Ross ~The Romantic!

Everything is bigger than life with Ross. He is so expressive, so funny and so affectionate and loving. While looking thorough some pictures I ran across this sequence of photos from Burano, Italy to show you how romantic he can be~plus a little dramatic.

The Gathering

Arranging the Bouquet

The Presentation to His Best Girl~Mommy!

While some guys can remain forever clueless in this department, Ross will never be one of them. When asked what he would like to do when he grows up...
His response was "I'd like to just do my Huggy Works!"

Ross totally gets it,
He knows that girls like hugs
And, he is very willing to take it up as his life long work!
The ladies of the future will be standing in line!

I think it is safe to say his Mom, Grandmothers
and Aunties will always be in that line too!

The Plural of I

Yesterday Jim and were discussing our 40 years of marriage and thought about something that has given us a huge sense of unity. We often hear married couples talking about my son, my daughter, my house, my car, etc. I did this, I have that, etc.

We have tried to always say we, our and us and it makes a big difference about how we feel about each other, our marriage, our lives and our unity. Speaking singularly is divisive when you think about it. It is small thing that makes a big difference over time.

Unity

Laughing With Tears In My Eyes

As you know we were privileged to see the sculpture of David in Florence in April. I have thought of that sculpture often and how beautiful it is and how glorious and perfect the human body that God created is and how magnificently Michelangelo copied it. It almost had a sacred feeling attached to it when we viewed it.

Our friends sent us this altered David figure in an e-mail and I honestly didn't know how to react. It was funny and sad and all things rolled into one. What once seemed funny has become rather sobering! We Americans, (especially me) need to keep this in mind and start trying to restore the gift we have so graciously been given. Lanette assures me this is possible. OK, then I am feelin' the motivation!

This visual says so much and truly is one of those instances when a couple of pictures are worth a thousand words. Yikes! Enough viewed and said then!

Happy First Birthday, Owen!

Owen Monroe

Today our little Owen is one year old! It is always so much fun to have little babies in the family and to watch them grow from infants into little toddlers. Owen has done so much growing and changing in the past few months. He has teeth, is crawling and pulling himself up, drinking from a cup and bottle and eating real food. He is very quick and Chris had to build a gate to the downstairs to protect him from the stairway.

It is fun to think about the personality of each little one and what they will be like as they grow up. I think Owen is going to be an easy boy for Mom & Dad. I have seen such an even and sweet temperament and he is such a cuddly little guy. I think he did so well when Mom and Dad were in Europe and he took right to Missy's mom. He actually let me hold him too after a bit so that is pretty amazing when Mommy was no where in sight. Here are some of the fun photos we got of him recently.

Grandma George Owen's new best friend
while Mommy and Daddy were gone!

Owen was pretty squirmy but he did let me
hold him once in awhile.He is getting ready to arch
his back and scream! But Aunt Jen distracted him for a smile!

Happy Birthday, Owie!

Yup, Another Birthday!

Today begins a new month and we still have a flood of birthdays coming. It does slow down considerably by July 4th so that is good! June is a month of great celebrations in our family.

Today we celebrate my youngest brother~Meet Gary!
Baby Brother, Husband, Father of 2 great kids, Business Owner,
and All Around Great Guy!

Gary is 56 today and is younger than me by 5 years and younger than Steve by 3. All of our birthdays are close together, so whenever Gary has one, Steve and I prepare to crank it up a notch! I rummaged through some old boxes and just pulled out a few things as a reminder of the days gone by. Here are just a few photos from the time you only had one little family...Mom, Dad, Steve and me. Happy Birthday, Gar, I hope you enjoy these!

**Gary, Grandpa, Bonnie, Grandma, Stevie**
Us with our grandparents~the only ones we ever knew~
Our Dad's Mom, Alice Grace Godfrey Colberg & Grampa Jake Yeasley

Kindergarten Photo~50 Years Ago!

Fish Catch on North Dakota vacation to visit our relatives!
Fish Theme of his life started to surface!

Gar the Golfer~Hole in One at age 14!

33 years Ago~Starting his new life with Marilyn!
He graduated in Marine Biology
Married a fisherman's daughter
Became a partner in Tom's Bait & Tackle Shop
in Santa Cruz with his new father-in-law!

