Good Times

My Grandma Ada's funeral was this past weekend and what a wonderful time we all had. It is great to get together and tell stories and catch up with everyone. It was a grand family reunion and I am sure she was having her own on the other side of the veil. The great-grandkids were playing freeze tag in the basement of the church where the services were held and everytime they came around the hall, I would snap their picture. It was great fun. Chloe, Sarah and Kaiya seemed to really get into the animated freeze. We never get enough time with our cousins, no matter how old we get.

We have so many rocks in our yard we have had to really work to figure out what to do with them all. Alan and I have put together a landscaping plan that starts with this fire pit. We spent all day on Wednesday building it and yesterday, we had our first fire in it. I can't tell you how fun it is to have a firepit in the backyard and not in our house! The kids got so excited they camped out last night too. They set up the tent and got out the sleeping bags. That is until about 4am when it got so cold they couldn't stand it anymore. We are loving our beautiful spring days here that really don't get over 70 degrees. But the nights are still pretty cold. Alan stayed up all night keeping an eye on the kids. I couldn't stay awake and was out around 1:30 or 2am. He said at 4am he could hear the kids giggling and laughing and figured that was about it for the campout in the backyard. We have enough trees for it to feel like a forest. This is definitly my kind of camping. The kids sleep in the tent, I get to stay in my bed!

We had chili and cornbread for dinner on the porch and then smores over the firepit for dessert. Sarah ate her weight in smores. I can't believe she wasn't up all night barfing. Remember that one, Mike? I guess she has slowly built up a resistance to foods that are so sugary sweet they would make most of us sick to our stomaches after a few bites. Not our Sarah. She can eat sugar with the best of them.

The kids worked really hard too, helping to bring us rocks and also whittling their awesome marshmallow sticks. We can't wait to implement phase II of our backyard barbecuing wonderland. It involves a nice patio set and more rocks! Believe it or not, we still have at least as many went into the firepit. We just keep digging them up! I'll keep you posted.