Shawn turned the big 4-0 on August 6th.  We went to Joe's BBQ for his birthday dinner.  He loves that place and it doesn't hurt that they offer a free meal on your birthday!

The older and very wise man with all of us.

The big party came the following weekend, on August 13th.  We rented a Chandler public pool near us.  It had a little kiddie area and two water slides.  We had the place all to ourselves.

I made a bunch of desserts, nothing too fancy.

Debbie & Leah Thompson with Kyle Dirks.

Most of the adults hung out eating and talking,
though some swam.

Mom (Jan) and Sue & Sam.

It was nice to have enough space for the kids to roam and have fun with plenty of lifeguards around.

Leah with Rachel & Lauren Lay.

We gathered for singing, "Happy Birthday" at the end.

Shawn with Ted & Jeremy Harris

Publish Post

It was a fun way to celebrate a life that I'm thankful for!

Rain & Spray Paint

This is a quick attempt to get caught up on this blog.  It's been two and a half months since I've written and I was one and a half months behind at that time.  The math shows that I'm four months behind.

There's good, bad, and okay to the fact that we got a computer virus and lost about ten months worth of pictures.  The sad is obvious, we lost them!  Ughh!!!  The good is that I was ready to do a quick catch up post here and had a bunch in a folder that was saved.  I had also posted a few of the pictures here, so they aren't all lost forever.  The "okay" is that without the pictures, I have very little memory of what we did, so it's impossible to adequately catch up.  So . . . a blitz catch up it will be, full of pictures and then up to the current date.  I hope to keep plugging away and make some progress.

These pictures are from a fun trip we had up to Dewey with Mom, Lisa, and her kids.  The weather was beautiful and then it started pouring and hailing.  Half the kids were "caught" in with the goats and decided to move to the shed.  Most of the other kids ran out to "rescue" them from the pouring rain and got "stuck" too.  They were freaking each other out and having all kinds of fun out there.

The shed where the cousins got "stuck."

Leah decided to watch from a dry spot inside.

Later, they used some spray paint that Luke salvaged from Grandpa's school shop that was closing.  The mission was to paint the tree house.  It started tame and seemed under control.

Adam, Carter, and Luke -- well prepared.

Emily, Hannah, Brianna, Leah, & Joy stop for a picture break.

It didn't end quite so well.  (Hannah was also covered in paint, but I didn't get a good picture of her.)  

Carter & Adam got in a paint war.

You can see the progression of emotions as the scrubbing began.  Ouch!

Joy helping with the scrub down. 

Lisa helped too.

Lisa & Candy pulled out the petroleum jelly -- not fun, but at least there was hope now!

Carter & Adam eventually recovered and denied that they cried or complained.  Their memory was short, but I seriously doubt they'll try it again!

We were late getting to Kay's for pizza and a spa swim, but we finally made it there and had a good visit with her, the Grangers, and Grandpa B.

Leah, Savannah, Kay, Emily, Hannah, Claire, Luke, Joy, Sarah, Carter & Brianna.