I know that this is rude, but MY DOG HAS BAD MANNERS. She hates that we've built our new island in the kitchen...it's SO HIGH!! She loves it when we eat as a family at the dining room table. For instance, last night at dinner.... John looks innocent enough, just eating his brat with extra pickles.....

What is that I see under his arm pit??
Does she really think that he will give her a little bit of that brat??
Even a distraction from the little girlie does not stop this rudeness...
Oh, but I think John actually likes her rudeness.....
Oh yes....and look what I found that died and was laying on our garage floor...isn't it beautiful???

Poor thing, but at least we got to see it up close and appreciate it's beauty....

And they came from afar......Missouri!

My uncle drove up with a couple of his buddies from Missouri to go salmon fishing on Lake Michigan last week. The fisherman, including my Dad, went out on a chartered boat twice....once in the afternoon and then again the next morning....very early.

The first afternoon the fisherman caught only a few fish....not very good. The captain of the boat suggested they go out on the lake before the sun came up the next morning....so they did. My Uncle and his buds arrived at my Dad's house at approximately 3:20 AM and then proceeded to drive to Port Washington, where the boat was waiting for them. Although the weather wasn't as nice, (rain) they had better luck fishing.......

Here's a picture of 3 of the fisherman.....
Here's the BEAUTIFUL sunrise as they were fishing.....love the pinks and purples in the sky....
"Red" caught a nice one.....
and so did my Uncle David....
Here is the nice group of fish that they caught....

Wordless Wednesday.....Jumping on the bed!!!

Guests at the big party.....

Gramma Ellie mentioned that everyone who had an important part in she and Walter's wedding was present at the party this weekend!!! How amazing!! Here are some of the special guests...


Here's Diane, Gramma Ellie's sister and Walter's brother, John and his wife, Bobbi.....


Here's my Dad, in the red, with Bob and Margaret....Bob was the usher at their wedding in 1962.
Gramma Ellie's doctor and really good friend, JoEllen.....Paul and Cindy and my parents were there....
and here are a couple of rascals that definitely were NOT at Ellie and Walter's wedding....Anna and Luke!!!!
and here's one last picture of the birthday girl.......Happy 80th, Ellie!!! What a fabulous party!!

The Birthday Bash

This weekend was Gramma Ellie's 80th birthday party in Burlington, Iowa!! She had lots of wonderful relatives that flew in from out of state for the big event. We gathered at The Drake for a nice dinner in their party room. Here were the choices for dinner....
Here's Gramma Ellie (turn around, Gramma Ellie) and some of the guests at the party!!
Gramma Ellie put a lot of work into the party....she made a very fun board to display....
We had to guess who was in the picture.....some of them were really hard!!
Here's Gramma's brother, Dwain, from California.....he was a photographer for the evening too.

More pictures of guests coming tomorrow.......

Gramma Ellie

Do you see this nice lady?? This is Gramma Ellie. She turns the big 8-0 on Monday! Seems to me that we should throw a big birthday party for her!! Can't wait to see and hug them both!!

A Real Man.....

I don't care what they say...."Real men paint nails"......

.

Wordless Wednesday.....fancy toes....

Andrew

This guy got his new laptop for college a few days ago...and is now obsessed with it.....he's like a ZOMBIE.....staring at it......for hours...... Or maybe he's staring like a zombie because he spent the whole day at Noah's Ark in the Wisconsin Dells........and he's tired beyond belief!!!!

SWIMMING!!

This weekend was all about swimming. Anna had her softball end of the year party at the coach's house. It was so much fun....they had subs and we all brought a dish to pass. The weather was so hot that the pool felt great! Here's a picture of Anna going off of the diving board, something she has never done before! Way to go, girlie!!

Now that our pool is up and the weather is in the high 80's, there's a lot of swimming going on...Here is Luke, Anna and Jonnie (luke's friend) enjoying the pool!!!

Last Game for Anna...

Anna played her last softball game of the season this week and they really had a fun time, even after the loss in the tournament. Each of the players received a trophy for placing 3rd in the league.....one of Anna's teammates walked up to her and said..."I got a 3rd place trophy, what place did you get??"
After the trophy ceremony, both teams pulled out a couple of big plastic coolers......they were filled with WATER BALLOONS!! Here's the mayhem that ensued after the coolers were opened.
(Anna is #3 in the picture)

They had SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

A Father/Son shot...

Here's a very cool father/son picture from Tuesday nights game......and the Orioles ended up winning which advanced them to the next stage in the tournament. Hooray!!

After the game, Luke and his good buddy, Jonnie, climbed the playground equipment to ponder the moment.....I just had to snap the picture.....
We play another game tonight against a fierce team......cross your fingers and toes that we will prevail!!!

Wordless Wednesday.... Anna and Cocoa

The Waterman Arrives!!

The Waterman arrives, which of course means "Let the Fun Begin" here at our house!! The pool holds 6,000 gallons of water....all of which was approximately 65 degrees....bring on the warm temperatures, the water needs to warm up a bit!!! Brrrrrr

Xbox, Golf, Shopping and Hair.....

We LOVED our weekend spent with the Dykstra family!! It was a short but sweet stay......the boys played video games and watched silly you tube videos most of the time....yes, that's Mark on crutches!!
The girls "did hair" and painted nails....Laura Lee is so gifted!!

The big guys golfed and we women ran to our favorite grocery store....Sendiks!!

and yes, Marlee Sue came too....Anna gave her a nice head dress.....