A Visit With King Tut

Jeanie, Ana, Mark, Kristin and I headed to San Francisco last Tuesday to visit King Tut. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but got a few photos outside. Ana particularly enjoyed taking pictures from the tower at the deYoung Museum where we had a panoramic view of San Francisco.

Kristin's Quilt

Kristin got an early birthday present from Mom (Grandma) while we were in Fremont. Mom wanted to be there when Kristin opened the quilt and Jeanie wanted to see it as well so we had an early celebration with one very special present. The quilt is gorgeous and Kristin loves it. And we even got cake!!

Our Garden

Just a few shots of our garden this year. We're trying raised beds for the first time and really liking them. We're growing lots of lettuce, green onions, 2 kinds of tomatoes, squash, bush beans, peppers, cucumbers and melons and carrots. We have 3 rows of raspberries and 4 rows of corn. Sookie's growing in the birdbath :>) And that one shot that looks like nothing is my friend, The Dragonfly, hanging out in the raspberries. He even tried to land on my shoulder once. He's so cool looking, two sets of black and white wings. He buzzes all around when I'm working in the garden. We used to have a lot of Tiger Swallowtail butterflies until Sookie began hunting and catching them. Guess the word's out in the butterfly word. Bummer! Ooh, forgot to mention cilantro, lemon balm, spearmint and lots of wildflowers in 2 other beds that didn't make the pics.
Sure enjoyed seeing all of you at the wedding!

Mr. and Mrs. Pez visit winery!

Father's Day

Nothing like a little peer pressure from Julia to get us back on the "blog" wagon! Did anyone else get an email from Julia this afternoon? Ahem!!
Joanna and one of her 5, count 'em, FIVE roommates came over for lunch after church. They actually "scooted" over from their abode which is, oh, let's say, perhaps 25 mi. from our abode. Scroll down to see how they got here.
Well, at least they wore helmets and traveled mostly the backroads and the ferry. But, I digress...
The highlight of Father's Day: our kids gave John an IPOD with all the bells and whistles. He had been using Hillary's for the past few wks. as he wanted to listen to some sermons while he's at work on a remodeling job. Today, before Joanna and Katie got here, and before he opened his presents, John decided he wanted Hillary to teach him how to load things onto her IPOD. Hilly very patiently sat with him and went through the process knowing full well he would soon be opening his IPOD which she had surreptitiously loaded with his fave CD's and podcasts and then wrapped for him to open today :>)


Joanna gave her daddy an IPOD 101 crash course.

Did I say crash? Silly me especially as I think of how Joanna and Katie got to our house today. Let's just say this mom was glad I didn't know their mode of transportation until they got here. Now, I'm waiting for a phone call when they get safely back to their place. Granted, the little Tripod or Trident or whatever it's called only goes about 20 mph and it does only take $1.97 to fill its tank and they are taking the backroads. I know what you're thinking because I'm thinking it too! Just don't say it and just don't show the scooter pictures to mom/grandma :>) Like I always say, "Parenting keeps you humble. It keeps you on your knees." AND I'll just say one more thing about that: remember the rides in your dryer?? Okay, not quite equal because the dryer was still in the house.... nevermind! Ooh, just got the phone call they made it safely back home. Now I'll be able to sleep. Hope you all had a nice day! We'll see you in a little over a week!! Jo's in the yellow with her ultra-cool shades.

Angelina and Brad Caught on Film!

We can't go anywhere without that darned papparazi finding us! Here we are in disguise as bicyclists attending the grand opening of the new Soroptomist park last Saturday where we just donated $1 million.

New Feature on our blog

You may have noticed that I added a new feature to our blog. It is favorite books. I entered the first book title which has the words "Silver Needle" in the name. You might guess that it is about sewing/quilting but it is not. Silver Needle is the name of a tea. Laura Childs writes books about a fictitious tea shop but if you ever read one in this series you would wish it was real! Get it at your local library!