a 14th birthday

on july 19, 1994, my little sister, katelyn, was born around 9 am. and i saw the whole thing. seriously. everything. it's a day i'll never forget, for various (obvious) reasons. this year she turned 14 (ah!) and is about to start high school (double ah!). mark and i were lucky enough to be able to spend the day with the chewning clan down at a family friend's home on the severn river. we spent the day on the dock, swimming, eating and taking turns enjoying the sea doos! at one point, i took katelyn and allie (my 11 year-old sister) out on a sea doo. i was a little nervous that i might throw them off or something if i went too fast, but eventually we ramped it up a bit and had a great time. once we decided to turn around and head back, the sea doo started acting funny and then katelyn uttered the worst words of the day, "jenn, i think we're in the grass." i looked down and realized she was more than right. the one warning we had gotten from our family friend was, "don't go in the grass, if you do, you could ruin the sea doo. you have to turn it off and pick the grass from the engine." we weren't anywhere near the coastline, so i was confused how there was so much grass as far out as we were. none the less, i had to jump down and try to pull the sea doo farther into the center of the river. the grass was weedy, thick and not so pleasant on my legs- i tried not to think about what was living in it. after a couple of minutes, i asked kate if she wouldn't mind helping since i couldn't do it alone. she was SUCH a trooper and jumped out and we pulled the monster to safety while allie supervised. after a long time of picking out tons of grass, we made our way back. everything turned out fine, but it was not the best part of the day...

after cake with everyone, we went out the dinner to celebrate! good times had by all :) here are a few photos from the day:

allie, down by one of the sea doos and the dock

allie, swimming in the riva'

all of us with, ready to dive into some delicious birthday cake!