Mosaic Art Show

Linda, Cris and I spent hours of time this summer creating our mosaics. It's pretty amazing because all three of us finished our works of art today. Cris and Linda were my mentors. This is their 3rd year of doing it. I think that every year they get better. We worked in Cris's backyard. She has a perfect place to do this. She has spent the past year breaking bottles and tumbling them. Cris and I both used a lot of glass in our projects. If you have a chipped plate or broken bottle of unique glass (not basic wine), we would love to have them for next years project. We also use tiles and marble. Yes, I am addicted to this art form. Since we usually work together, it become a wonderful social and creative endeavor.
We plan to have an open house art show on August 2nd to show off our work. If you would like to come, just let me know.

Erica & Brett's Wedding

These pictures speak for themselves. Erica and Brett had a wonderful wedding. Erica was Laurel's roommate and Brett is Laurel's boss. Needless to say, Laurel was very involved in the wedding. The wedding was at my church, First Pres. Berkeley and the reception was at Piedmont Community Center. What a great celebration.

Mary & Lucy visit the Bay Area

Maryn, Lucy and Parents came for a visit with Grandma and Grandpa. We had a blast. Since I really love photos, I will tell you what we did mostly with pictures. I have posted lots of photos on facebook, but if you don't check out facebook, this will be a great way to stay updated. We played at home a lot. We played with barbies, bears, water play, picking veggies, taking walks, going to the boat. We had a trip to the Tilden to visit the steam train, merry-go-round and the little farm. I think the highlight of Maryn's trip was a visit to the Jelly Belly Factory.


Here we are on D B's boat on San Francisco Bay. My friend Helen, her son Paul and his girlfriend's parents from Paris joined us on our cruise of the bay.

Here we are at dress up time. These are very old dress up clothes from Laurel's young days. In fact, Lucy is wearing a costume from Erica Smylie Douglas's very young days.

DB, Jess, Mayrn and I took a walk by the boat. Maryn got to play and also see how grandpa traps bait near his boat.


iv>

We did take time to have hot fudge Sunday Treats. Lucy really liked them and so did Maryn.

I found a moment to get a family picture. I love family pictures.

It's water play time. Doesn't it look like he is squirting those precious little girls.

Here we are at Tilden Park... Riding theTrain.

Here we are at the Little Farm





Here is the Merry-Go-Round.

Aunt Laurel tried to visit as much as she could. The girls love their Aunt Laurel.

Here is the grand finale.... Our trip to the Jelly Belly Factory. Maryn just loved this. It is pretty fun with lots of free samples. Jess discovered the wonderful cold stone ice cream flavors. Oh my goodness... They were wonderful.



It was so much fun to have the Portland Ballanti's visit us. We had a great time. But, now I know why I was so tired. We did so much while they were here. Jess tells me that Lucy took a 4 hour nap today. She is trying to recover from so much fun. I hope I didn't wear you out with pictures. I have hundreds more if you want to see them.

Cascadel Woods with the Family

Our Family all managed to get together at the Ballanti Cabin. What a great experience. Here are an abundance of pictures from our trip.


We had this family picture taken. Maryn doesn't really like to pose, so you just have to imagine her behine the tree. The good news is that we were all together.

Jess's brother Tom and her good friend Stephanie came up to the cabin too, so here is a photo of them with Chris.

Young Adults Visit Yosemite and Old folks hang with the kids

Here is a picture of Chris & Laurel in smoke filled (controlled burning) Yosemite. They went to Glacier Point and didn't really get to see very much because of smoke. But, they had a good hike. Oh, the mosquitos seemed to love Jess and her brother.

Chris & Jess at smoke filled vista.

Grandpa teaches the Lucy and Maryn how to throw rocks in the pond.

Lucy tries to perfect her toss.

Maryn gets into the throw.

Maryn is a very good artist. She is busy with a water color session.

The girls play with noodles on Grandpa's boat.

OK, this is just a really cute picture of Grandpa with the girls.

Lucy liked playing with the windsock.

Laurel relaxes on the back porch.

Hanging out at Bass Lake

It was unusually hot at Bass Lake, so we spent quite a bit of time in water. We brought our very old kayak. Don and I made the kayak the first year we were married. I guess that makes it 37 years old. We all took turns cruising. Lucy preferred playing in the sand. Maryn wanted to kayak with Aunt Laurel. It was so much fun to have the family vacationing together.

Maryn paddles grandma around.

Laurel and Lucy explore.

Chris Jess and Lucy prepared to swim. Lucy thought the water was too cold.

Laurel & Maryn kayaking.

Lucy contemplates getting wet

Dinner at Manzanita

We went to Manzanita Lake for a pizza dinner. The girls loved the lake, the sand and they really loved the ducks. Did you know that ducks love pizza?

Feeding the ducks was a favorite activity.

Lots of Barbie Play And Water Too

We had 12 Barbie dolls (from Laurel's old stash) and 1 Ken and 1 Donnie (as in Donnie Osmond). Maryn loved the barbies. We even had a Barbie pool.