Big Brother

Last week my big brother Shawn came to town for a visit. It was a fun week of back-to-back family parties and get-togethers.  We had a lovely time.
One evening we planned to have a picnic at the park and play tennis.  Even as the grey clouds gathered overhead we unloaded our cars and hoped for a break in the weather.

Shawn and Wes discussed possible hike options for later in the week.

The kids played on the playground.

Kippie joined in on the fun!

More discussion of the trails and peaks of the gorgeous mountains surrounding us.

Amy's family arrived and as we set up for dinner the wind picked up and it started to rain.  We kept suggesting packing up but everyone thought it would clear.  We started to eat and gusts of wind and rain started pelting us and blowing our food away!  We had to hold down our plates, the tablecloth, the food and everything else!  Nick was serving himself some salad and pieces of lettuce were blown from the tongs.  We were laughing and screaming at the same time.  When there was a brief pause in the storm we made a run for the cars.  It was an adventure and I, of course, didn't get any pictures.  Darn.  We ended up back at my house for dessert and what was left of our dinner.  We settled in and watched a couple hundred slides from when my mom lived in Taiwan in the 1950s.  (Another post for another time...and to those extended members of the family reading this - we ARE going to show the slides again.)  It turned out to be a nice - and memorable - evening.