My very picture-ful week!

I'll start this post off with a picture of our house and gardens.  When I link my blog post to Facebook it always displays the first picture, so I like to make sure it's something really nice, haha!

At the end of my last post I mentioned that Jenn was away on a work trip and I was going to be staying at Sam's with the kids for a few days after our weekend at Refreshing Mountain.  Dick came there too from camp to catch a nap and then he drove home.  We had spaghetti and garlic toast for dinner and enjoyed it on the porch.  The kids hammed it up as usual!

And guess what?  I did not cook this meal!  Sam did.  He does not know I took this picture.  I might be in trouble now, haha!

Ray dropped in with his friend Ashley and her son RJ.  It was a fun, very relaxing evening.

On Monday morning Sam went off to a hot day of mail delivery.  The kids and I hung out at home in the morning.

In the afternoon we went to the movies to see Incredibles 2.  There were just four other people watching it!  Sammy's commentaries and laughter were impossible for him to keep inside, so those other people got it all, hahaha!

After the movie we went grocery shopping.  What a hoot!  Bianca was watching the live lobsters and when we had to walk away from them she turned around and waved and said, "Good bye!  I'll never see you again!"  A young guy that had just passed us turned around, thinking she was talking to him!  As if that wasn't funny enough, Sammy said, "That guy works at A&M!  We know him!"  Hahahahaha!!

Back at home I got busy cooking chili for dinner.  Sammy found a book I had brought along (one that I had taken on our Florida trip, but we never really used it) called Hidden Pictures.  He absolutely could not get enough of doing those pages of hidden pictures!  He spent the rest of the day in that book and did them all!!

Bianca zonked out on the sofa for a while.

That gave her the energy she needed to be a little firecracker for the rest of the evening!

Sammy, still working on those hidden pictures!

They were so happy when Sam finally got home from work.

I took so many pictures of her holding this cat (it's either Cookie or Cocoa - I can't ever remember which cat is which.)  But she wanted me to take one more before she went to bed.

On Tuesday morning it rained.  It started out with just rain, but later turned into thunder and lightning.  Before it got to that point the kids had fun dancing in the rain!

We worked at puzzles for a while that morning as it stormed outside.

After lunch we made a trip to the grocery store again and then browsed the Goodwill next door.   Sammy could hardly wait to show me the aisles of home goods separated by color.  There was a green aisle, a blue aisle, a pink aisle, a red aisle, etc.  There was something about that that delighted his senses!  And this was the toy section, of course.

We stopped at Turkey Hill on our way home, hoping to see my niece Gina (Doris's daughter) who works there, but she had just left.  So we "settled" for slushies, lol!

Back home Sammy started washing all the coins he could find in the rain water he had collected off the edge of the carport roof that morning.   He declared that rain water was the absolute secret to getting clean, shiny coins!

We had a phone call from Jenn in beautiful Colorado where she was on her work trip, and we all talked with her for a while.

As I was making barbecued hot dogs and roasted garlic potatoes for dinner, Sammy started reading to me the dates on the coins he had washed and asking what happened in each of those years.  Did that ever lead to a very interesting discussion!!  Some were from the years that family members were born or married or graduated, etc.  Some of them led us into discussions about foster care and adoption.  He had so many questions about that and about how our family came to be.  One coin was 2001.  I started to tell him about 9/11.  He had already heard that story from Jenn, who had been about to graduate from basic training on that fateful day.  He insisted that I had to text her and tell her about this coin.  So I did and she replied how cool that was.  Later he found a coin from 2011, the year he was born.  So again he insisted that we text her.  He kept saying that he never knew you could learn so much history from coins!  What an old soul he is!!

Of course, the reason we could have that discussion was because this little dynamo was snoozing away in the living room!

After Sam came home from work that evening and we had eaten dinner, he and I were invited to the Water Science for Kids show.  (Except we were adults, lol!)

At the end of the show we had fun dumping all that water out onto the driveway and they had one more chance to get wet!

The next day Sam had off work, so I packed up my things and headed for home.  It had been a delightful few days!  I stopped at Turkey Hill on my way out of town and got to see niece Gina at work.  

When I got home I rustled up a meal with whatever I could find in my kitchen.  It actually wasn't too bad - sausage, peppers, and rice in a bit of tomato base.  As I was leaving to go over to Anthony and Lori's I took this picture from my car.

And then I took this one at the end of the street that leads into our community.  I enjoy seeing these flowers every time I go in and out.

Over at Anthony and Lori's I sat a while in the screened in porch and enjoyed the serenity.  Isn't summer such a wonderful gift from God?  I just want it to stay and stay and stay and stay!!!

That evening Anthony and Lori were going out to eat with some old friends and we stayed with the boys.

Practicing to give Grandpa some competition some day!

Beautiful sunset that evening.

On Friday when I was at their place I noticed how big her potted plants were getting at her front door.  So beautiful!

In this little area beside the front door she is starting a water garden.  I said, "And you sit out here every morning and leisurely drink your tea, right?"  We both laughed.  Someday!

When I got home that evening I decided to take a picture tour around our little house.

So these tall things growing between the hosta are in full white bloom now.  Dick says he thinks he brought them here from the flower garden outside Lori's kitchen window last year.  

Out front we now have tiger lilies in bloom.  In front of them are the impatiens.  So far they are struggling to take off.  Hopefully they will eventually be full and beautiful like they were the past two years.  

Surrounded by lilies.

Even the shed!

Our grasses are  getting huge.

On Thursday our daughter Miki and her friend Kicki (who has traveled to the States twice before with her, or maybe three times) arrived at the Newark, NJ airport around 3 pm.  They rented a car and drove to Dick's brother Fred's place in Manheim.  They will be staying there for a week, then coming to our place.  Times like this are when I feel sad that we no longer live in our home area.

I didn't want to wait that long to see her, so on Saturday I decided to drive down.  The forecast looked like there might be rain around 4 pm, but it didn't look too bad.  Well.  I got into rain about half way there.  Not too heavy though.  I picked her up from Fred and Deb's place and we ventured out.  We both agreed that we wanted to go somewhere that people did not know us.  We didn't feel like having our precious time together constantly interrupted by people who had not seen us in forever, haha!  

We had the best time catching up.  For three hours we sat in that booth at Plaza Azteca near Lancaster and talked and talked and laughed and shed some tears and ate scrumptious Mexican food.  It was just what we both needed.  Then I took her back to Fred and Deb's and headed back home.  It was not a fun drive.  Very heavy rain most of the two-and-a-half hour drive.  If I had known it would be like that I may have decided to stay home, but I'm glad I didn't know.  I was happy to arrive home around 7:15 pm.  

While I was doing that Dick spent the afternoon at Stauffer Acres with his dad's chain saw.  They cut down a big dead tree.  Anthony took some great pictures and videos, but I'm finishing up this blog at a different computer and I can't access those pictures right now . 

On Sunday after church we brought the boys home with us.  They both looked so handsome in their "church" clothes.  I actually took these pics after we took them back home in the evening.

After naps at our house we went to Pizza Hut for dinner.  That's a meal we all love.

Oops.  I guess Austin and I weren't quite ready for the camera, hahaha!!  Now I realize how lovely I look when I'm cleaning food off my teeth, lol!!

We're getting a lot of rain in PA.  Lori had to leave on a work trip this afternoon.  I was wondering if her flight would be able to leave, but apparently it did.

Wow, this got to be a terribly long post again!  Just too many good things to take pictures of, and this wasn't even all of them.  

Have a great week, everyone!