Grandparent visit

It was a hard-working weekend for Max and his parents (I was mainly cooking meals, cleaning, and resting since I was getting over a bad cold that drained my energy). I didn't get any pictures of it unfortunately, but Max and his Dad replaced our ugly brown carpet in the dining room with nice, natural color wood flooring. It looks very good. Max's Mom transformed the stairs from the same brown carpet (about 20 years old) to hardwood stairs. Actually, there was already hardwood underneath, but she did a lot of work sanding the tops of the stairs so that they are a uniform color.

I like these pictures of Gloria especially because she looks so calm and bowl-headed (just kidding). JB and Duncan are apparently engaged in some intense conversation in the bottom picture.

Gloria turns 2!

Here is Gloria attempting to blow out her candles. Her birthday was Friday, Aug 18 and her Bremer grandparents were out here for her birthday and the weekend. From the candles it appears that Gloria is turning 12 or something, but really, she's two. JB was the one who ended up blowing out most of the candles.

All Gloria said she wanted for her birthday was a "boon" (balloon).At her two-year wellbaby check-up she was 97th percentile in height and 88th percentile in weight. She's slimming down, she used to be off the charts.


Gloria loved her cream cheese frosting carrot cake with dark chocolate m&ms on top. She didn't so much like the wax paper that her Mommy left in the middle of the cake though! Gramma Shell was the one that made the cake a nice heart shape. Yum!

Bubble Clause

JB loves having bubbles in his bath. No, my kids are not always in their birthday suits...only most of the summer.

"G"

Here's "G" (Daddy's favorite name for her) walking down the slide in our back yard while I hold her hand. She's not about to go down the water slide, but she'll go down a slide that goes slow while she's in the nude (a friction, stick phenomenon).

I thought this was a good shot of one of her dimples.

Serius and Serene Summer "Work"

The kids both enjoy filling their pools with water.

Mommy on the Slide!

Max and I were hesitant to go down this water slide that we bought about a month ago for the kids. It has a weight limit of 100 lbs, but it was just too tempting in the heat and seeing JB have so much fun on it. If we go down on our bellies, it doesn't seem to put as much strain on the slide. If it only lasts this season, it'll still be worth it.

Daddy on Slide!

JB on his Water Slide!

JB and the Baby, Bunny

This is a baby bunny that we found in the window well. The only way I knew it was there was that Zephyr was very interested in something over there and was scaring the bunny out of its furry little skin. I think we scared it even more when I called the kids over to come see the baby bunny and I reached in a pulled it out. I let the kids hold it for a while, then I was not sure what to do with it because I think its family lives under our deck, but I didn't want Zephyr to chase it down if I put it back under. We ended up keeping it in our basement bathtub for a couple of days giving it a little cardboard box to hide in and some grass and leaves. Then Max let it go in the side back yard when Zephyr wasn't looking. Now he can grow up big and strong munching on my veggies...it's a love/hate relationship.

Have a Few Cicadas!

She's a brave girl, she is!

The one side-ponytail is due to Gloria taking out the other one. This is a morning where Max was watching the kids while I was a Women's Ministry event at a nearby church. I told him he could have at least taken out the other one before taking pictures...of course with the cicadas on her, probably no one is noticing her hair.

Walking the Dog

Here's Gloria "walking" Zephyr with a homemade leash - a bungee cord.

Tamsey's Family in Tennessee (and DC)

The "Brookline Crew" - Jessica, Dad, Mom, and Luke

Mom and Dad

Mom and Tams on the bus to Nashville for a tour of the capital building and lunch and a southern cuisine restauraunt.

The gals - Emily, Jessica, Mom, and TamsI couldn't leave out my dear bro Jonathan, so here is a picture of him and me at the White House about a year and a half ago.

Indoor Evening Fun in Tennessee

We are playing "Apples to Apples" here, which is a fun opinion game. John Love kept kiddingly chastising people about their "wrong opinions". They apparently ran rampant in this game.



John and Emily Love playing "Apples to Apples"

"It's Their Fault"

These are the faces of the parents and grandparents of the "younguns" at the reunion, resulting in more than 50 family members altogether (including spouses). Ultimately it was my grandparents, Paul and Dorothy Showalter's, "fault" that this reunion happened. These are their six children, from left to right, Dale, Joel, Paul David, Larry, Diane, and Dena. Neither of my grandparents are alive today, but we still remember them as we all got together as a Showalter family July 1-July 5.

Front Porch Time

My sister Jessica is holding Gloria, in the rocker with JB is my sister Emily, guy in the background is John, Emily's hubby, and the girl in front of the rocker is Bethany, my 5-year-old niece.