Pirates a Plenty

Land Ahoy! Hey Matey? Arggg! It was quite a celebration with swords, pixie dust, gold coins, treasure chests, sea water, pirate's brew and a lot of loot!

It did take a fair amount of preparation mostly while the pirates were sleepin. Imagine my surprise when I came upon this scene.

It takes all hands on deck to decorate these Jake and Izzy pirate cakes.

The chow is ready with cannon balls, shells on the beach, coconut chicken and Sculley's parrot food and the pirates don their vests and eye patches to greet their rowdy friends.


These two, Jake (Hudson) and Izzy(Claire) are in charge since they are VIP (very important pirates) having turned 5 years on this very day!

Speaking of tough guys wearing eye patches....

Sometimes a gal just has to climb the rigging to get a look at what's "happinen"

And their was a lot going on... a big old pirate ship came into the harbor and all those rowdy pirates beat it until it broke apart!

They were glad they did because it was filled with gold coins! They don't call this guy Tuck for nothin, he was tucked away countin his treasure.

Let me tell yah, all that hard work can make a sailor mighty hungry for some chow!

Cubi's (Coop) not waitin for nobody it's every man for himself! Got to eat hardy and save some room for those sweet pirate cakes.



It's not over yet, the loot just keeps commin.

Pirates can be pretty rough and rowdy but they sure know how to have good times with good friends!

Conley Weekend

Conley came to stay for a couple nights while her parents had a long weekend get-away. So what would a couple old folks do to entertain an almost 5 year old? Well, our first responsibility was to take her to her last swim lesson.


Conley is very social and showed the other girls her fingernail polish and liked teasing Issac. Then it was time to show what she had learned. In these pictures she is being a frog and kicking really hard doing the back flutter kick.

After swim class, we went to a "Cruise In" at our church. Hot dogs, root beer floats and Conley was excited to see her friend Molly. The girls spent the evening talking about princesses, kindergarten, and looking at old cars with Molly's mother.
After a bath and reading a few books she fell fast asleep for the next 11 hours! It's probably because as she says, "I now sleep with my eyes closed all night."

After her pancake breakfast she sorted marbles and colored in her princess book.



We then packed for Lake Michigan. What a beautiful day after so much hot weather. We went to a relative's beach and Conley made some new friends.


This is her with Briar. They along with Briar's brother, Henry, played for hours collecting stones and sea shells and wading in the water.


After Briar and Henry left, she made a sand castle with a swimming pool and stone sidewalk.

 

Then it was dress up time for dinner and ice cream! Yea!!


When we got back home, we tried to make a memory jar with beach sand, shells and stones. It was a minor success. Fun days with out little girl and tomorrow she is looking forward to spending time with her Grandma Dolly and Grandpa Con. We're going to miss you, Conley. Thanks for all the fun!

Garden Time

Working in the flower garden is really therapeutic. I love the hours of quiet thoughts and listening to the sounds of nature. Tom bought a radio for the cart I use to haul everything and I never turn it on. I don't want the world to invade this peaceful place.


This year we had a cold wet spring and I hardly even looked at the flowers until the end of May. Then it was catch-up time. One morning Tom asked me if I had seen my flowers out front yet, seems the snapping turtle decided to lay eggs and couldn't decide under which flower to dig. My nature loving friend said they like soft ground and "Don't be mad at her Fran, she doesn't know better." Last year she actually dug through stones in a landscaped bed to lay the eggs. Interestingly, she lays those eggs and walks away. The eggs hatch, if not disturbed and eaten by raccoons, by the heat of the ground and the little ones are on their own.

I've rescued two flower beds this year. One was put in 2006 with a small Japanese Maple, a small low evergreen bush, and perennials that included 4 Shasta daisy plants. It really looked great for a couple years and then those daisies started taking over the bed! I dug those daisies out and gave several buckets away and moved others around the yard. Now I have 3 cone flowers and 4 Abalonias, a cute little purple annual.

The other bed is a shade garden. Actually, when we put it in about 10 years ago, it had at least 6 hours of sun. Well sun or shade, the weeds took over and thrived. Can't have that. My sister-in-law who is a master gardener came to the rescue and gave me a trunk full of plants. Now, I need to baby them along.


