Marti and Steve invited us for a fabulous summer meal and then to swim in their pool.
I was so absorbed in the delicious dinner that I didn't even think to take a picture of the spread. (Julie, we had grilled burgers, corn on the cob, fresh tomatoes, chips, deviled eggs, cottage cheese, then brownies and ice cream for afternoon treat.)

Steve




Marti is the only one who actually swam...



Hey, isn't anyone else coming in?"
The water was too cold for me and Kevin decided he liked their zero gravity chairs. See below.



I realize I didn't get any other pictures of Zeke, but this is him looking at all the pictures I took on their camera...yep, all the pics of Zeke are on that camera.




Marti and Kevin (in the zero gravity lounger)



...still there...(the hours are passing and he's enjoying one of his last days to relax before heading back to teaching about 500 little K-4 students.)



Steve decided to join Kevin.

A few weeks ago, Kevin and I went down to visit Mom and Maynard.


We decided to walk down to the Square....the fountain in the center of the square brings back many fun memories from high school. Britt, Trey, and Jesse...do you remember this fountain? In the evenings, lights come on inside the fountain to splash colors on the water as it rises and falls.




Here Maynard is detailing to Kevin about this fountain.




Mom and Kevin. Time to head back.




Bye Mom and Maynard. Thanks for the fun time.

Wonder where they got these seeds!


On our way to see my brother, Phil and his wife, Mary, and son, Aron, in Nebraska, we saw many of these wind generators. In one place there were so many that it looked like someone had planted generator seeds and a whole crop came up. They were massive in size.





Here they are...Phil, Mary, and Aron




Aron with his report on robots; and wearing the 2 medals he was awarded for science. He is very gifted in science and loves robots. And this was all done in 7th and 8th grade! I like his clever title: "Walk'n Roll Robots" . It's about robots that run on gears and wheels.


On Saturday afternoon, we went to the local zoo.

Here are a couple of Sun bears. I'd never heard of them.


Below is a description of them.






Inside the netted bird area....




Lots to see below




Pink flamingos!




Color!




Taking a break. It was hot and there were way too many people for my liking. Of course, we did go on a Saturday.





Kevin also taking a break. But always observing.




Phil checked the sun dial against the time on his watch.
The sun dial's accuracy? "5 minutes off" he notes.




Next we went into the butterfly house. They were beautiful in color. Before we could go in we were instructed to not touch the butterflies; also to check for "hitchhikers" on the way out.



Housed here are many chrysalises.




We also visited the aquarium where you can go inside a glass tunnel and
see all the sea creatures there. The blue starfish were cobalt in color.












stingrays



sharks



I like this picture not because of the shark, but because of the expressions on these little girls faces.




Jelly fish, kept in a tall glass cylinder.




A stone fish. Look closely and you can see its right eye.

Hey, girls...remember making these when we were little girls?

Beautiful dancing dolls made from hollyhocks.

Des bulles (in English: Bubbles!!!)

Sophie and the girls stopped over the other evening before Papa came home from work. As we sat in the back, we decided it would be good to go find something for the girls to play with. Kevin went to the basement, and with Inés' help, came back out with bubble wands! What a great idea!




Inès and Apolline were so excited with all the bubbles floating in the air as it was all new to them. They ran around the yard and chased them with the bubble wands.





The girls knew the wands needed to be inserted into the tube of liquid soap, but couldn't quite get the hang of making the bubbles come from them.




I love this photo...




Sophie and Kevin made lots of bubbles for the girls to chase. Sophie explained that the girls have never seen bubbles...have never done this before. She said that she and Rémi had those tiny bottles of bubbles at their wedding, but that was the only experience she'd ever had with bubbles. So this was new for all of them. We had so much fun.




Here the girls are trying again to make their own bubbles. They would flip the wand out of the tube and lost all the soap needed to make bubbles. So they just went back to chasing the ones Kevin and Sophie made.




Inès




Apolline






The thrill of being a care-free child