Happy Birthday America!!



 

 

You could easily have thought we've forgotten about our blog, but not so!! As you might have guessed, things have been absolutely crazy lately, but we are starting to right the ship.

 

Immediately after Aaron finished up his most amazing sculpture he took off for a well-deserved vacation with his Pa. They took in some fabulous art and a baseball game and even caught a foul ball (reenacted below).

I was lucky enought to walk into the studio at just the perfect time to capture this historic moment.

 

The flowers and garden are doing great!!  We are really, really enjoying the yard this year.  Things are definitely hitting the "thriving" stage. When you're first starting out, you just don't believe it'll every look nice and "full" and then five years later: kaboom!  Flowers everywhere!

These are lilies Aaron gave me a few years ago. I like how red they are.

We re-made the "wedding container" (Thanks, Mom!).  Now it has a "climbing" fuchsia in it. 
It's juuuuuuust about to bloom.  We can't wait to see it really grow.  They are supposed to get up to 10 feet tall!

These are lilies Grandma Elsie sent to me right before checking into the nursing home. 
They lived at my old house for a while and then made the trip to our house after I moved in.
They seem to be doing pretty good after 5 years and a couple of transplants.  
They, of course, remind me of grandma every time.

This is the biggest bargain of the year. Aaron found these dahlias for a few dollars at the supermarket.
They were all dying and spent, but we gave them a new pot and a little TLC and look at them now!

And finally, the big event: Fourth of July!!!  It's a toss up which holiday I like best: Opening Day of Baseball or 4th of July, but they are both great.

We had an absolutely wonderful time with friends over for grilling.  Since the house just is not big enough for more than a few people to dine, we moved the dining room into the garden room.  I've gotta say, it was pretty much right out of a magazine (except, maybe for having to use a bed sheet as a table cloth, but you can see Aaron made even that look pretty darn good). 




The yard, completely with stars and a Captain America shield.

These people are dangerous!!!  They made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe...and then they kept on going.
Let me just say, we were all completely and totally spent at the end of the night.  Way too much fun!  Naturally we went out to dinner together again the next night.  (Now that's a good sign!)

This pretty much sums it up.  Good friends and good food.

We capped off the night with a trip to see fireworks.  Aaron didn't think we could get close enough to see them, but he was a good sport.  To our happy surprise we found a great spot in Fremont that was out of the crowds.



And the night ended with a bang. 
(We didn't quite have this view, but close enough.)

Hope you had a wonderful time too!