We also moved a Burning Bush from a bed near our patio. It was a gift from friends in memory of Tom's father who died in 1995. The bush served us well over the years, it housed bird nests and gave us beautiful red leaves in the fall We really did trim it every year but it grew to be over 10 feet tall! Way too big for the space. A friend of ours said he could use it to provide privacy for his deck and we were glad it would have a new home. In its place is a no named bush that we bought thinking it was a Rose of Sharon. Then an actual Rose of Sharon is in it's place. I am looking forward to seeing those beautiful August blooms, well maybe that will be next August.


Most mornings, I enjoy time on my front porch having a cup of coffee, reading scripture and praying. It is such a blessing. As I sit there quietly, a robin flies in and out of her nest in the Japanese Maple, the humming bird sticks his beak in the Hosta flowers and a doe and her two fawns walk in the woods and sometimes the little ones jump and chase each other in the yard.

Oh, those deer are cute but they like to feast on most of the flowers. Usually they eat the blossoms and show no respect for newly purchased and expensive plants. I must be ever vigil. (Notice those missing blossoms?)

Some gardening experiences are not so treasured. Ants, everywhere, spiders of many shapes and sizes and moles galore. There is also those other insects that eat leaves and the petals of the cone flowers and daisies. Did I mention the nation wide heat wave?

I guess gardens mirror life. They are beautiful, amazing, give joy, like to relocate and need lots of attention. If you ignore them they will take over a bed, beg for water, drop their flower heads and look messy. They require lots of work, plants get diseases and plants will die. But they also provide lots of surprises and give us wonderful memories.

This hydrangea, this year's surprise, is blooming blue, lavender and pink flowers and is a constant pleasure.

A Week in the life of....

Saturday, June 18 - fly to Denver. Nice accommodations at the Sheraton. Cooper, Tucker (our birthday boys), Hudson and Angie are a welcome sight.

Sunday, June 19 - Father's Day, Tiger vs Rockies and surprise luncheon and dinner for Lisa's 30th. A Father's Day stroll on the mall.

Monday, June 20 - Fabulous indoor water park. So fun and we all look so amazing!
Lisa and Zane

Scott and Hazel

Maryjo, Hazel and Rick

Emmie and Claire

Nancy and Tucker

Chris, Kim, Jack and Natalie

Dan, Angie, Tom, Chris and Natalie

Cooper showing us he is 3.

Me with Natalie who is loving the warm water

A pirate birthday and treasure hunt for Cooper and Tucker



I can't believe Hiland escaped my camera. She also enjoyed all the fun, even the playhouse at the water park!
Tuesday, June 21 - Longest day of the year and longest travel day, including overbooked planes, lightening, tornado warning, and a stop traffic for our VP to visit Chicago.
Wednesday, June 22 - Thank you Chris for the overnight and Mike for the ride home by 4:30 PM.
Thursday, June 23, Happy Birthday Chris. An early morning ride to pick up our van and drive to northern Michigan to surprise my brother Gordon who is celebrating 80 years old! We enjoyed a wonderful home cooked meal with my sister Kathy, brother Gordie, and brother-in-law Bruce.
Friday, June 24, Happy Birthday Gordie

Saturday, June 25 and we're on the road again. A trip downstate to celebrate our nephew Nick's high school graduation.

Sunday, June 26 and we are home celebrating Chris' birthday.

And Natalie is walking!!

A very fun and memorable week. "Praise God from whom all blessings flow!"

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

We've been enjoying what we call "adventure travel" for quite a few years. It has been such a blessing to us, since it allows us to visit our grandchildren frequently who live approximately 1200 miles from our home. It's always unpredictable and we have learned to expect challenges.

This past week we flew to Denver for birthday and Father's Day celebrations (post to follow). Waterslides, baseball, good food and great family fun!

Our return trip to Michigan had some interesting twists and turns. We booked a direct flight from Denver to Michigan that quickly became oversold. Plan B was an early 0600 flight to Chicago. This flight and all the other direct from Denver to Chicago flights were also in the red zone (oversold). Plan C looked more promising, fly Denver to Sioux Falls,SD then into Chicago. Yea! Plan C worked!

