Happy Birthday to Dad and the USA…

We spent the Fourth of July week with friends at Deep Creek Lake.  Quite a difference in climate and scenery from our tour of the Southwestern Desert last month.

Pop-Pop and Granny went to the Jamboree in the Hills again this year.  This was their 28th out of the last 29 years at the Jamboree.  For their friends Ron and Pat this was the 35th year they’ve been there.  Pop-Pop says this is absolutely, positively the last time for him and Granny.

Viva Las Vegas and a Bunch of Other Places Too!!

We spent a good bit of this month on a tour of the Southwest.  Here’s where we stayed:

• Las Vegas, NV at the MGM Grand Hotel
• with our friends at their home north of Las Vegas
• Sedona, AZ at The Desert Quail Inn
• Grand Canyon at the Yavapai Lodge
• Las Vegas, NV at the Best Western McCarran Inn.

And here are some of the sights we saw:

• the Las Vegas Strip
• the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
• the Hoover Dam and the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge
• Sedona, Arizona where we went off-road on the famous Pink Jeep Tour
• the Grand Canyon
• the National_Atomic_Testing_Museum in Paradise, NV, which by the way is where most of the Las Vegas Strip is actually located
• the Fremont Street Experience

In other more mundane news, we both made it through another year of school.  When the fall term begins, Owen will be starting his last year of middle school and Ross will be starting his junior year of high school.  And Ross passed his driving test and now has a “180-day temporary license.” 

Our pool is now open for the summer and we plan to make good use of it once we evict the ducks who seem to think it belongs to them!

Time for May Day, Cinco de Mayo, a Marriage Celebration, and Memorial Day

The big event this month was the Marriage Celebration for Mom’s cousin Ryan and his bride Liu Xiao Li.  We all traveled to Warren, Ohio to attend the event, which was held at Leo’s Ristorante.  Ryan lives and works in Shanghai, China, where he met and married Liu Xiao Li.  A good time was had by all, especially Pop-Pop, who got to visit with his brothers.

All went well with one exception.  Pop-Pop and Granny’s car broke down in Pennsylvania and had to stay there for a week waiting for a part needed for the repair.  Uncle Brian and Aunt Rosemary came to the rescue by loaning Pop-Pop the Hammymobile so he and Granny could get back home to Virginia.  Once the car was repaired, they all met in Cumberland, Maryland on May 26th to exchange vehicles.  Cumberland is about halfway between their respective homes in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The other major event this month was the opening of our pool.  But so far the weather has been too cold to enjoy it!