Came and Gone -

 Joel came over a week ago, then my parents came for almost a week. Joel left on Saturday back to Canada, and my parents left this morning back to Memphis. Alyssa also headed out on Saturday morning for her second year of hanging with her friend from a mission trip that happens to live in St. Thomas! I did my usual poor job of taking pictures, but I was smart enough to add the ones that my mom took to my collection.

This is Joel, Deb, Alyssa, Grandpa and Alei at Alei's house. She made them dinner and had them over the evening that JD and I, with the younger kids, went to our last home group before summer.

 Grandpa swapped out to take a picture with Geema also. As some history, Geema is called Geema because it is how Gabriel attempted to say Grandma as a two year old and it stuck. Worked out much better since JD's mom was already Grandma to her brood of grandchildren and Geema was a first timer with Gabriel's birth.

Chris and Moriah weren't in the Alei's house photo shoot, so here's a shot Geema took of them at our house. Some trivia on Chris is that he actually has the same last name as my parents; which is obviously also my maiden name and Deb's last name. Kind of cute I think.

Here's Geema and Grandpa with the younger crew this morning before they headed to the airport. I declined being in the shot as I had just rolled out of bed and milked a goat.

We had some nice memories made during the trip. Grandpa let the kids work through the cool books we had from the library. They like the "We Can Read" series that has the adult read page on the left and the kid read page on the right. Bella read a whole one that was more on Elijah and Selah's grade level. (I'm thrilled to have taught everyone to read at this point, it's rather exhausting!)

 

Geema helped all the kids with plenty of school; we have a ways to go on math.

Geema and I spent one hot morning in the garden weeding, and Joel finished pruning the apple and pear trees. They look so much better!

Geema took these pictures out by the barn on one of our milking excursions. I like that it shows the kitty, Tally, and the white rooster that both moved into the goat stall. I'm rather fond of that rooster and am going to keep him around when the rest move on.

JD and the boys are spending Memorial Day butchering our meat chickens; it's the first time we have done our own, so the verdict isn't in if JD wants to continue ordering meat chickens. I had a hair appointment this morning and took off 8" for L'Oreal's program that makes wigs for women with cancer. My hair with be mailed off and I still have plenty.