One of Santa's elves came to the party, too.
That's Wendy's big noggin in the picture. It was so hot, we were all standing in the little piece of shade trying to stay cool.
Jenna met her fiance at BYU-Idaho and they will return there to finish school. Ginny and Allison are in the background as Jenna hugs her new mother-in-law.
We waited in the chapel across the street until we saw that they were ready to come out of the temple. We took pictures and then ran back in to the air conditioning.
Tim, Kelsey and Colton.
Harry with Gil and Casey Rieger
Ben and his wife of 3 months, Heather.
Wendy and family made the trip from Marietta. James and Ben love seeing their cousins.
Donna, Wendy and Ginger.
Benji turned two and we celebrated at the Japanese Steakhouse in Dublin. The boys really loved the "red hat guys" cooking at the table.
The theme was: Be a hero--Read.
The giant READ letters are new this year.
We had the staff pick heroes from books and put them on this wall.
Not as jazzy as previous years because all the decorations were pre-made, so the entire system would be consistent. Always fun to design and put up--always eager to take the down at the end.
I actually have 4 of these bushes. I tried to add some acid to the soil to make some of them blue, but evidently didn't add enough.
I am sad that this is the only picture I took at Wendy's house. The kids had such a great time together and we had a bonfire, races and survived the 95 degree heat, even with a 4 hour power outage. Shauna's family came too, in case you were wondering who the little blond boy was.
We finally took the tour of Austin's new office. It is beautiful!
The grand opening was in May, and they have had 150 new patients a month since they opened. Business is booming!
Austin designed and painted the children's area. He is so talented.
We thought it was the nicest dentist office we had ever been in!
He decided to try his hand at planting corn. Can you see the little stalks in amongst all the weeds? There are actually about 80 plants in there. He planted a later crop to the left, but I don't know if he will be able to control those weeds either.
I have only had to water my pots twice this summer, and I don't think our yard has ever looked this good this time of year.
Shauna outdid herself making light sabers for all the kids.
James aka Darth Vadar with his cousin, Allison.
Spencer, Donnie and Dan battled all comers.
Benji and Riley participated in the pod race.
Darth Allison and Sam
Held in an old church, there were 87 in his graduating class. Spencer was honored by receiving the Pediatric Dentisty Award
Sydney was not happy about being out in the drizzle. We are still wondering about those things on Spencer's chest--they are awkwardly placed.
Case Western was having graduation from many colleges that day.
Spencer's parents made the trip out from California
Spencer and Suzy will be leaving for Japan at the end of the month.
The university put on a nice luncheon before the event.
We had a very wild thunderstorm on Wednesday at noon and it took down a huge tree in the woods. Then that tree took down a bunch of others and a section of our fence.
The lilacs are going to be in full bloom this week.
Not sure what this bush is, but the purple phlox are one of my favorites. A mound of phlox, which I have transplanted all over my yard, and 4 yews were the only plants when we bought this property 6 years ago.
Forget-me-nots
Purple leafed sand cherry
Here is the latest bulletin board that I created for the childrens area of the library. Yes, I love getting paid to do this! Click on the picture to make it bigger.
James and Granpa Den--he loves to tease and James loves to be teased--the perfect couple.
Benji, on the other hand, is afraid of Den. It is pretty funny that all Den has to do is look and him and he will cry. We were playing peek-a-boo when I snapped this cute picture.
Waiting on the steps.