Father's Day

We had a lot of fun celebrating Father's Day with our good friends, Markus, Jen, Mia and Ellie at a special Teatro Zinzani Father's Day Brunch.

Cousins

In June we also spent a few days up in Bellingham with the Wileys and the Shaws. We don't get together all that often but it always makes me wish we lived closer to one another when we do.
We had a professional photographer come out to shoot some photos, mostly for Grandma and Papa since getting ALL the grandkids in one place seems to be rather difficult.

The scene as we were leaving West Seattle for Bellinham... Benjamin with his bottle and Josie with her videos. Benjamin fell asleep by the time we got to UW and Josie was quite content watching videos for the 1.5 hour drive.

Living in the country has its advantages. Drew is made for this kind of living and equally divides his time between the tractor, the golf cart, his chain saw and other busy outdoor work. He took the kids around tractor trailer.

And the golf cart. Both vehicles are owned by an elderly neighbor and in exchange for unlimited use of his vehicles, Drew does his yard work. Good trade for both of them.

Josie and Benjamin feeding the chickens

One day Josie and the bigger kids went bowling while I stayed back with a napping Benjamin. The next day Kim stayed back with Benjamin while the rest of us went to the water slides. Josie had a blast. She started with the smaller slides.







But by the end she was going down the huge, twisty-turny ones with me and her two very helpful older cousins. Unfortunately, no photos of that.

Josie loved hanging out with Drew and Paul and they were both so good to her.

Benjamin, at home.

Playing soccer in the backyard.

Thanks again for hosting, Kim. We all had such a great time.

Better Late Than Never

Needless to say we've been B.U.S.Y!! We have been so busy and enjoying summer so much that I just never seem to have time to update the blog.
I thought I'd start back where I left off in June. Marty had another very successful Funny Festival with probably the best comedians so far - Owen Benjamin, Dan Naturman, Gary Gulman and Tom Papa. It was a full night of laughter and fun.

Marty made his grand appearance that night as an angel after being dangled 30 feet in the air and transcending onto the stage in a pair of Josie's fairy wings. It was funny but a little hard to explain. At least you can laugh at Marty in teeny tiny fairy wings, right?

From L to R: Tom, Marty. Dan, Gary and Owen... several VERY tall men!! Marty is 6 foot 5. The other two on the right were even taller!

The front row

We were invited to a BBQ with the band Augustana probably best known for their hit Sweet and Low.

Dan Layus, the lead singer, had come on Marty's podcast and they bonded over the fact that he has a daughter Josie's age and a son Benjamin's age. What a very sweet family. We all had a great time.

Benjamin and Dan

Townsend, Dan and Benjamin

Josie had a ball with Eloise. What do kids do at a boring, adult BBQ... stack plastic drinking cups of course! Their kids were really quite amazing. They have been on the road with the band and their parents for the past several months. I don't think our kids would fair so well.

Marty and I worked selling his new cyber bullying video at the National School Counselor's Convention here in Seattle. An extra treat, my sister Kim was staying here at our house in order to attend the conference and we got to ride the bus together just like old times :)