My Busy Summer Days with My Family

 

That was the title of the writing project the girls and I worked on during the last week of school. As we went through the calendar from late June through August to gather facts to write about, I could not believe everything we had done. It was a non-stop roller coaster of activity.

First we celebrated Daniel & Kate's Wedding. Kate is my step-sister-in-law, and Tom (Marion's husband's daughter). We adore her and Daniel and are thrilled for them.

Celebrating at Daniel & Kate's Wedding.

Sweet Princesses.

Then we welcomed Gramma Judy for a nice, long 3 week visit. The girls had a wonderful time playing and talking to her. Gramma especially liked Whisper, to whom she could completely relate, as she was content to rest her head in Gramma's lap while the rest of us ran around the house!

 

  Next, we went through many Lasts of the year, the last band, orchestra, drama, soccer banquets, the senior prom and Matthew's graduation. We are so proud of all of his accomplishments but most of all, because he is a wonderful, thoughtful young man, who knows the value of family.

Mary Alice at the barn where she rides Vanilla

At a favorite restaurant.

Celebrating my sister, Sue's birthday!

Last Day of school. Last day of HS for Matthew!

Matthew and his "friend group" at the prom. Such handsome young men!

Matthew, at 13 months, catching up on his reading..

Matthew at 18 years, caught up on his reading.

So proud are his grandparents. We were so glad that Gramma Judy could come and see in person.

Dropping Mary Alice off at camp

Mary Alice 's 4th year at camp, first as a leader in training.

Megan turned 9 and caught up with Shanna, who turned 9 six weeks earlier.

Their joint party was a swimming party at the YMCA.

Whisper celebrated her 11th birthday, opening her own box of dog treats!

Then the girls went off to YMCA camp for a week! They had a great time trying new things!

Inside their cabin.

Megan's first time in a Kayak!

Still smiling, even after a week of camp! Ready to come home, though!

At the same time, Mary Alice went to Horse Camp for 2 weeks.

Riding the course

Our garden was very large this year. Lots of produce!

We enjoyed tomatoes, basil, zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, lettuce, peas, raspberries, peppers, acorn squash and potatoes!

But it's nothing compared to Bill & Janis' garden!

Out to lunch with Mom

The girls had a Free Water stand with their friend, and a police officer stopped by and "bought" some.

One morning I came down and found this sweet sight.

Gramma Judy's friends stopped by for their annual visit from Florida.

We went camping way up north in Killarney, Canada.

This time we got smart and towed a Uhaul. Best decision we made!

Shanna and Matthew exploring the view from our site.

Unfortunately, it rained a bit, but mostly was super windy (and chilly) the first 3 days! We had to sit underneath the canopy trying to keep warm.

The sun came out to shine on the special dessert that Mary Alice made to cheer me up. Camping eclairs, the recipe for which she found on the internet. Crescent roll dough cooked over the fire on a stick, then filled with vanilla pudding (pushed into a hole made by a spoon), then coated with chocolate frosting. Yum....

Me snuggling with my sweet Whisper to keep warm.

The view of the lake from our site, when the wind finally stopped blowing on day 4!

Sadly, my father-in-law Tom passed away at the end of August, following a miserable summer in the hospital, weakened from symptoms of his Parkinson's disease. He fought valiantly but when he could no longer swallow on his own, he decided he couldn't any longer. He was an amazing and interesting man and we miss him. He was given a special service because he was in the Navy.

A silver lining to the funeral is that we got to see Eric's brother Evan and his wife, Kathy. We were so glad to see them.

The same weekend that Tom died, we took Matthew to college. He returned for the day on Monday to play the violin in Tom's funeral, a moving tribute to his grandfather.

Looking pretty organized and off to a great start.

Matthew's college has a huge garden right outside his dorm where they grow tons of produce that they serve in the dining hall. It's wonderful.

This is an amazing onion.

And here are the girls on the first day of 3rd grade. This year they are in the same class and are really enjoying that!

This weekend we took a quick ride back to see Matthew to bring him some forgotten items and brought along Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Iris to visit.

Well, even after seeing it all again through the pictures, I still cannot believe so much happened in such a short time. Now we are back to school and trying to get into the rhythm of things again, ready for the fall season.

~Linda

PS: for those of you wondering, we had NO monarch butterflies at all this year! We looked and looked for eggs, but only found one tiny caterpillar, and left him on the milkweed outside because it was the weekend of Tom's funeral.... Hopefully, next year...

Time for Fun

Mary Alice wrote and directed a play this year. It was a long term, extra-curricular project for a group called Young Playwrights, run by a beloved teacher of hers.

The Cast of "Cole Black and the Seven Dwarfs, a Parody of Snow White".

Mary Alice won two awards, including Best Director and Best Special Effects.

Matthew and his lacrosse team.

This spring I decided to plant 4 fruit trees in our yard  in honor of our departed loved ones. Two sour cherry trees for Eric's parents (Marion and Bud), a pear tree for Guy and an apple tree for Marty. The pear and apple are espalier trees, meaning they grow laterally, on wires, four different varieties off a common trunk, so they fit nicely along the border of our house, near our new vegetable garden.

Fun with friends.

After the airband concert

Shanna & Gramma Iris

This is me, relaxing on our camping trip. If you look closely, you will see Whisper on my lap and a coffee cup on Whisper. It was very cold and there was NO ONE else in the campground, but we had a great time.

Shanna & Daddy

There was nothing to catch, but all had a great time with the new Barbie poles.

The Easter Bunny found us, even in the campground. Bunny left lots of eggs on the front lawn of the cabin, but the raccoons thought they were for them and they opened EVERY egg.

Rock throwing was a big hit.

Whisper just makes herself comfortable everywhere she goes.

This was a REALLY BIG tree.

And this was a REALLY BIG vine!!

The cabin was wonderful, with a full kitchen, shower, bathroom, huge living/dining area and 3 bedrooms!

We had lots of fund just hanging around.

Our cabin.

The park had a lovely beach but it was sooo windy! Not a soul on it, 360 degrees around, but us.

Endless time to play.

Mary Alice made us lots of treats.

We had our own private playground with a very large pathway around it for walking.

Eric's phone provided internet access for at least part of the week. I got some much needed shopping done for the kids!

Beautiful sunsets over the lake, painted by Grandma Marion in the sky. Shanna showed me a planet and told me it was her birth father.

Megan was so proud of this fire she built herself!

We went for lots of walks in the woods.

This one led us by the lake and we found these amazing sculptures, made of dirt and rock, weathered away by the wind.

Just to give some idea of size, that tiny dot in the middle of the water, is a boat! The path was so close to the edge in some spots that I was having panic attacks and made the kids walk closer in.

This is a good picture that shows some rocks trapped right in the soil.

It was an awesome week.