Three birthdays and a passing of time are worth noting for the month of June. Robin turned 32 on June 6th and I didn't have to send her a present this year because we are still in the pay it forward mode from her senior year in High School. You know how it works. Oh Dad, if I can have this now I won't need anything for my birthday for a zillion years!!!!! So I bought a complete western wear outfit including A genyouine 10 gallon Stetson Hat!! Well maybe it wasn't quite a 10 gallon, but there is a picture of it somewhere in our picture memorabilia, and I think the actual hat is in the same storage box that all the cheerleading outfits are in!!!. Just kidding pumpkin.

It is hard to believe she is 32 with 4 of the cutest grandkids ever. Of course we have 5 other cutest ever grandkids and one that isn't even born yet, Little Miss........... who will be the cutest ever!!!.

Next was Craig, June 18th. He is in Flagstaff Arizona on the 3rd week leg of Especially For Youth Counselling. This is his second summer for being a counselor, and he enjoys the challenge tremendously. Here is a link to his blogspot that tells of his trials and tribulations and jubilations.

Then Parker Elizabeth Ladle turned 7!!! Her mom described it as only a mom could, but here was a note sent to 'Grammy and Papa Dave' telling us about the special gift she received for her birthday from us. I use 'us' loosely because Jan crafted the gift herself.

I will add that the framing and mailing took almost longer than the making because it had to be wrapped and packaged 'just so' because of the glass in the frame.

Here is Parker's reaction to the gift.

mom and dad,

parker LOVES the present. (she chose to keep the glass on, fyi.) she can't stop talking about it. here are a few gems:

"it's an unusual present, but a GOOD present."

"every time i look at it, it reminds me of grammy. maybe if papa dave sewed he could make me something and i could hang it next to grammy's present and then i would have something to remind me of papa dave. well, he liked the glass, so whenever i look at it, the glass can remind me of him!"

"whenever i'm feeling sad, i look at the picture and i'm happy."

i am sure there will be more. she loves it. we hung it right over her bed.

also, the kids loved the box and the wrappings. as soon as i opened the box, they saw all the packing peanuts and they exclaimed "papa dave!" and they have had lots of fun stomping on the bubble wrap...

ps., she got really weepy and sad because she misses you guys. she would be talking about how great her present is and then she'd start crying because she was thinking about you. we sure spoiled her with those four years of living next to you!

The ps goes beyond gifts and wrapping and all that other stuff. It tears my heart out!

June 15th marked the 10 year passing of Neece. Robin called us a few days before the 15th and asked if we could scan any pictures of her and Neece together from our family photo albums and send them to her. I was little prepared for the piece that appeared on Robin's Blog and frankly wept openly. I do miss my mom but I know she is in a good place. Here is another picture found that was taken probably in 1992 or 1993. It is a good 3 generation picture.