happy Travis Sorenson Day (Observed), y'all

We had an excellent Travis Sorenson Day. Our friends the Luthys had a satellite celebration in South Carolina, and blackberries were involved in the refreshments. Yum. Here at Ground Zero, there was a variety of meats cooked on the grill, fruit aplenty served on trays and in bowls, potato salad, badminton, volleyball, kiddie pool splashing, slippeysliding, lego building, movie watching, kitten petting, goat feeding and general goodwill.

Thank goodness it wasn't any hotter, or we would have cooked, because our outdoor drapes haven't arrived yet, and it got pretty bakey out on the patio. Thankfully there was shade from the garage, and we survived all right. Grandma Ruth cut down the only big tree in the backyard before she died, because she was positive it was going to blow over and hit the house. What is it with old people thinking that? Olene and Damsel Nelson were the same way--they had beautiful old trees and they chopped all of them down. Sillies. We have only one out of all John's brothers and sisters whose house was hit by a falling tree, and one out of eight is incredible odds, you guys.

The pictures:

We did the snowflake table paper as a subliminal message, so people would think they weren't hot.

Meat!

I bet Steven is asking, "If I were a steak on this grill, how rare would I be?"

The kids tanking up for their exhausting day of water fun.

"Hurry! If we don't eat more we won't get stomach cramps in the kiddie pool!"

What a nice weed patch this is to stand in.

mmm . . . burgers . . .

I'm sorry, dear, I just nodded off thinking about that cooler full of pies Travis brought on that hike that one time.

Pinga loves her groceries.

Thanks for a most rocking day, everyone. Such a swell time . . . Travis would want it that way.