A Taste of Summer...

Well! This is another first ever for this blog! An actual SLIDE SHOW! Whoo-hoo! (My eleven year old daughter showed me how!) I goofed in my first attempt, but Darcy was there to bail me out! I do apologize for the poor resolution...I COULD HAVE uploaded my photos at their ORIGINAL resolution and size, but, alas, the message on my screen informed me that even at the lightning speed of wireless internet (yes, we are blogging AWAY from home and our DIAL-UP, right now!), it was going to take around six hours to to upload the photos before I could begin making the show itself. So, I compressed them a LOT and uploaded the same batch of photo in a matter of seconds instead. The price paid, though, is that they don't have that cutting clarity of the original images...but, oh well!

These photos were taken last Thursday (just a few short days after we had had those four inches of snow overnight!). We live next door to Grant's parents (the only two homes on our combined 40 acres of woods and someone else's umpteen acres of woods). There is a creek that runs behind the grandparents' home (well, behind ours, too...only you have to walk deep into the woods to reach it behind our house). There is a deep part in the creek that, for as far back as I can recall, has always been referred to as "Grandpa's Bathtub".

Last Thursday, one of Mom (in-law)'s friends came over to learn how to cut glass to make stepping stones (a time-consuming endeavor). She not only brought HER three oldest children with her (ages 5, 4, and 3), she also brought Darcy's good friend, Ruth and Ruth's little brother, David, along. We didn't know they were planning on coming over and so the kids and I were out galavanting around that day. As our van meandered down the lane to come back home, we were greeted by my father-in-law frantically waving his arms over his head, desperate to stop us 'lest we decide to turn around and leave home again. I thought maybe there was a medical emergency in progress as I drove down their long driveway to see why my father-in-law looked so weary and stressed...and frantic to get our attention. Turns out, he was desperate for Darcy's assistance. He begged her to come help him babysit! Poor guy had been left to single-handedly keep track all five kids. Darcy was only too happy to come to his rescue! Before long, my three kids were playing in the creek with the other five children...having a fine, large, time of it!