West River Camp 2007

We took Sean to camp today, and will pick him up Friday evening. Jeff seems to be imparting words of wisdom in this photo. Hmm, I wonder what they could be.













Here, Sean is making a Do Not Disturb sign for his door. Notice the word "Please" appears before the command, how thoughtful!

















Here is Sean with Brandon and AJ making name tags and signs. There are 11 boys and 23 girls in their section of camp.












Sean starting to make his bed. After I snapped the photo, I grabbed the sheet from him and did it myself - much faster that way.












Some artistic person did a chalk welcome on the sidewalk. This is the first year Sean is not in the cabins. He is stationed in the "Retreat Center" - they have air conditioning. Luckeeeee!












One of my stock file photos of the camp. I never get tired of looking at it.















Posing in the room. Can you say Geek?















I hope Sean is this happy at the end of the week. He was quick to point out the water view from his window. He's not exactly roughing it, but I'm sure he'll have a great time.

Stay tuned, I'll post Friday pics on............., well, Friday.
Amy













Brandon's dad Mark was getting comfortable. Across the room Jeff was sprawled on the extra bed, and I was on Sean's bed. It wasn't long before some party pooper lady came along and kicked us out.

Fox

Well, here is a not so interesting story. I was sitting out back this morning, with Frannie and Scarlet. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fran racing toward the hot tub - when I turned to look I saw a red fox chasing her. The fox ran all the way up to the hot tub, saw me and Scarlet, then turned and fled to the neighbors house. This picture is not our fox, but similiar.

Ours was cuter, more reddish and not quite as sly looking. Anyway, I thought the kitties would be safe outside, so long as I was out there to watch them. Alas, I was wrong. I suppose the fox will try to eat my cats, so I should hate it - but I don't. I feel sort of sorry for it - it must be hard to be a wild fox in todays world. I am naming him (or her) "Slinkey".

Jake's Cake

Here is a picture of Jake getting ready to cut his cake while Nan does a cheer in the background.

John's gifts

John came by last night for a visit. He recently returned from Vietnam, Japan and China. He was very thoughtful and brought us all super gifts. Here is Sean wearing a silk kimono, which he absolutely LOVES. He put it on last night, wore it thru dinner, all evening, slept in it and only took it off because he had to go to school. I love the way his little feet are showing underneath him.


I'm a slacker and didn't get a picture of Jake in his shirt before he bolted out the door to Ocean City. I will photograph Jeff later today.










John brought me a beautiful jewelry box from Hong Kong. Here is a top view and.....















.......front view. We are vey lucky that John is so nice and thinks of us on his travels. We got to see all his photos from the trip, which was fun. He said the noodles were the best ever, which sort of makes we want to go just to eat them.

The Party

Last Saturday we had beautiful weather, plus, family in town from Florida. It was the perfect time for a party, and several of my family members came by. This picture gives you an idea of how fun the day was. Does this look staged to anyone?














Uh-oh, there goes the lampshade.














Here is Jake's graduation cake, modeled after his helmet (but a lot cleaner).













Sara, Kathy and Sue. They are so cute together!

















Mary toasting for the camera.












Getting liquored up for fake.















Did you know Melissa could play the piano? All we were missing were stoneware jugs with several "x"'s on them, and a couple of hound dogs.

By the way, nice tonsils Em!!!!

Class of 2007

Today was Jake's graduation from Southern High. The ceremony started at 9:30am, which was great, it left the rest of the day for us to have fun. Here is a pic of all the graduates.













Jake posing with Nan and Sara.














Sean in his super-cool Hawaiian Shirt.
















Jake thinking deep thoughts (or, looking for an escape route.)



















The fire helmet cake. I should have sprinkled cocoa on it to make it look dirty. Oh well, live and learn.













Jake and Mom-mom.














Jake and his peep's.














Jake and his mama. We are both happy and relieved.





















Jake and Pop.



















Hey, another happy picture. It's not often Jake poses, so I'm taking advantage of that here.
Congratulations Jake, for a job well done - WE LOVE YOU!

Last of the Charleston Pics

This is the last edition I can bear to do, from our Charleston trip. Here is the entrance to the famed Hyperion Hall, where the St. Cecelia ball was held for decades/centuries, whatever. My photographer failed to get a shot of the stained glass Irish harp above the door, but it's cool - trust me.










The dome inside. There are two big ballrooms and two beautiful winding staircases that lead upstairs , perfect mirror images of each other. The symmetry was broken at some point for the addition of rest rooms.










This is one of the carts they used to haul perps off to jail. I would guess they scattered hay or straw inside it.















One of the many confederate war memorials. The statues are all beautiful and the inscriptions touching.



















This is one of the stray kitties we saw in the graveyard. The poor thing looked a bit shabby, but healthy enough. Let me just say, he's luckier than poor little you-know-who, who I can't bear to mention.










A bad pic of me sitting on our balcony. The spire rising from my head is actually the steeple of St. Michaels Church. It contains a clock that chimes on the quarter hour and acts as the timekeeper for the entire city. It comes in handy when you are stumbling back to your hotel, a bit tipsy and full of expensive food and are not wearing a watch.














Somebody asked for a pic of the room. This is the bed, as it was laid out each night with robes and pralines. They had a pillow menu, so you could order different, crazy pillows each night. The linens were top notch by the way.











These are the doors of the hyperion hall. Were people taller back in the old days? I know women used to have big ole beehive-type hairdos, but COME ON!