HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEREDITH!

We had an early Birthday Party for Meredith on Saturday after the duathlon since so many were already together but today is her real birthday. What is really nice is that she shares her 3rd birthday(and every birthday) with her Daddy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEREDITH!!
We Love You!

MY KC TRIP

I came to KC yesterday to babysit some grandkids. June, Susan, and Damon were involved in a duathlon today at 7 a.m. Phil, Greg, and John & Elisa and I were there with 15 of my grandkids to cheer them on and we did just that. They did a super job considering it was a very hot and humid day but at least it was not raining. They ran 3.1 miles, biked 18 miles, and ran 3.1 more miles. You can see in the picture above how the kids are encouraging Susan as she approaches the finish line. The girls finished the whole duathlon in just a little over 2 hrs. Damon finished in about 1 hr. and 45 min. so he did really well.

We went to Phil & Julie's house for a short birthday party for Meredith and a brunch which was really good. We all had a great time together.

Susan & June after the race - look pretty good don't they!

Above June is coming into the transition area after her bike ride and will then run the last 3 miles.

Damon is getting ready to leave after the duathlon with his little shadow, Eli, that wants to wear Daddy's #408 and be just like Daddy.

CLEANING OUT THE SHED AND MOVING WOOD

Below is our shed that we have had since 1982. We are going to trade it in and replace it with a bigger shed and then we will not need 2 storage sheds. Next to it is where we have stored a lot of our wood for the winter and since the new shed will be bigger, we are in the process of moving the wood out to the area where our garden is located.

The twins were helping move the wood but the wheelbarrow was pretty heavy to move with all the wood in it so they decided to team up and work together. It worked better than I thought it would when I heard them talking about it.

FREEZING CORN

Today was the day that the corn was ready to pick - even if we were still in the middle of VBS. Rog & Greg went to the field right from VBS and picked the corn and husked it. They brought it home and I silked it and they cut it off the cob with Brendon helping. Susan and Caleb blanched it and now it sits until morning at which time we will put it in bags for freezing. We figure we will have 18-20 quarts. Last year nothing bothered our corn but this year Rog said the coons got quite a few ears for their enjoyment. We were just happy to get it all done today and will enjoy having it when the kids come home.

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL

This week is Vacation Bible School at Berean with the theme, Rescue Zone. We have about 23 children enrolled and 17 workers so it has been going well. Below is our recreation time with a game of water balloon volleyball. On Friday we will have a short recap for any parents to attend and then will have a hot dog fry for lunch with everyone invited.

Below is our VBS bunch having hot dogs with everyone invited. It was a very hot and humid day but we all survived and had a good time. We had 11 packages of hot dogs and used 10 of them so they were hungry.

SWIMMING POOL FOR 2007

Last week we finally set up our pool for the summer. The grandkids have really enjoyed it!

THE SHED IS GONE

Last Wednesday, the shed was dismantled and on Thursday Rog and I started out by using a sledge hammer and breaking up the cement slab where the shed was located. That would have been a lot of hard work and a slow job but Greg surprised us and brought over a jack-hammer in the afternoon and made quick work of the 9/10 that was left. He let us try out the machine but he actually did most of the work. Then we had the job of disposing of the concrete. We loaded the pickup once and then decided we better get a trailer. We loaded the remainder onto the trailer and planned to take it to the dump the next day. Fortunately someone came to our house that evening and wanted to know what we were going to do with the concrete and asked if they could have it. Thirty minutes later we were unloading it at their house - I'm sure they were surprised when they arrived home and saw that it was already there.

And now we have decided that we are not going to put another shed in that place so we will have to put up a privacy fence where the shed was. We are going to replace our other storage shed in our backyard with a new sturdi-built shed that is bigger than the old one and it should take care of our storage needs.

Below is the area where the cement was taken away and now there are picnic tables and other things there until we decide what we are going to do with that area.

FLOWERS AND CLEANING OUT THE SHED

This metal shed on our patio was built back in the '70's and has served us well. Today we found out how much stuff has been hidden away in it. Rog moved most of the stuff into our garage as we plan to get a new storage shed in the near future.

Here you see the garage cluttered with all that was in that little shed.

My flower pot on the patio. With all the rain, the flowers really look nice.

Below are the flowers by the playhouse.

These are on our patio.

HARVEST TIME (for gardening)

If you wonder where I've been, I've been picking and snapping green beans for long periods of time for the past couple of weeks. The rain has kept everything nice and green and the harvest has been plentiful. We down sized in our garden this year but what we planted it booming.

Below is our tomato plants and we are just about ready to start canning tomatoes.

Next you see the green beans - the plants are doing so well that you cannot see the dirt between the rows. I've spent about 3 different times picking beans for 2 hours on these 3 rows.

We pulled up all the beets and have 10 quarts of pickled beets.

Just started today getting more tomoatoes than we can eat in a day or two so will begin canning those soon.

Here are the green beans that we canned today. Each day I have picked beans, we have been able to can 14 quarts. So far we have 39 quarts put up and we want to get at least 50 quarts. Don't think we will have any problem with the way out plants look.

Later this week the rest of our corn will be ready. The first batch we just ate but we will probably freeze most of the next batch.

A FEW MORE PICTURES FROM COLORADO

The day several were going to climb to the west peak, most of the little ones and several adults stayed at the lodge. Fortunately, Roger had brought along something to entertain the little ones and they had a ball jumping around in a minature moon walk. In the back ground you can see some of the animals hanging on the walls.

Grandpa giving Evan a ride on his shoulders on the way to the meadow.

Grandma helping Eli across the stream.

Avery would be in charge outside and was always getting the little ones together for a walk or some game that she wanted them to play. She did a good job keeping them occupied. (From left: Ella, Avery, Ethan, and Meryn)