Har had a birthday

One of the kids born in '57 turned FIFTY-SEVEN

We got to have a little early birthday celebration with Joylynn and Jess's kids, Cherise and her three, Courtney and Charlie, plus the kids that are here all the time. It made for a nice party.

We're getting a start on doing something with the back yard. Thanks to a lot of hard work by Logan and my guys we were able to have a barbecue supper out there.

Everyone had fun around the campfire. Courtney even taught us some songs from her pre-school class. Charlie taught Danika how to sing the blues. An epic first night out back!

The birthday boy and the gang hit the road

On Friday morning we took off to go home with Cherise and her gang.

Henry rode in our van with Hayden & us and Cam rode with Cherise, Anabelle and Quinn. We took a potty break and snack break in Hood River and continued on to Boardman where we planned to have Har's birthday lunch at a lovely waterfront lodge.

What a beautiful place! The food was really good too.

 I'd love to go back to spend a night or two there!

Har and Henry took a walk outside while the rest of us finished up. It was a windy and cool day but anytime you can hang out by the water is a good day.

Henry-boy's check-up

These kids were exposed to pink-eye just before they came to Portland. Both Henry and Anabelle got a mild case of it. The trip to the doctor was the technicality to get a prescription for eye drops. Little Quinn is doing great!

Makin' a cake for Grampa

Henry was super excited to get home to bake a cake for Grampa. Cherise had made this recipe before but omitted the walnuts that time. This one was nutty and moist and oh so yummy! It was decorated with carrots made of apricots and had five candles on one side and seven on the other.

It was official. Harlan turned 57 during the singing of Happy Birthday on his official birthday.

Cake and presents and happy grandchildren.

You can't beat that in things coming together to make it a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY


:0)

Company is always welcome

I should buy this sign!

It would be easier to put up this sign than to deal with my clutter. However… I am chipping away at it little by little since we now have a pick-up to do dump runs.  We did three trips to the Salvation Army donation station and four runs to the dump in the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter. That's quite a bit of stuff outta here!

We enjoy hanging out with this "copper"

One of Tom Z's girls posted this old picture of him on Facebook so I swiped it and edited it to be a portrait. Tom really hasn't changed very  much over the years. He and Har like kicking back and watching Nascar or hockey or football in our family room.

Visitors from the North

Courtney whipped up a cheesecake bar in preparation for Harlan's brother, Darrel and his wife Janet's, visit. It was so nice to see them. It's been almost 4 years since they've been to our house. We last saw them up in Seattle at our niece, Rachel's wedding over two years ago.

It's so nice to be able to take up where we last left off in catching up on each other's lives. I can't tell you how great it was to see these guys and give 'em a squeeze ;0)

Preparing for our Taladega Brunch

Harlan had an audience off and on during his Saturday project a couple of weeks ago. We have a todo list that never ends around here but since we were having friends over to watch the Nascar race down in the family room, Harlan designed a railing for the lower stairs.

Sunday morning Garrett and Danika helped to make muffins for our brunch.





              The "Tom"elet bar was open

This year we added waffles to our brunch menu. Harlan manned the waffle iron on one end of the counter while Thomas created "made-to-order" omelets on the other end.

Alyssa sent me this picture of her girls sitting on the foot bridge in their yard in Virginia. Meanwhile we were hanging out and eating food with our peeps here in Portland.

   It's always fun to watch the races on the "big screen".  Harlan has designed the lighting and sound down there pretty well. It's a great party room.

Our Grand-girls and theirs

The last couple of times we've gotten together with the Zywicki's our grandkids haven't been visiting. This time they were here and Tom and Kim had their granddaughter Bella come too. She is smack dab in between Genevieve and Danika in age. Can't believe these girls are growing up so fast!

All too soon it's time to go

Thanks guys for spending your day with us! The race wasn't rained delayed and the food was fantastic as usual! We are looking forward to the next occasion.

Our soldier sons-in-law

Our guardsmen sons-in-law have drill on the same weekend. They both came over with their wives after they were done. I have never seen them both in their uniforms before. It was pretty cool!

We are very thankful and proud of their service.