"The love of my life.....

....to this little boys is "cherries"....marachino (sp?) cherries. How do I know? 'Cause he told me. We were having milkshakes one night and cherries came on top and Evan swiftly tried to talk everyone out of their cherries. He said, in his own little way..."Oh, 'terries....dare du lub ub my life".....dare; I dust ate du lub ub my life" as he popped one in his mouth. Do you need a translation there? (Cherries are the love of my life. There, I just ate the love of my life). That just made me smile and I truly admire someone that knows exactly what makes him happy...."the love of my life" is something very important to have. Happy Birthday, Evan. You truly are "the love of my life"....and I about eat you up every time I'm with you.

We celebrated in fine style yesterday at Pine Valley and Evan got his cake with his name written in, none other than, cherries.....and, we christened our new fire pit. After the fire marshall coming by two times when we built fires, we decided we'd conform to "every, single, rule and regulation"....it couldn't be more "in code" and guess what, he didn't show up and we had a grand time. Beautiful job, Kyle and JoEllen....and thanks.

Each thing we do is an improvement to our "heaven on earth" and that's what it felt like yesterday with the cloud cover rolling in and the beautiful lush greenery and lots of good food and good company.

We had a few "deer" friends drop in for Evan's birthday party and one of the games was "Red Light, Green Light" that they played with a deer. When she would turn her head, they would quietly creep a little closer with their morsels of food in their hands. Needless to say, they didn't get very close......kids just don't know "quiet".....



Drew and McKay decided they'd chug down a few limes......why????? Oh, well. If that's the stupidest thing they do in their lives, we'll count ourselves blessed.

I do hope each of you (who do I think reads this stuff) count yourself blessed on this last day of July as we wind down an "action-packed" summer. I, for one, am ready to get 'em in school and they aren't even mine....I feel like I'm putting 11 little kids back on a schedule now instead of just my 5 in earlier years. This is "the most won....der....ful time of the year".