Great Outdoors in Suburbia

Some of our friends from Alaska sent me beautiful pictures of their hike on the 4th of July through scenic wilderness, including a bear sighting. Well, we do miss Alaska, but we do have wildlife here, too-- witness the majestic Groundhog! (Actually, I'm not too clear on what he is, besides fat, because I've never understood the difference between groundhogs and woodchucks and other fat rodent-y animals.)




We also have beautiful scenery out our back door. (Little lawn care tip-- don't spread out your roof-size tarp out to dry on a warm Saturday afternoon-- even for a couple hours. Wow! Instant destruction of a lawn!)

Alas, I have to admit Alaska wins this round. However, we do have beautiful children scattered around here...




Mr. Overalls.
Pushing Marilla around the driveway. I was so worried she was going to put her feet down and scrape her toes, but she never did, and she sure did seem to love the ride! This, of course, is Elliott's forte-- rides.
Pretty girl with long eyelashes after her bath.


Tori is down visiting for a week. Not that Cheyenne is excited about this, of course.
Beautiful summer girls.









We were rather disappointed this weekend to have to cancel our long-anticipated trip to Almonte, Ontario convention due to Cheyenne having an inexplicable fever last week for several days. I hadn't been to Almonte for 15 years, and I was really looking forward to catching up with the folks up there. We were even all packed, quite an accomplishment! It is NO fun unpacking from convention when you didn't even get to go to convention. Oh, well, maybe next year.

There was some consolation, though... Because I was home Sunday morning instead of at convention, I was here to answer a phone call asking if I minded providing lunch for four of the workers on their way to Freedom preps on Monday! That was a wonderful privilege that sorta made up for the missed convention.

Tori was supposed to just come home from convention with us, but instead, she hitched a ride down with Amy Wise on her way home to Georgia. So Amy ended up being here for lunch on Tuesday, which was as fun as it usually is when we get to see a Parker kid!

The next week will be busy, too. We're heading to work day at Altamont Saturday, then on to Dana and Marilyn's for a few days. I'm taking Tori home and staying there for a few days, then hauling Olivia home with us for her week!