Dinner with Nora & George

Gazpacho
Beef beyond belief
Lovely peach galette with almonds

Saturday night we drove down to Monroe Twp. and had dinner at Casa de Coss. Nora is an excellent cook and we enjoyed our meal from start (a selection of wonderful cheese) to finish, a peach tart with homemade vanilla ice cream. George grilled our steaks to perfection and we ate dinner on their back deck. It was a perfect summer night.

Gravel Gertie Speaks

Hope has a large collection of odd little animals with big heads. She has named them all and put them together in various relationships. When she makes them speak its awful, but I like when she describes whats going on.

An Interesting Point of View

I found this article by Shelby Steele in the Wall St Journal quite interesting. It's an opinion on Obama's popularity.
A bit wordy but worth it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121668579909472083.html

In my garden

Waiting for Baby, Baby S, Baby Snookums, Baby X

Mom-to-be Amy-Lynn relaxes yesterday on her 32nd birthday. The much anticipated babe has many nicknames but we are all waiting to hear the real one. The actual due date is July 27th but the doc says anytime now. Yesterday there was a little girl at the party. She took one look at Amy's stomach and said "take that baby out of there". I can't wait to see her either!

Pilgrims

Will and his friend Andrew got back from Spain last week where they walked the Camino de Santiago from Astorga to Santiago de Compostela, about 250 kilometers.

On the Road.

Galicia.

Slogging it out.

Curas

Hostal.

Tres amigos.

Wow...it's taken me long enough...

I thought I should make a posting in honor of the Blog's third birthday. Here you have it! That's our new bird! Her name is Olive and we only speak baby talk to her. And that's a picture of Sean and I. Have I managed to post this correctly? Sheesh, I thought I was computer savvy...

West Meets East

Well, Helen and Wendy are home. It seems that all of our pictures have a common theme. I think, as Jim Simpson said, jock straps and wings. So for all of you that missed the great parade, here are a few choice pictures.




















































Check out the red what??











On our way back from Swan's Island Maine, we had to stop in Freeport at LL Bean.



The exhausted traveler, waiting to get on the plane to go home, ... now Helen starts taking pictures.




Thank you for being a wonderful family. We had a great trip because we felt at home with everyone we visited.

Happy Blogday: Electric Liz-reprise

You know, our blog is three years old this month, and it's still cooking. Now and then I go back and look at the old stuff, a remembrance of things past. So how about this photo of Electric Elizabeth--three years ago! And now we have two more babies on the way.

Bee Happy

Jim and I took a cruise last weekend. This is down near Nashanic, a great place to ride bike too.

These butterflies have been fluttering around for days. They often share a spot with the giant bees.
Hunter beating up on Thatch.
I have a giant gourd plant that is taking over my garden. You are supposed to be able to make bird houses out of them. Its a bit like the Little Shop of Horrors, you can almost see the tendrils growing.
My latest surgery which is coming along pretty well. "What a drag it is getting.....etc."
We had to have the tile done over around the bathtub. Now the bathroom needs to be painted. Which blue looks the best do you think?

In the Canyon. Part 2: That Terrible Hole.

The Canyon trip was truly Grand. Hot as hell (topping off at 125 in the sun, 108 in the shade), but we did most of our hiking between 3am and 9am, then sat in the crystal cool waters of Bright Angel Creek during the day. Phantom Ranch had Buttwipers and a swamp-cooler lodge, thank you. The side hikes were amazing. The view of the Colorado from Plateau Point, a mile and a half from Indian Gardens, 3000 feet above the river, was, well, surreal? The River Trail, cut into the cliffs high above the nexus of Bright Angel and the river: I could not do it photographic justice. Ah, the immensity of it all. So much time, so much earth to erode.
The last two days we spent on the north rim, which is an entirely different micro-climate: cool, wet, Ponderosa pines, beautiful green meadows, kind of like Oregon, yet, always, when you emerge from the forest, the humbling edge, the multitudinous, variegated colors, and, for the brain, the utter impossibility of the great abyss--even after looking at it for days, it's still just a painting on the wall. There's a hotel up there that sits on the edge, where you can have a drink and watch the sun set. Or you can have breakfast in their dining room, which looks south across that terrible hole. Something else with eggs over easy. And because it's a 250-mile drive from the tourist-packed south rim, the humans are few and far between. Wunderbar!


From Plateau Point. A couple of rafts down there.

Indian Gardens.

North Rim View.

In the Canyon

Die Grosse Stille. 7/5/08.

Baby Snookum's Room

We are done with baby Snookum's room (Marg named her). We are very excited and have less than 3 weeks to go.
Now all we need is a baby.

4rth of July

Scarily ready for the parade.
Hunter marches in the parade with his troop.
Thatcher channels Ricky Lee Billy Joe Bob Scooterpie.
Waiting for Baby Snookums

We had a nice fourth although slightly soggy and muggy. Saturday we had a fireworks display at Chris and Amys. Thatcher and Chris go over to Easton ,Pa. where anyone but Pa residents can buy fireworks legally.However crossing over into NJ with them is illegal ,and the state troopers stake out the area ,but BillyBob Thatchmo eluded them in his super hot camaro "The General HeeHa". Later he relaxed with his brother ChrisCooter while they planned how to outsmart Roscoe P Coltrane. (Apologies to all those who never watched The Dukes of Hazzard).

Sizzlin' Summer Sensations

A few recent photos from the northwest coast. We're having a fun summer. After a solid six months of rain the weather has finally taken a turn for the better. My garden is blooming and by the looks of pic number 2, so is my belly. For those of you who I haven't had the pleasure of speaking with recently...Dave and I have big news! We've decided to add to the Simpson/Malmquist family brood and are expecting a bambino by early 2009. My due date is Jan. 5th. We're very excited, to say the least!

I'm really craving a piece of G'ma's chocolate cake with her mayo additive. There was nothing like it...

Hope this post finds everyone well.

xoxoxoxoxo