May into June

Welcome Home Elder Barker from the Eugene, Oregon Mission! Dad and I and Airie and Abram got up early and traveled up to Trenton to hear Jared's homecoming address. He did an excellent job. Whereas his farewell was short and sweet, this time, the meeting almost went overtime! His shyness is gone. He seems to have had a very successful mission.
In this photo: Travis and Jasmine Wilhelm, John and Jessica Nelson and son Heber (about a year old), Kelly and Jackie Nelson (she is expecting a baby in July), Joshua and Pam, Jared and Mike, and Jessica's daughter Sydni (3, I think.) We had a great lunch afterwards...mmmmm those BBQ beans.

2 brothers...Mike's health is medium.

The Happy Returned Missionary.

Our backyard, gone to seed after 3 weeks without mowing. We figured we could leave it for 11 days while we were on vacation, but then it rained every day after we got back.

Some blades were 13 inches tall.

It took Dad about 5 hours to mow and trim when the weather finally permitted it. He had to dump every 1/2 round. Instead of the usual 7 bags of clippings, he got 21!! After filling our 2 big garbage cans, he stuffed 'em in neighbors' cans.

The rain and cooler temps have been good for the landscaping...some of our ground cover, phlox, in the big rocks in the front yard.

Loverly lilacs.

After returning from Trenton we played some games, including Ice Planet Hoth. It took forever (must have been a great way to get 4 Barker bums out of my hair at some point in the past!) and was pretty lame, but we got some good Star Wars quotes and memories going. Afterwards it was a pinochle marathon, of course. Abram scored a double pinochle on the last hand!

Yep, May 30th, Memorial Day in Farmington. Wherefore art thou, Spring? This is the weekend Autumn went to the City of Rocks, duh.