Bonding Time

While Christopher was home, he had some time to bond with his nephew James.

It didn't take long for James to warm up to Uncle Chris.

They did some reading.

Some time on the tricycle.

We hope that Chris is teaching James the proper way....

And time with the wagon.

And as a side benefit, Chris had time to catch up with some of the neighbors, like Reid.

Velda's Birthday Suprise

Velda's Birthday was Thursday. She was happy to know that James and Allison were going to be over to help her celebrate.

James even tried to give Po Po some flowers. He decided he wanted to feed her the flowers. He will eventually get it correct.

But there was one more surprise that she was not expecting.

Chris came home from Wilmington, Delaware. He was hiding in the house when Velda came home. When she went into the back yard to see a new tree a friend had dropped off, Chris slid open the patio door and casually walked out.

She was completely surprised! It's not easy to pull one off of her. We were successful!

Velda's Finds

While we were in Poulsbo a week ago, Velda asked (more like begged) to stop at Allison's favorite children's consignment shop.

While we were there, she found some great deals on some gently used toys for James that Velda said we had to have. Two were being brought in for consignment as we walked in the door. The owner did not have time to put tags them but Velda waited until she did.

We hoped they passed the James' test and they did...

The Sesame Street Work Bench. Allison showed us how to soften the speaker volume. James has it talking to us all the time. That could be a problem in the early morning but now it's fixed.

The tricycle and Uncle Chris helping him ride it.

And the new riding wagon...

The only problem is he likes them so much it is hard to get him to go past the toys.

Clam Digging

Over the 4th of July weekend. Scott, Allison and James came over to the cabin for some clam digging. It was a great minus tide and the weather was wonderful (something we cannot say very often this summer). Scott, Allison and I went clam digging.

We dug for butter clams and picked up oysters on the beach.

We were lucky to see eagles on the beach. Allison got some great shots of them.

James enjoyed watching us shucking the clams and oysters.

We also got five large horse clams which James wanted to play with...

James loved begging for food from PoPo Velda. He has sharp eyes when food is around and loves eating everything.

Weather was great, got some food on the beach, and had a great visit with Scott, Allison and James.

35 Years

Velda and I were married on June 26, 1976 at the Little White Church in Silvana, Washington.

We celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada

Looking back, it is hard to believe that 35 years went by so quickly.