what a wedding
nell & eric celebrated their wedding from the time the roses arrived on thursday morning until the bus didn't on sunday night. in between, paul blushed at the shower, geoffrey towered over the chuappah under construction, john arrived, the wedding went off without a hitch, I wore a dress, aunt phyllis cut a rug, alexis danced till she dropped, and everyone celebrated the bride and groom in a most beautiful week.

lake needwood
james celebrated his birthday at lake needwood this year. katy too. that was before the big rains that flooded the county, weakened the dam and forced the draining of our dear lake.

grand ol flag
the fourth of july brought john's special ceremony on the porch, a kazoo parade, flags everywhere, trumpeting rita, elvis and his delicious wings, and of course, fireworks on the mall.

st. albans
drove to st. albans via morgantown this time. visited grandma & pop, aunt olivia & uncle paul, uncle bill and the carpenter clan. found a cache under the hayes bridge too.

the beach
after a meatball brunch on the 6th, we all headed to rehoboth, delaware, in style. kites before their time, being alexis' ocean buddy (as the tallest person she knows), kid pyramids, portrait crashing waves, riding rides and playing games at funland, shell sorting and lots of boogie boarding and floating in the surf.

creekside ashes
the ashes converged again this year at blue bend, in west by god, almost heaven, west virginia. matt had a magnificent campsite set up with a complete kitchen and good food to go with it. dad stayed the night and had his first s'more, while mom checked on things at the farm. I caught a big, big bass and saw a snake that caught a big, big trout. the boys and I surprised pop at the swimming hole and invited him back to our creekside home. we played horseshoes and tracball and had a fine time all week long.

smashing celebration
nicholas finally got a chance to crack open his birthday pinata. the big rains that flooded the basement had pushed it back, but when the green lizard was finally hung from the basketball hoop, the kids lined up with full force to bash the candy out. after all 10 little folks had a try, erin whacked into it and the chaos began.

reunited
john & michele recommitted themselves to each other and immediately launched rockets into the clouds.

farm fun
swimming in the pond despite the leeches, hiking to the cemetery, reading stories, building dinosaurs, playing uno, watching slip and slide, enjoying matt's good cooking, leg wrestling lessons and more.