Chicago is a great city and it seemed everyone was at O'Hare. Such a great place to visit that our esteemed Vice President, Joe Biden, flew in for fund raising at 4:30 PM. Did you know that when the nation's VP flies in, the airport has a "stop traffic" for an hour? Yes, at the busiest time of the day, when flights are leaving for Europe, no airplanes could take off or land while the airport accommodated our VP. Well for good or worse, we surprisingly received seat assignments on a flight to Michigan. Huge!!! since the 3 flights to Michigan were all oversold. Must be some of those passengers were up in the air, unable to land and couldn't make their connections while our VP flew in.

We were thrilled to be on our way when an hour earlier we were thinking we would stay overnight at a hotel and fly to Michigan the next day on a flight with open seats. When the plane left the gate, we sat in line with other planes, 66 to be exact. Seems the air was "saturated" with planes waiting to land and it would take 50 to 70 minutes for our flight to take off, since we were not the last plane in line.

Well that 70 minutes became more than 120 minutes and the flight attendant explained that the "passenger bill of rights" requires that we be offered water. Seems the east runway was shut down for take off (yes, we were going east) because of weather. The pilot requested that we be able to move up in line since we only had a 31 minute flight across Lake Michigan, apparently denied. When it was getting close to 3 hours, each passenger signed a waiver that because the plane did not have enough food on board for all passengers we would return to the gate(another "passenger bill of rights" requirement). That is, once an open gate could be assigned.

No one was happy about the turn of events but the man behind us whined, complained, belittled the flight attendant for the entire time. His language was foul including the repeated F bomb and how he was not going to vote for Joe Biden again, sorry Joe. I was sooooo tempted to respond to his diatribe by telling him to zip it but was concerned I might escalate the situation.

We did return to the gate but were told not to leave the plane because of lightening and the ground crew was not able to assist the passengers. After a few minutes, the plane seemed to be moving about by the wind. The flight attendant with an urgent inflection in his voice told us to get off the plane NOW!!! We got up and helped a mom with two children to leave the plane. When we got to the door the wind was fierce and blowing dirt around, the sky was dark as we ran to the terminal. Yikes!

We were told to go up the escalator and stay away with from the windows. Lights were flickering in the terminal and the windows were shaking against the strong winds. A tornado warning was in affect.

Now hundreds, if not thousands were booking rental cars and hotel rooms. We decided to stay overnight in the terminal and try to get a train reservation for the morning. The next morning Michigan flight would certainly be full since two flights to Michigan were cancelled. In fact, no more flights left the airport that evening and 500 planes grounded.

Then our knights arrived!! Chris called and said he would pick us up to stay overnight at his home and Mike would meet us the next morning to give us a ride to Michigan. Mike has meetings in IL about twice a year, how is that for providence?

By 0800 the next morning we were on the Metra to the city. After asking for directions from several people we happend upon Chicago's orange line elevated train. I love the friendly and helpful people of the midwest. The attendant actually walked us through purchase of our tickets and helped us to the platform. For two "sophisticated" seniors it was humbling but appreciated.

Mike was a delightful sight, our connection to home, where we arrived at 4:30 PM

Tonight, I'm in northern Michigan, another birthday celebration. We were up at 5AM this morning so we could ride with Mike to work and pick-up our car at the airport.

An afternoon nap and a wonderful meal with my sister and brother gives me refreshment and energy for another time of great family fun.

Dancer Girl

Another production, another show! This is Conley before dancing in her first dance recital. Her dad and I took her to the dress rehearsal and got a preview of the big show. It was so much fun. Conley loved every minute. She danced two dances and then stayed with her dance class eating snacks and playing with the other girls. She seems so grown up, already.





I have so much admiration for photographers. I had a hard time taking a picture when she was facing the audience! Her first dance was a ballet to the music Tangle and the second was a tap dance to the song Happy Face.
It was a happy day and lots of happy faces on all the children and their proud parents and grandparents. A wonderful family affair.
Here she is with her class:


Congratulations Conley on a great performance!