Where Has July Gone?

Wow!! Today is August 2, and I can't figure out where the month went! It seems like it was just yesterday I was readying the stage at the Menan 4th of July Independence Day Festival as Cami continued her visit and stayed with the kids until the 6th. Two days later Hillary and Gabriel coming up and stayed for a week. I had surgery on the 11th and Cody went and got himself engaged to a cute young thing on the 19th and Darryl hiked the Yellowstone Petrified Forest.(I don't have pictures of that.)  I do have few pictures from the last month to share with you.

At the Festival the grandkids couldn't wait to get their faces painted. They showed off their artwork while waiting for the parade to start. Lily was a kitty, but Parker's face paint didn't last long. 

Ransom had a Spiderman tattoo complete with web and spider.

Gideon had a Spiderman face mask painted on. 

Cali did not get her face painted, but she did enjoy some shade while waiting for the parade. 

Tyree had stars on her face...

Finally - The parade starts.  We were very disappointed that there was no chocolate milk handed out this year. Sad.Oh well, the rest of our Independence was absolutely wonderful!

Our dear friend, Sonja Schaat was one of the Grand Marshalls for the parade. 

Shading myself with not one, but two umbrellas, I thought I would be safe from the spray of the fire truck hoses. Not so. They soaked me, but I didn't mind getting cooled off. Ransom did not like getting sprayed. 

The South Family Parade entry. 

In other July happenings.... My flowers are gorgeous this year. I love my Delphiniums,

along with all my other flowers. Pansys, Petunias, Geraniums, Violas, Rose Moss, Snap dragons, etc.

I made a flower container out of an old fountain ..

BTW- See the posts in the photo below? Darryl removed the posts from the old gazebo. 

My front yard looks so nice.

My Garden, on the other hand didn't do well at all. It was growing so slowly that most of my radishes and lettuces went to seed before they even matured. My green beans, on the other hand are looking pretty good. I will be adding more nutrients to the soil this fall in hopes of having a better harvest next year. 

Darryl added a new storage room to the upstairs back porch.

On the 11th I had my bunion removed on my left foot. I was on crutches for just over 3 weeks.

 After 2 weeks the Dr. Removed the pin from my toe.

And now, after several more weeks in a stiff wooden bottom shoe I should be back to normal. (I hope to be in normal "flat" sandals by mid September.

In the bargain of the month, Darryl picked up this beautiful piece of Hull Ebb Tide at the thrift store ....

Hull is not necessarily the most expensive of the art pottery, but the Ebb Tide line sells starting at $50 into the hundreds of dollars. He paid $2.00 for it! 

 Finally, thanks to our friends the Sullivans, Darryl and I picked 15 lbs. of their Raspberries. I put up 14 pints of preserves and 7 quarts of frozen berries.

That's pretty much it for the last month. Next post will be from Darryl's Birthday on Sunday and I will also get some photos of Cody and Kristina to post.