Our Father's Day weekend in the good old summertime!

I've got so many things to write and share.  I love summer so much!!  Especially now that we can go more places and be with more people. 

First off, a picture I took as I sat on the front porch one day last week.  This view just speaks "summer" to me. 

I took this picture of the Cheeseburger Cups I made for Anthony and Lori and the boys on Friday.  Once in a while I like to make something that the boys might especially like.  These called for Pillsbury biscuits, which I did not have, so I made them from scratch - my favorite recipe from the Mennonite Cookbook that I used to serve with my ham and eggs breakfasts back in our bed and breakfast days.  Of course there was dough left for making a couple of biscuits.  Oh my...were they good!  Don't tell Dick, because there weren't any left for him, lol!!

Also on Friday, this little cutie turned 10 months old!  And he's officially a toddler already!  I captured those lower pictures while we were FaceTiming!  

On Saturday Dick and I decided to go to Ella's Place in Elizabethtown where Destiny works.  We wanted to get there after the big breakfast and lunch rush, so we took our good old time, going off the beaten path to enjoy some sights of the Susquehanna River.  

I never tire of seeing the river!

We went to pick up Elizer first so we could take him along to the restaurant.  The timing was perfect.  I think we got there around 1:00, and there were just a few other diners there.  

It looks like he's saying, "Is my mommy around here somewhere?"

How sweet is this??

He was an angel while we ate.  He's crazy over French fries, so we got an order of them for him and gave them to him piece by piece.  

Destiny's job is not a picnic, as anyone who has ever waitressed can understand.  They are so pathetically short-staffed, and weekends are CRAZY.  And the male owner gets very unkind sometimes.  The female co-owner is not that way at all, but has off weekends.  Destiny's days off are Tuesday and Wednesday, their slower days.   They LOVE her, and many customers ask for her.  They call her their #1 waitress.  If you think of her, pray that they hire more help for the weekends.  We have plans with the Stauffer family this coming Sunday that she had really hoped to go to, and she had asked off, but at this point it's looking unlikely that she will be able to go.  

After Destiny got off at 2:00 we took her for groceries and some other things.  I don't know why I didn't get any picture of Elizer in the shopping cart.  He was being SO CUTE, and people just couldn't resist talking to him - both women and men, haha!!  

We left for home around 6 pm and hit rain for a while.  But then it cleared off and was so beautiful.  Still daylight when we arrived home, woohoo!!!  I LOVE summer!!

Sunday morning we went to church.  There were 65 people in attendance, the most we've had since COVID.  It was hard to quiet people down at the beginning - everyone feels the excitement of being together again, and finally without masks, because most people are vaccinated.  I just can't tell you how wonderful it is for me to lead the music with people there after all the months of online services, being there as part of the "skeleton crew" and feeling like I was singing all by myself.   

For many years I was worship leader at Grace Community Fellowship (we moved away) and later at Houserville House of Hope (the church closed) where both places we had a whole team of musicians and vocalists leading contemporary praise and worship.   Here at Greater Buffalo Run Valley UMC, the majority of our music is older hymns and choruses from the Celebration Hymnal.  I do love those too, but I would love to lead contemporary praise and worship with a team again sometime.  Anyway, our closing hymn on Sunday was It Is Well with My Soul, an all-time favorite.  And with 65 people singing, facing Pastor Lynn, she was moved to tears as she dismissed us afterward.  Here's the video of the song. We don't sound like Mennonites (my heritage) or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but we were singing with all our hearts!  Maybe you would like to sing along!

Of course, Sunday was Father's Day.  I made this collage of Dick and the younger dads in our family - clockwise from top left - Anthony, George, Sam, Frank, Alex, Jeremy, and Mike.  We're so proud of each one! 

Because it was Alex's first Father's Day, I made this collage of him and Elizer - each one so precious.  He's a very young dad, but the relationship between those two is a beautiful thing to see.

Alex really wanted pictures of his first Father's Day.  Here are some that Destiny just sent me.  Alex's dad was there too, so they were able to get a three-generation shot.  

Dick and I stayed home all day on Sunday.  After it cooled off a bit in the evening we did some work outside.  Sam and the kids had given me a little potted rose last weekend, so Dick dug out a spot to plant it.  Later he'll dig more on either side to make it flush with the rest of the flower bed.   But he was too hot last evening. 

I took a picture of our very first lily!

And here's our hydrangea.  Will she or won't she this year??  It's been a few years since she bloomed, so we'll see what happens this year.  

After we had everything cleaned up we sat on the porch till after dark.  I just LOVE how it stays daylight till 9 pm!

This morning Dick forgot to take his phone along to work, so after I got dressed I took it to him.  I stopped at the arboretum on the way home to get in a brisk walk before it got too hot.  I took so many pictures that I'm afraid my walk wasn't very brisk, haha!  I'm dumping all the pics here.  Enjoy!

This is the "boardwalk" where we sisters like to sit and chat whenever they come for a visit. I sat for a while and basked in the sun and breeze.  I could almost imagine I was at the beach.

Have a good week!