The Sky is Blue Again!!

We are so happy to have blue skies again.  We have had smoke from forest fires since the middle of July.  At one point our town was listed as the worst for air quality in the nation!  Yesterday I went out and took a bunch of photos of our front flower garden.  It is so lovely this time of year and we have been enjoying it.  We get a lot of American Gold Finches coming to the feeders along with humming birds and lots of bees.  Here a few shots that I took:

Fair Favorites

We had a bunch of fun at the county fair this last week.  Rich entered his BBQ sauce and got second place.

 

Mary had so much fun seeing the birds and animals

Hand and foot!

 

Always fun to cool off with ice cream

 

Some chills and thrills on the rides

 

We won at a family team effort at the dart game and Mary got the prize!

 

Always fun getting you picture taken with the President and First Lady

 

Cooling off with some Hawaiian shave ice after lunch

Happy 4th of July

We had a beautiful holiday.  We were impressed of the upswing in patriotism in our area.  At the parade almost everyone was dressed in red, white and blue and people cheering for all the floats and having a bunch of fun.  We were blessed to have time to spend with friends and family.  Rich's dad is doing OK, he is still weak from the cancer but we are so thankful he is still with us.  Mary got to have some fun with sparklers out on our drive way.  It has been such a mild summer so far and everything in our garden is just loaded with produce.  Here is a short slide show of our day!

 

Here is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/2IVRdqQ6euI

Father's Day

We had a blessed Father's Day!  Here is a short slide show of our day.

 

 

Here is the link: https://youtu.be/b2w66uB2v18

End of the School Year

Mary finished 5th grade today.  To celebrate we went to eat at an, all you can eat, Chinese buffet.  Mary loves this place.  The food is fantastic and she loves watching the Koi Fish in the ponds by the front door.  There are many beautiful fish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 After visiting with the fish, we finished our meal with dessert!

 

Mary is just a little bit excited for her summer break and I think I am looking forward to it too!

Memorial Day

Here is the link to the slide show:  https://youtu.be/K1N7JVARHm0

We had memorable and beautiful day.  The weather could not of been more perfect.  As our usual practice we go to the lovely cemetery where my mom is buried along with several other family members and decorate them with our garden flowers.  Mary is getting to the age where she really appreciates what we are doing and loves to help me with it.  After going to the grave sites we go up to the place that my folks built and landscaped and the place where I was born and raised.  It is completely different now.  The house is still there but enlarged and redone.  Also all the beautiful trees and landscaping is gone, just a fence and crushed rock.  Lastly we went to Rich's folks house and made chili dogs and potato salad and then watched the Eastern Basketball NBA game.  The Warriors and the Rockets played.  We cheered for the Warriors and they won!  It was a close game and the Warriors pulled ahead the last part of the game and took the championship!  A great game for a great ending of our day! 

Happy Mother's Day!

I was just remembering my very first Mother's Day and what a wonderful day that was. 

 

  Now my precious baby is 11 years old becoming a young lady. 

I made lemon bars for Mother's Day dessert at the folks house.  They are mom's favorite.  I put some of my lemon balm leaves in the center for decoration.

Rich gave me a stunningly beautiful bouquet of roses.

My sweet girl picked out a balloon or me!

I made corsages for Mary, me, mom and Maura.  Red for a living mother and white for one that has passed away.

Out on our front step.  The years have gone by quickly.  It seems I have lived two life times.  One of my single years and two of raising our girl.  I hope you have a wonderful blessed Mother's Day!