Well, after a very fun two weeks, I am back home in Bend, sufficiently rested up from jet lag, and ready to resume my musings and activities on our blog. Julie and I intended to blog together while I was at her home, but having 7 children to care for and enjoy as well as the activities we participated in and the usual chores, it just didn't happen. But we would like you to share in our joy as we share the photos from our lovely visit.
My oldest granddaughter Kory flew with me to Pittsburgh, where Julie and her family picked us up. Before leaving however, we enjoyed a fun week-end at Kory's house with her family. She lives in the little community of Woodland, Washington...best known for the I-5 break at the Oak Tree Restaurant. Woodland was having it's annual fair called "Planters Day" that week-end, and our step-granddaughter Ashley had just been selected the Queen of Planters Day.
Before we left for the Saturday morning parade, we took a couple of photos of Ashley in her beautiful gown in the back yard.

Here is Queen Ashley with her Dad, our son-in-law Kirk Snead.

Kirk and Joy kindly lined up chairs for everyone to watch the parade in comfort, and the weather was very nice...not too hot. The insurance man and I had a great time watching all our grand kids...and the parade too!

Queen Ashley led off the parade...and really had that princess wave down pat.

She will be in many other parades this summer in neighboring communities, so this is the first in a long string. She will really know how to smile and wave at the same time. She gets to keep her lovely crown... and did a great job all week-end interacting with the crowd and participating in activities from dawn to dusk. She had a very proud family watching her go by.

This is Ashley, Kory and Kendall's youngest sister Macy. She was exited to watch her sisters go by too.

Kory marched in the parade with her drama group. She has lots of fun with a community theater in Woodland, and they had a group representing them in the parade. She didn't much like her costume, and said she was supposed to be a Russian princess or something. She is holding a banner with another would-be-actor.

Kendall rode in the parade, on a float with her softball team. (They later went on to win the State championship!) She is the blonde with the ponytail.

After the parade I took this photo of our daughter Joy with her best friend Tracy. I am blessed to have two lovely ladies that call me 'Mom'.

During the day various activities were going on, and we headed over to the theater to watch Kory. She spent an hour doing 'improv' with a group of other teens. It was fun to see the various games they played, and Kory did a good job.

After a while Macy had had enough, and just crashed on the insurance man's hat. It couldn't have been very comfy up there!

We all had a good laugh, and took photos of the poor little tuckered girl. We took her down, and held her while she finished off a good nap. It was a good week-end, and a fun family time.

During the day Monday, Kory and I packed and got ready, and were dropped off at the Portland airport around 9:30. Our flight was a red-eye, and Kory was soon to learn what that term meant! More tomorrow....