seabreeze fun

The annual end of the year Seabreze dayfor St John Neumann School turned out to be quite lovely. Kids did the usuaul run around, find friends, roller coaasters etc and then the water rides.

No rain!

This marks the end of the school year and typically a long weekend with Dad culminating in Fathers Day...then the big summer transistion of camps, swimming and tennis.

We certainly have issues with separation anxiety. I feel it worse now than in years past...I am going to miss "Lttle Miss I think I am a Comedien"...not sure where she is getting this behavior from??

Today we went shopping and then the movies and games...tomorrow ...GOLF!!

strangers in the blog

Caaaaarrl....stopped by to see us. He has a meeting with Tops tomorrow so he was able to swing by see the new Kitch and have some Beef Burgandy with Grace and I.

Splendid.

more orange thanks to grace

Here's some funshots of Grace playing a little softball for the Eastside Orioles---with those lovely orange uniforms.

more orange

Lookie what catherine gave me!!!

AN ORANGE FLEECE!!!

No Way.

First a kidney now this? {Sniff}

Thanks buddy

again with the dance?

Grace did her regularly scheduled dance receital saturday night...and did great....she's a great dancer and just her smile and facial expressions are fun to watch. Maybe next year we can get the Felices up for a weekend event???

So once again...Heeeereee's Gracie!

Fun stuff!

more from "Oven Valley"

Small screaming Russian child in front of me screaming at takeoff/350lb nice lady on the other side of me using my seat (or a chunk of it anyway) yields the following expression...Cathy is taking this far better than me.
Note the curious passenger behind us.

It was raining when we got into the capital of "Bizzaro". Very normal for us, but bizarre for this ez bake oven community. Here we have weird cloud things around a brown jiggidy jaggedy mountain that appear quite bizzarre against our round green mountains.

Dad, here is your picture of "Jabba The Rock" from the Botanical Gardens. Look closely...do you see Jabba??? All taken amoung the cacti and Chuhily (see older posts). I have about 30 shots of the sistas being twinny. Here's one.

getting late...will post the rest soon.

OK ...I'm back....

More Chihuly or a real cactus?

Then we meet the first of the cuz' (Tom) at a a place called Rula Bula(?) gaelic for party I believe and Tom shows us what happens hen you snarf down wosabi w/o knowing it. Great food and great choice cuz Tom. Thanks.

Then to the party at Mike and Julie's for the rehersal thing...Rock band was well rehersed...some of the Jones Brothers were very well rehersed.

No party would be complete without the obligatory cocktails on the veranda and a view of jiggidy jagedy mountains.

All this of course leads up to the big moment when Mary does the big "I does"

Billy?

Then on to the paaarrrtty!

Then to the lovely grounds for some cool photos

Hummingbird in the pic??

The day after the wedding I got to spend a day with my pal Jeff and his family...we tooled around his Triumph TR6....cool ride.

Here's the back of the camel's head on camel back mountain...we had lunch at Greywolf CC and watched a womens golf tournament. Great day. Plus some quality time with the siblings in the Phoenix IKEA ...thats 5 that Iv'e been to!

This whole trip was just right cuz of Joe and his hospitality...Thanks Joe and all the Jones'!

Of course on the way home we took the "I am happy we aren't behind any screaming kids" picture...good trip back.

Hey Cath...if I whistle the stewerdess will come and charge us $2...

We are Jones Cousin's

.. I really cannot recall the last time we all traveled together. Always seems like somebody's got somethin' else goin' as some would say.











































The Jones tribe made most excellent hosts as always as we took the time to tour around Phoenix before our cousin's Mary's wedding. Besides the Botanical Garden, we hit up IKEA and a Bead store along with the standard set of Jones parties and all the requisite merriment. Our Arizona and California cousins are fully equiped for silliness and revelry.. so when we are all together...it is critical mass time.

















We finally had an opportunity for a family portrait. I love the picture - yet find it a bittersweet reminder we are supposed to be a tribe of six.

Wherever Mom is now - I know we gave her a couple of good laughs over the weekend. - Tom

all for Mary's wedding

What a great excuse for a mini reunion...and cousin Joe's place provided all the comforts of home. Boy did we get to know the I10...

here's my favorite shot from Mary's reception.

chihuly2

fun stuff at the botanical...plus the curved bill thrasher...

Great trip you all....had some great food too!

The dessert biosphere/ecosystem is such an extreme and bizarrre place. This is where mother nature was challenged and said ..."Yea? No water, No Problem" Adaptation. A system that thrives in an extreme environment. If only we can adapt the way nature does. There is a sustainable movement that is supposedly gaining some ground that thinks more biologically. Whole man mad ecosystems that immitate natural sub systems in order to reach a new level of sustainability. Hopefully it fares better than Biolab?