Another graduation...

 My cousin Geoff with me at his house in Wisconsin yesterday!  We went to his son's graduation party. 

 Geoff's wife Lauri!  She's a great person, so glad to see her again after 7 years have passed!  Her next graduate is in 2 years though so there is hope it won't wait so very long!

 Caleb and Grandpa Sam playing a game at the party!

 My mom and her sister Donna.  Her sister Evalene was the grandma of the graduate.

 Jason (brother to Geoff) has not changed a bit!  It's been almost 9 years since I've seen him. He spent a summer out at the farm with us when he was about 13 and he has the same smile and laugh.  Love it, loved seeing him and his little boy Derek!!!!

 Here is my mom's sister Evalene with the final brother of Geoff and Jason, Greg.  Greg and Deb came out to Jordan's graduation party so it hasn't been so long since I got to see him but still enjoyed the whole day with them all!

Lena called this big dog, precious and spent a lot of time hugging and petting White Sox. 

Here kitty, kitty...

 

 Lena loves our kitties!  They get stuffed in purses, walked around by their hands, left to roam the house when they get away from Lena, pushed in strollers, and just loved.  We have some adorable kitties available to a good home that are well played with :)

 We've picked beans 3 times now and eaten these three varieties of zucchini.  Just the last two days we have had our first cucumbers :)  Love it!

 I worked on cleaning up this garden today.  It's called the house garden and half of it is our original garden when we moved here 11 years ago.  Our needs have sure changed since we started gardening!  I planted peas around the fence and then today I planted tomatoes in between where the peas didn't come up.  We'll see how it works.  I'm hoping to tie them up to the fence.  The one thing I'm short on this year is stakes for tying up tomato plants so I needed to improvise.

 We got the pool set up today.  The kids always want to swim right away but I feel it is too cold but they swam anyway and made it a good 15 minutes before they conceded that it was just too cold!  Now they have even more incentive to get their chores done on a hot day. 

First Recital...

 Jordan has been teaching music 3 years now and had her first recital this last week.  It went off very well.  She's wearing a beautiful flower from two of her students!

 Her brother Isaac is one of her guitar students.  He played 2 songs very well.

 A piano students from town.

 She also teaches her sister Emily!

 One of her "non-sibling" guitar students from town!

 Here is a piano student she has had two years now!  She did so very well.  Playing piano is one thing I wish I could do.  I don't have the patience to try to learn now!

Jordan and her students!  Way to go Jordan!  She's such a young lady now!

Another grad., more friends, new faces...

 We got to meet Ely this past Saturday.  He belongs to friends we don't see enough but isn't he cute?!?

 Em and her friend Hope.  The graduation was at Hope's house.

 Awww!  Too tired to hold his head up anymore!

 My only picture of the graduate, Dylan, and he's behind his sister and Dad!

 Some of the girls!  Many people had already left and Tearza (far left) was leaving now so we grabbed a picture of the girls that were around.  Tearza, Emily, Jordan, Hope and Fallon. 

Lena informed me she was covering her ear because it was so noisy.  Here she is with Eliana.

Weed Control...

 Rebekah and Moriah are weeding the peas.

 Caleb's learned to run my little tiller and it was great help in weeding the garlic and potatoes today.

We finally got the raspberries weeded.  Isaac's running the Yanmar to get the job done.

 Jordan transplanted this last row of raspberries.  Now we have a newly expanded patch!  Can't wait to be out there this fall eating fresh raspberries and making our very favorite raspberry jelly.

Dawson got a ride on the merry-go-round.

Dawson had fun pushing the merry-go-round!

Lena was riding on it in an interesting way while Dawson pushed!

Poison something....

Kevin has a severe case of poison oak, sumac or ivy.  In this picture it actually looks better.  Yesterday it was weeping like crazy and was difficult to look at.  About 9 p.m. he was in such misery of itching and pain that I really pushed for an emergency room visit and I won!!!!  Getting Kevin to go to a doctor is no easy thing.  He got a dose of prednisone in the ER last night and now has a prescription for a few days.  It really does look so much better.  He thinks it still itches and hurts the same but he doesn't look as sickly as last night.  We tried a bunch of things, he has clay on it right now trying to alleviate the symptoms but it was such a bad case that he needed to get help.  He has it in several other places but I think he didn't get the oil washed out completely and kept infecting the other areas.