Reunion

Katri and kids arrived June 19th for another Orcas visit. We had not seen each other for way too long but it did not take long, though, for bonding to take place and how wonderful to have quality time to get reacquainted. Hank was the recipient of much attention and did his part to be a good dog with little people around. Here Ava is learning that his favorite thing is a belly rub.

Part of the island experience is helping Grandpa with tractor work and thus hearing protection was needed for Ava as well. Grandpa searched for just the right hearing protection on the internet for Ava and found the perfect pair to coordinate with her ensemble!

The first test run was a little tentative but soon she was an old pro just like the boys!

Another highlight was a trip to the compost where all kinds of living things can be found...especially worms and slugs. Ava was fascinated while Grandpa turned over the dirt looking for critters, all the while holding tightly to her cookie.

Hmmmm...maybe this cookie doesn't look too great now after all.

Who would have thought the hot tub would be such a fun retreat for the 5 and under crowd, but Eliah and Ava had a great time splashing and playing while Eliah fulfilled his role as big brother tormenter by turning off and on the bubbles which initially frightened Ava but she soon adapted to the "therapeutic" benefits of white water. Hmmm...looks like that hot tub siding could use a little super glue.

Speaks for itself!

As you can see, the weather was blissful, not hot by Minnesota standards, but delightful in all other ways. A trip to Mt. Constitution and a climb up the lookout tower was fun especially since Aaron joined us on the 24th and took over as main escort climbing the steps over and over. Yes, there is a reason people have children when they are young!!

For a 2 1/2 year old Ava was very willing to try new things. She even tried a piece of pickled herring but quickly decided it was not even close in preference to peanut butter. But she did learn to like Kaviar on her hardtack...amazing. We all had a good laugh when Eliah told her to finish her "hard-a-tack"..does he somehow know the high sodium and cholesterol content of that Kaviar!!? Anyway, she is on her way to becoming a true Swede.

We are grateful for the many memories, too many to recount here.

KindlingsFest 2010

The past four days have been amazing. Our church's 3rd annual KindlingsFest has enabled us to host another wonderful guest this year. His name is Bob Bennett, a gifted guitarist, singer and song writer who has a special knack to "tell it like it is" with his songs. We all have fallen in love with him for his transparency, kindness and gentle spirit. Hank considers him his new BFF. Tonight Bob will put on a concert on our church lawn and the community is invited with root beer floats to follow.

KindlingsFest was initiated by our pastor three years ago as "a way to rekindle the spiritual, intellectual and creative legacy of Christians in culture." We have people come from all over the country for this event and we are exposed to incredible speakers who really care about reaching out to others in non conventional ways. To say it's an inspirational time is an understatement. Bob leaves us tomorrow and then the 'ol grandparents here need to get ready for Katri and the wee ones arriving Monday! Where did I put that Geritol anyway??!!

Whew!

We had a little emergency here last week when Deere John became ill and ruptured a hydraulic hose with hydraulic fluid spewing everywhere. BJ had to order new hose replacements but we worried JD would not recover in time for the arrival of Eliah...but thankfully the transplant parts arrived in time for BJ to get JD up and running again. We are breathing a sigh of relief as we shuddered at the thought of a sick tractor when Eliah comes...unthinkable!

Beautiful Day

We took advantage of the great day and packed a lunch and headed to the boat. It was so calm and we had hoped to see some whales today but no luck. It's amazing how we have the best luck seeing whales when we have guests aboard! It was nice to be back on the water, the first time since my surgery in May and I'm quite rusty with handling the fenders and lines but hopefully will improve over time.

Finally, Summer!

How wonderful to finally have it warm!! It's just perfect today and looks like it will last a while. It reminds me of the weather exactly two years ago when my sister and brother in law came for my birthday. My camera does not do justice to this photo but the sea of foxgloves this year is incredible. They are just thick along the slope below the house and so beautiful. And how very nice that the deer do not eat them!!

So You Can Teach An Old Dog....

...well maybe this is not the most appropriate phrase for the thought but it pertains to soccer. Now I have never been a soccer fan. I have always thought watching soccer was like waiting for eggs to hard boil...yawn...but this World Cup event has really perked me up. We sat having breakfast the other day and watched Germany score 3 goals in a matter of minutes...it was riveting. Now I realize that these teams are the best of the best but they have done a good job of hooking me in as a fan. Now I'm trying to learn more about the rules and I have an enormous respect regarding the condition of these athletes, I almost get out of breath myself watching them run full speed up and down the field...course they are not bad eye candy either but I suppose an old dog just shy of 62 is not supposed to say that. :-)

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Maybe blogs should be spelled blaaagg, as in bla, bla, bla. That's the way this entry feels but hey, it's a good way to vent! A very long day off island yesterday going non stop. Costco was included in my things to do and as usual they did a good job of messing up my list. First, NO MEZA BRAND HUMMUS...they had some other brand instead and I tried to avoid panicking!!! Then, no low sodium V8 juice and no packages of those little chocolate pieces that come in a large bag...yes, we like chocolate here...and it is good for you, especially since it's mostly dark chocolate...right? It's a frustrating store when you can't count on certain items being available. So yesterday was July 1, a notorious day to try to get home on the ferry with all those tourists. I arrived at the ferry over two hours early and saw a parking lot of cars ahead of me, couldn't even see the toll booth for at least a half hour. But I did manage to get on the 7:00 boat and got home at 9:30. Hope you all have a sunny, wonderful 4th and don't have to travel by boat anywhere!