Celebrate the last day

Ashleigh,

Happy last day of work - at least on the job. Lots of work ahead to get packed up and ready to head east. We are all looking forward to having you in the same time zone and within a days drive.

Otsego Lake State Park Camping Trip

My Mom and Dad and then my girls and Herb and I all went camping it was so much fun. We all had a blast and only got wet 1 day. Here are a few pics to share I have a whole lot more on my facebook.

Part 2

Debbie, Paige and Garrett arrived at Charlie and Carol's Tuesday night from Pennsylvania where they have purchased a home near Philadelphia. Moving date is September 1st. We saw a video of Debbie and Paige in solo synchronized swim programs before they left China. Debbie feels bad about leaving the girls she was teaching synchronized swimming after she got them all enthused about it. The kids and Charlie left to participate in a sailboat race. They are both so tall, just about my height. Debbie will be back in November for her 25th reunion at Alma College. She and Carol were engrossed in a Scrabble game when we arrived. Men were there building an addition to Charlie's barn so the motor home could get undercover.

I thought I'd e-mail the photos I took, since I can't seem to get them on the blog. But I couldn't get the addresses to type in. Hopefully I'll get them to you before they are out of date.

We are enjoying Dana's swims and thinking of the fun Andy, Liane and Dana will have sight seeing in Florence. Sharon and Brian are meeting Liane in Paris about August 16 for a couple of weeks. Then it is back to school and work. Love, Mother/Grandma

Visiting relatives

Yesterday we had a good afternoon starting with lunch at Jerry and Doris'. Their grandchildren met us in the driveway when we drove in very excited about a new grave. They led us to the vegetable garden where we had to put our hand over our heart to enter, in respect for Ronnie. There was a newly dug grave, circled with fresh flowers and a 2x4 marker that said Ronnie and the date. Ronnie was a racoon who got caught in Jerry's live trap! Jerry drowned him and then they had the funeral. Jerry also has a woodchuck living in the garden--the carrots had no tops. He filled in the hole, put a cement block over it and hopes Mr. Woodchuck died.

We heard about their day at the water park, a week at camp etc. Audra said Dave is keeping busy with his auto repair business. She is nursing at two locations. Caleb is about 6' tall and wears braces, a good looking boy.

Heidi looks and sounds like Rene. She has braces too and must be a big help with the baby. Molly is cuddly and wants to show off everything. She took me to the place in the backyard where they had a hot dog roast. Matthew was hoping Jerry would take him to Outdoor World after we left. (sporting goods store) He likes fishing.

Jerry feels nearly back to normal. They are probably both taking naps today, Doris looked very tired yesterday! The girls left early today in the van they rented so they could all be travelling together.

To be continued: Love, Mother/Grandma

Fleeing the country

This Saturday I will be self-imposing a temporary exile from the United States and Technology (most likely). I am off to Rome, Italy to watch my girlfriend (Dana Vollmer) represent the United States at the World Swimming Championships. After the competition, her and I are going to travel Northern Italy and Southern France + Paris for 2 weeks.

Her and I are traveling in just 1 carry-on size backpack each and don't have any official plan, just general destinations (such as the Eiffel Tower,the Colosseum, and Venice). The one thing I actually went ahead and planned was a special tour of the excavations below St. Peter's Basilica which includes the original grave of St. Peter. Should be quite the trip and a nice escape from everything (not that I need/want an escape since my job is amazing!)

Happy Birthday Mom

I am so sorry not to be able to join in the festivities tonight but know that we are with you in thought. It sounds like you are having a pretty busy day and will be well celebrated. Jim has built you a new bird feeder and will be by to install it on Friday after he is done babysitting Mckenna.

Have an awesome day! We love you.

Mckenna is ONE

Sunday was a beautiful day to celebrate Mckenna's first birthday in the yard at Herb and Caitlin's. Family and friends spent the afternoon enjoying good food, (Dave and Jim both made delicious homemade ice cream and Caitlin made the baseball cap shaped cake) conversation and watching the children play on the swing set and blowing bubbles. Mckenna looked so cute and was so good even though she must have been tired by late afternoon.

In a few days I'll celebrate a big birthday! I'm glad to see the generations march along and hear about everyone's activities. Love to all of you.

4th of July

Some of our firework show at our house
The guys carrying out the finale
Prep of the finale
Mckenna having some fun with her cousin Aiden earlier in the day
The Mommy's cuddling their babies on the 4th

Catching up

For the record MY birthday started out the fun month of activities in June.





Here is the Jessup Family Brain Trust trying to figure out if a ball is through the wicket or not on Father's Day. I think we need some more opinions.




































Caitlin, Mckenna and I rode our bikes out to MSU today and checked out the ducks at the water fall. They were not very impressed with us since we didn't have anything to feed them.

Mckenna, on the other hand was very impressed and thought she would like to go swimming with them. Good thing Caitlin was hanging on tightly.









Mckenna just being cute and Gus modeling his new training collar. He does pretty good with it.