer? It's been in the 80's and mostly sunny. Wednesday was our night for "porch wine." We had about 10 friends over for colossal shrimp cocktail (thanks Doug and Brenda!), swordfish, grouper, and tilapia. YUM! Payton played out back in her water table on Thursday, and dipped her toes in the lake...we had on bathing suits!?! Time to get our tan on! (and lose some baby fat!) Daddy had a play day with the kiddos on Thursday, and I was home early afternoon, so we played, gave the dogs baths, took a walk, and let the kiddos play in the sand on the beach. It was a perfect day.

This brings us to the weekend...Ahhh, St. Patty's Day! We celebrated by visiting the Whitewater Center. They had live music and turned the river green! A couple friends met us out there, but most of our friends who were coming out there were hesitant to sit in the traffic. Some people were turned away by police, stating the WWC had reached capacity (not true!!), and there was a terrible wreck on 485 involving an 18-wheeler, and that had all 4 lanes closed for quite a while. We were some of the lucky ones who got to sit in that traffic. It took us 2 hours to get there (a normal 20 minute trip), but the kids were very well behaved, and it was so worth it once we got there. Payton LOVED seeing the green water, she enjoyed counting the kayaks, listening to the band, climbing the rocks, and running around. We had a really nice family day! The Collins cooked us dinner that night, and since we were all exhausted, it was an early night.

Sunday Granddude and Nana came into town to help us out. We had 2 storage units full of furniture, mostly from Brian's rental house so we consolidated and moved to one larger unit much closer to home. What a task. One that was necessary, but one I've been dreading. Nana and Granby helped out by watching the babies, Granddude and Brian muscled through moving all the large items, and I weeded out things we no longer needed. It was like Christmas, as I found many wedding gifts I had kept boxed up, thinking it would be easier to move when we finally moved. Well, who knows when that will happen, so I opened everything. Dishes, towels, bowls, serving ware, decorations, Crock Pot, and so much more! We plowed through it. I'm glad it's over!

Payton continues to talk more and more, and is now singing songs by herself. This morning she was singing the theme song to Sesame Street (sounds more like "Shesastreet") when she says it. It was so cute. She also sings ABC song, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and Rock A Bye Baby, among others. Griffin is starting to eat us out of house and home...eating 2 containers of baby food at each meal often. He eyes our food and reaches for it. We did give him peanut butter for the first time...he LOVED it! Poor little Bubs...still no sign of teeth :(

We have a full calendar through spring already, so I'll update as time allows. And last, but definitely not least, GO ALL THE WAY TAR HEELS!!!!!!