*****************************************

Fast forward to yesterday when we were all sharing vacation tales and Gar and Marilyn told us about their recent scuba diving experience. They were in the Bahamas and went down with a crew over 100 feet to see some spooky ship wreck and suddenly realized they were at the half way point for their air and needed to start their ascent. They somehow had gotten separated from the group and were on a side of the sunken ship where no one could see them. There was a very strong current and they started trying to swim, losing air quickly, but were not making any progress toward the rope they needed to hold on to to get back up to the surface. At one point while Gary was 8 feet above the wreck and not able to get where he wanted to go Marilyn thought..OK this is it..we are going to die here.

She was trying to find a way to get to him so she could share her air. It was very harrowing and hair raising just listening to them tell it. They made it up by the grace of God, but were shaken by the experience.

Live and learn? No! They did another dive the same day and sat on the bottom in the sand watching 8 foot sharks circling around the group. The sharks were full after being fed so they did not bother them but came close enough to graze past them eye ball to eye ball. However, as Jim so aptly pointed out, to an 8 foot shark Marilyn is an hor d'ouerve. How many times do you finish dinner and have an extra bite or two while cleaning up? After a normal amount of shrieking by the rest of us they said, " Oh don't worry, we are trained and certified...we all agreed, they are certified all right..Certified Crazy!

All my big sister instincts to run and tell mom and dad surfaced! But I guess at your age you can do whatever you want! Dang it! We truly are celebrating your life today, Gar! Glad you made it back in one piece. Have some cake and relax, will ya?

Happy Birthday!

I don't know this nutty diver guy~but maybe you do?

Be Careful! OK?

The Siblings Gather @ Steve And Em's

Here They All Are In Doggie Heaven!
These guys are all crazy about their pups~
Jim and I missed the boat on this one~no dogs for us!
Emily & Sophie, Steve with his Oscar,
And Gar and Mar with their grand dog, Lola!

About two or three times per year we try to gather together and catch up. It seems that even though we live fairly close, we have so much going on all the time, that if we don't do this~we only see each other on the holidays. I adore my brothers and they have the best wives. We had so much fun. We definitely missed Jim though. He was able to come there for a short time before he left to take his mom, Uncle Bob, Debbie and Tracey to the dinner in Foster City for the twins.

Jim spent the entire morning gathering some of our Italy photos onto a flash drive so we could share them with the family. Gar and Marilyn have just returned from a scuba diving trip to the Bahamas so they were supposed to report on that as well. Sometimes we get together and watch a concert of one of our favorite singers~we have seen James Taylor, Michael Ball, Kenny Rankin, Dan Fogelberg and maybe I have skipped some, but it is always fun activity on Steve and Em's big screen.

Marilyn & Gary

Earlier in the year we had a Super Bowl party at Gar and Mar's and I did a blog post on that event. And then we had the crab feed at Bob & Beth's so we have done pretty well this year!

It is still too cold to eat outside
but everyone is waiting patiently for summer!

We had a great dinner with Steve at the BBQ and Emily doing her magic in the kitchen. It was a really neat time! Thanks, Colbergs! Let's do it again at our house before Christmas...OK?

Scattered Saturday

Yesterday we had two family events that we needed and wanted to attend. So we decided to divide and conquer. I went to Steve and Emily's for a sibling get together and Jim went to Foster City to celebrate the graduation from high school of his cousin, Nancy's twins. We both wanted to be in both places but we couldn't so we were glad there are two of us. By sharing our pictures we had the next best thing.

Jeremy & Jennifer~Off to College in the Fall!

These two kids are the sweetest kids you'd ever want to meet. They are the only two children of our cousins, Nancy and Joe. I think these parents can be very pleased in the job they have done in raising these great young people. It has been so much fun to watch them grow up over the past many years. We love them and wish them every success in all their pursuits!

The Buffet

Nancy and Joe had the party for about 100 people catered and Jim said it was really nice. There was enough for a small army and very delicious. Somehow we managed not to get a picture of Nancy and Joe. They were probably running around being great hosts! Nancy was a bridesmaid in our wedding~40 years ago on June 15th.

Kristen, Uncle Bob, Grandma Gloria

Kris, Debbie, Gloria, Tracey

A great time was had by all~Good luck and congratulations to Jer and Jen! Jer is going to school in Washington and Jen in San Diego! It must be hard to be separated from your twin. And the house is going to be very empty at Joe and Nancy's!