Visit from the kids

Tony spent part of his visit playing cards with Grandpa. Here we have, in succession, the deal with the thrill of a good hand, and the drama of dropping the wrong card.

Oh, and Grandpa winning--again!

Kim's photographs of 'life in the country' include Jon showing off the torso of the deer he is making for Steve, Steve perusing a manual for Jon's Bronco, and the harvesting of the field next to Rod and Dorothy's.

Gotta love a Deere!
Then, we did a bit of a photo shoot.

Kim held Dorothy's hoe for her, while she photographed Grandma and Tony--I couldn't resist taking Kim's photo. It reminded me a bit of Green Acres (although, I am positive Kim would be more resourceful than Eva!)

It started to rain saber tooth tigers and giant wolves, so we retired inside (for the most part!). Tony and Grandpa played a game Rod learned at the care center with dice. I think his score interpretation was sometimes, well, a bit dicey!

Jon borrowed my camera (his was in the Bronco and it was raining pretty hard!) for a while. I loved his raindrops and the English Walnut leaf (I took the pinks picture!).

4th of July Weekend--2011

Happy Birthday, Tony!!! We went out to a sub shop for his birthday and Jon just had to take a photo of 'The Destroyer'. It was VERY large!

We also had a huge tree limb that was working on falling off one of our locust trees. (it finally fell on its own, but it was sort of scary!) We had it tied to the two locust trees to keep it where we wanted to~

For Tony's birthday, Jon finished my Mother's Day present! A loverly metal dragonfly. I am so proud of Jon and I just love Scooter!

We had been asked to visit with the kids on the coast for Tony's birthday, but we were super busy this weekend. One of the things we did was celebrate the Fourth of July at Pioneer Park in Walla Walla. Jon, as a part of the band, needed to be there on Sunday to practice. http://www.youtube.com/user/WWValleyBands#p/c/476E369E17C5CFD3

I think you can click this site and listen to them for yourself! The last concert online is the Jazz one from March. If you get a chance, you really need to listen to the one from Halloween called Trick or Treat.

The birds in the park are as amazing as always! I love the aviary and I am glad it is still there.

4th of July we started the day hearing a short concert by Chris August. He did sing Starry Night and 70 times 7, so that was very exciting!
Then the Walla Walla Valley Band played. What an amazing group of performers they have! All ages and all talents make up one of the best bands I have ever heard. This band has 3 people from our town in it. Jon is a part of an awesome bass section. He has learned a lot from these people.
After the shows, we visited around the area and this blacksmith was very captivating. We saw all kinds of stuff and I learned that those bricks of curly fries are VERY greasy. Steve and Jon thought they were just yummy. (I only shared part of a brick.)
We closed our Monday evening at the Theatre's in College Place-It was a spectacular show! This year, however, we did manage to get ash on us from the explosions. (the guys also took part of the afternoon to watch the latest Transformers movie and I read a 'new' to me Brian Jacques book.)