Long 4th of July Weekend

The weekend at the cabin was a mixture of sunshine, rain and rainbows

A rainbow from the family room

The Day Lilies are in bloom

We're enjoying our subscription to Cabin Life that Jason gave us for Christmas

The town was all decked out for the 4th of July weekend

The County Courthouse

And of course there was a parade. This is actually the rodeo parade that was held on Saturday, the 5th. The town hosts the oldest consecutive running rodeo in the country.

The Farmall International Club had a float

There were a lot of 'pooper scoopers' in the mix that followed the horses. They each had their own theme.

Lots of women on horses.

Someone I knew walking with the Arizona Nurses Association.

Some people had a different vantage point from the hotel where they were staying.

Stage Coaches

Fire Trucks

Trick ropers

Queens and Princesses

And All the Fun Between the Reunions

At the family auction for the first family reunion Emma helped me to 'win' 7 grain flour that was milled locally. Of course we had to schedule a date to make bread with it. Rachel all dressed, hands washed and ready to help.

Here Emma is helping to add flour. They took turns adding the ingredients.

The 3 of us each had our own bowl of dough that we kneaded and formed into loaves.

Emma with her loaf

...and Rachel with hers.

Nothing like 2 three year old kids making your birthday cake!

After the bread cooled, Rachel conducted a taste test. It passed with flying colors!

An early trip to the local farmer's market.

The fruit was artistic

It's nice to be able to support locally grown produce. The lettuce for lunch was just like we had out of Mom's garden when we were on the farm.

All four sets of eyes focused on those candles!

Emma planned my birthday party in a volcano/Hawaii theme.

Family Reunion - Paternal

This past weekend was the reunion of Dad's brothers and their descendants. It certainly has grown now that our cousin's kids are having babies!

Uncles Walter & Harold and Dad

Grandma meeting Amanda for the first time


Henry was pretty good handling the youngest of our clan.

Kendall and Mom spending some quite moments among the bustle of the day

Fun to be had by all! Here Asa is getting a helping hand from Uncle Alva.

...and more fun with Whitney and Henry!

Family Reunion - Maternal

It was good to be home in Maryland again and to be able to see so many relatives. The first weekend was the reunion for the descendants of Grandpa's family (Mom's siblings).

This is the family farm from the vantage point of The Knob where the reunion was held.

This is certainly a well scheduled event!

New experiences for some. Here is Asa getting his first motorcycle ride from Cousin Keith with assistance from Cousin April.

The wind picked up on Sunday and the kites were aloft!

The benches for sitting around the fire were constructed from buckets used in the past to collect sap from the Maple trees to turn into Maple Syrup and old boards.

Aunt Lois with Asa and Rachel.

Rachel in dress up clothes that were available for old time style photos.

Noah's turn

Our meal on Saturday was catered by a local Amish woman and her family. Can you say yummy?!

Cousins Noah and Dayne becoming acquainted.

Time for singing - here are the sisters performing a number.

Saturday evening was another fire for marshmallows and an occasional hot dog.

And of course there is always time and room for Katie's during the course of events.

Pretzels

This weekend I tried Phebe's Soft Pretzels for the first time. Well worth the effort! Oh the varieties I see in the future!

Check out the recipe on page 93 of the cookbook: http://www.mysistersrecipes.com

Coffee and the Morning Paper

I've been accused of not taking time to stop and smell the roses, or to enjoy the beautiful backyard that we have. So, as evidence to all of you -- including my mother-in-law :-) -- I took the time to enjoy my coffee on the patio and read the paper. It is a gorgeous morning here and it certainly is worth enjoying before it hits over 100 degrees today.

Unexpected Visitors

My cousin Lisa and her family were unexpectedly in town overnight yesterday. Instead of getting to AZ at 9:00 AM and being able to be at Flagstaff to get their RV in the afternoon, their flight was cancelled in the morning and they ended up in the Pittsburgh Airport all day. They came to our house after we were in bed. They headed north to Sedona and Flagstaff this morning where they will pick up their RV to explore AZ and Utah.

Weekend Projects

Another weekend in Ponderosa Paradise

Kendall continued to clean out the 'forest' and took 2 loads to the Transfer Station where it is hauled to the landfill.

This tree was one of those cute Christmas trees in December. My assistant was going to toss it so I rescued it, watered it and now released it to the wild. Let's hope it survives!

Kendall found this great washer/dryer combo unit that uses very little water and 110 electricity. It is very good for the environment and just what we need for the limited amount of laundry I'll be doing at the cabin. He even installed it for me :-)

I made breakfast for us and we ate outside Saturday morning.

We were joined by a feathered friend.

This is a drainage pipe that needed to be put underground so we couldn't see it below the deck.

We planted some wild flowers in the retention wall we built last fall using old RR ties.