BIRTHDAY DINNER & WILDLIFE & BICYCLE

Last weekend was a beauty, weatherwise. Dad & I spent most of the day cleaning out the pond and getting it back in working order since the Weber water is on again. It's a big job, but worth it to hear and enjoy the waterfall for the summer. Sunday after church the hungry visitors arrived to celebrate Airie's birthday with salmon in lemon-cilantro butter cooked in a foil pan on the grill. Shrimp cocktails, baked potatoes, a summer & zuccini squash & snow pea pods veggie dish, and pesto or garlic pull-apart bread made for a pretty tasty meal. Before dinner the grandkids had a great time running around the yard and checking out the pond. We enjoyed ice cream and cookies and presents. Happy Birthday Zoogie! I'm including photos from the spouses' bicycle-building event in Phoenix and some wildlife seen in the yard this week.


Checking out the pond as the sun was going down.


Colby could have stayed guarding the pond indefinitely.


The weather was warm enough to enjoy sprawling on the lawn in a sundress. (Actually she was recovering from racing up the hill, around the top of the yard and back down the front slope about a dozen times...what a lot of energy!!!)

Like son, like father (with diet lime Coke, of course!)

Ready to chow down.

The Stansbury Barker Bunch.

Anxious for those shrimp and veggies.

The Birthday Girl...still have the cake and "pear-scented" green candle provided by Briton.

Presents.

A deer dining on my raspberry bushes!!!

Posing (shedding the winter coat).

Two more deer roaming around the back year...3 total.

And the bandito! Monday night, Dad saw 3 raccoons in the bird feeder and 1 more on the deck around midnight. So he set out the trap (with apples and 12-grain bread with Adams Peanut Butter--only the best!) and caught a big one by Tuesday morning, another one by Wednesday, and a third one by Friday!!! We caught two last year and one the year before, so we've already set a new record in one week.

Some of the spouses with the Boys & Girls Club director who came to pick up the 5 bikes.

Debbie (from Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada) & Paula and the giant card to go with the bike for Julia, an underprivileged child on an Indian Reservation.

Debbie & Paula making the card.

Installing the handle bars on the pink "Twirl" bike.

Adjusting the seat. This may actually be the first time I've ever used a wrench!?!?!?!