These little pink high-heeled slippers were a big hit with Sophie right from the start!

Lisa and George - the very sleepy travelers!

The piano caused many smiles and giggles!

Destiny and Sophie played with the kitchen set in the sunroom and mixed applesauce with cinnamon in Destiny's mixer!

Sophie loves to dance!

Sophie crawling through Destiny's "bridge"!

Four generations of Stauffers: Howard (age 82), Dick (age 57), Lisa (age 33), Sophie (age 2).

They're at the airport, and Sophie is already flying high!! (This little airplane playground is right near their departure gate. Destiny always loves to play there too when we're waiting to leave Tampa.)

A Working Holiday

This was a working holiday for us, but we didn't feel rushed, and we're so excited about our next few days that we didn't mind not being able to relax and celebrate today.

I got a LOT of groceries for this weekend, then prepared food for the rest of the day.

Dick put new lattice under the porch (I gave up on painting the old wooden stuff), planted more flowers, put up a window blind, and fixed some things.

At about 10:30 I heard the fireworks in town and noticed that we could see the higher ones above the treetops. I checked if Destiny was still awake, and she was, so we sat outside and watched. Mostly all we could see was the sky lighting up, and occasionally the higher fireworks, but the air was coming this direction, and we could hear the band playing as clear as day, especially Stars and Stripes Forever. That was a cool way to end the day.

I'm SO EXCITED for tomorrow! They leave Tampa at 9 AM I think, fly to Baltimore, rent a car, and arrive here mid afternoon. Dick said that what time they arrive here depends upon whether they stop at his shop first. Hmmm. Imagine that! Who will get to see Sophie first - Grandpa or Grandma?? We shall see!!

Destiny and neighbor boy Anthony had fun making puzzles out of the lattice scraps from Dick's project. After a while they switched to doing real puzzles.

Sam hung out at home today, helped with some jobs, and enjoyed sitting under the roofed portion of the deck reading as we got a GOOD, STEADY rain this evening.

An evening with the Wichtermans

This evening we had the pleasure of being with my youngest sister Rose and her five daughters. Rose and Bob live near Atlanta, GA and have spent the past few days in the DC area with his brother Bill and family. She posted a lot of interesting info and pictures of their tour of DC on her blog. Yesterday Bob and their son Matt flew back home, and today Rose and the girls drove to PA where they will be visiting various family members until Sunday. They spent this evening at our house. The weather was just perfect for eating outside.

Destiny spent the day with her mommy, but Dick picked her up after work, so she still had plenty of time to play with Rose's four-year-old Olivia.

Tomorrow we will do some more projects around here, then on Thursday George and Lisa and Sophie will arrive. This weekend 40 some people from my family will be together. So much to look forward to. But right now I'm falling asleep as I write, and the thing I'm most looking forward to is my bed!

My sister Rose and I.

The five beautiful Wichterman girls: Julia, Christy, Katie, Olivia, and Maribeth.

A new word

Destiny's mommy has off work today and called to ask if she could come for the day to go swimming. On the way there Destiny was saying that she hoped they would not be going to the same pool they went to last time, because her little brother almost drowned. She said, "Even in the 3 feet it was higher than my head." I said I didn't see how that was possible, since she is more than 3 feet tall. She replied, "Well, it was. It must have been extermolated." I smiled to myself and thought, "Now there's a new word." After about a minute she asked, "Is extermolated a real word?" I replied, "Well, I don't know. I never heard it before. What did you think it means?" She answered, "It means it had the ocean water poured into it."

So there you go. A new word for Webster's Dictionary:

Extermolate: to pour ocean water into a pool.

Longs Park

Last evening we enjoyed, along with thousands of other people, the annual patriotic concert by the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, followed by an amazing display of fireworks. What distinguishes this event from others is that former Lancaster mayor Charlie Smithgall owns real cannons which are set off at just the right times during the orchestra's rendition of the 1812 Overture. We always get there around 4:30 PM and thus get to hear their rehearsal, during which they also set off the cannons. Then at 8:30 we get to hear them again. I guess we just love noise.

My sister Doris and some of her family. We've been enjoying this annual event together since 1987!

My friend Yvonne (on the left) enjoyed the evening with us.

Yummm. Good Coleman's black raspberry icecream.

Destiny wouldn't take this picture until we put our heads against each other!!

Just a portion of the huge crowd.

A Stauffer Reunion

On Saturday evening we attended a Stauffer reunion that included many generations - Dick's dad's cousin's and their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren! The idea for this reunion was begun by Dick's second cousin's little girl in Texas, when she was supposed to provide information about her family tree for a school project!

Dick's cousin's daughter Judy was hoping Jeremy would be there. They were good friends in high school. She is now married and working as a foster care case worker in New Jersey. This picture is for you, Jeremy.

Elvin Stauffer (far left) sang with his children and grandchildren. That's a lot of little Stauffer boys!

Dick's dad (Howard) on the right, with his sister Helen and brother Clarence.

We just got back from the patriotic concert and fireworks at Longs Park. Fantastic as usual! I'll post more tomorrow.