Fish Festival!

The Pashia Fish Festival has become a family tradition. Kim Pashia was Elizabeth's first speech therapist, and we became friends with her family, including her husband Ken and daughter Gabby. They host a kids fishing contest and after 2 hours of fishing, give out prizes (everyone who participates gets recognized, plus the biggest fish in each age group) and fry up a bunch of the catfish, hush puppies and potatoes for a delicious feast.

On the way there... sunscreen slathered...

Ready to fish -- awaiting the signal to start....

Here is one of Elizabeth's 4 fish -- all of them were 19 inches or longer, and she wouldn't get close to them, despite all the nice men who helped us get them off the hook and hold them while I tried to get a picture (Dan wasn't able to go -- he was playing 3 on 3 soccer that day)

Here's Elizabeth getting her "dog tag" from Kim - to explain the sign, the first kid to catch an albino catfish get whatever has been pledged to the contest-- this year it was almost $300, and it wasn't caught until the 2nd hour of fishing, which is quite unusual.

Early Morning Gardening

We've been trying to get up with the sun three mornings a week to get a couple hours of outside work in before its heats up outside. Last Thursday was a late night (the guys went to a friend's house to watch the Lakers win the NBA championship), so we decided not to push it. However, Elizabeth always is up pretty early, and usually wakes me up, so she and I went out to weed the vine garden...Dan came out to go running and caught us in the act...please forgive the color --- something was set wrong on the camera, and he didn't notice, being color blind.. Picasa corrected it some, but the pictures are just too sweet NOT to save.

Notice that my helper is leaning on my back -- not helpful at all, but very sweet.

Helping put the weeds into the tub
I love you, Mom (patting me on the back)

Mom, let's go...

break time...

A Civilized Garden

The Civilized Garden

We are so excited to have a "civilized" garden this year --

with rows you can actually see, and REAL plants growing!
but for "old-times" sake, we tilled a new patch of soil (below) and are letting it develop on its own --
after determining that last years' cantaloupe crop was primarily volunteer. I think Zeke did
plant some things, but we aren't trying to weed or anything, and the soil is full of rocks...
we'll see what kind of harvest we get!

Horse, horse, horse

The first horse, Bourbon , a 19 year old gelding paint, with our favorite little cowboy. He came to live with us Thanksgiving weekend 2009.

Romeo joined us in May 2010 -- he is a 15-year-old bay gelding quarter horse with some thoroughbred blood, possibly one of the most beautiful horses you'll ever see in pasture.
We weren't sure how the boys would get along -- Bourbon's owner had told us that he didn't always get along with other horses. But the fact that Romeo is quite a bit bigger made it clear just who was the boss. They got along just fine :)

Romeo is the right size for Andy! He enjoyed quite a few rides before leaving for his trip, and we were happy to see him on a horse that he didn't dwarf.

Coming next ... horse #3, Riley, a mare, is introduced to the mix...... I need to download pictures and then I will put them on.Here she is -- not a very good picture, but you get the idea. Put her next to Romeo and she looks tiny -- she's actually pretty skinny, so not very fun to ride bareback, which is what Abby was preparing to do as I took this picture.

Andy Baseball

Andy has had the privilege of getting to play baseball while in college. He just finished 2 years at Three Rivers Community College -- here he is at bat in his final regular season game this spring. Next year he will come to Missouri University Science & Technology right here in Rolla to finish his Civil Engineering degree, and he will also play baseball, so we are looking forward to being able to drive 10 minutes to his home games again. Right now he is in Dallas, TX, at training camp with Athletes in Action baseball, preparing for a baseball/missions trip to Nicaragua. They leave next Saturday, June 12, and will be there through July 1. Please keep him in your prayers.

25th anniversary

On June 1, 1985, Danny (yep, that's what he went by then!) and Dawn were married in Forrest, IL.
We've enjoyed 15 years of marital bliss -- just kidding, it has been a wonderful 25 years, for better or worse, mostly better (this is a long-standing family joke).
We plan a trip to Valparaiso in late September to attend our 25th college reunion and from there will go to New York and the east coast for several days to see the sights without our kids :)

Roommates

Tyler , Mike, and Andy

Andy finished up 2 years at Three Rivers Community College a couple of weeks ago. Becky went down to pick up his stuff, and I asked her to make sure she got a picture of him and his roommates this year. They were a great bunch, and I know Andy will miss them both next year, when he's back to his family as roommates :).
P.S. I thought Andy looked kind of short in this picture, and then I found out that the other 2 were on their tiptoes -- he's actually almost as tall as Mike and definitely taller than Tyler!

Helping Hands

Dan helped organize this fundraiser/work project. Over $9500 was raised, which enabled us to pack over 36,000 meals. About 150 people, mostly Thrivent members, gathered on a Sunday afternoon for a couple of hours to pitch in. It was a great experience. This is us after the event was over. During the event, we wore hair nets and aprons :)