What fun! Yvonne reported, quite seriously, that the week was the best of her life, so far. James was already home. Noah, Natasha, Morgan and Opal came up Friday on the same ferry with Eric, Kristin, and Jackson. In fact, in Borgian fashion, the Ashenhurst car pulled up directly behind the Mehiel car in the ferry line at the Anacortes. James drove to SeaTac Saturday to pick up Jen, coming in from Denver. What all did we do? Lots of great meals by Yvonne and James cooked Thai food Wednesday night. We had Richard and Maggie over Monday night.

We took the Gumption to Sucia for a picnic and some beach combing and kayaking. Only John went swimming. We toured Eastsound and hiked Orcas Knob. We had a camp fire and cooked S'mores. The women spent a morning at the Rosario spa - and enjoyed themselves while the men took care of the babies and picked blackberries. Eric and Krisitn went out to dinner at Christina's. We played Celebrity, made hand/foot print stepping stones with the grandchildren, went to the beach at Cascade Lake, did face and rock painting, and talked and laughed a lot. The yellow jacket hornets were out in force and drove James off the deck. Morgan with his sharp eyes found their nest under a tree stump. Yvonne commissioned a Raid blast and John carried it out - and we had no more problems with the hornets. Should have done that earlier. Jackie and McKinley came up with N,N,M&O to see 'Mantha and they all had a good time together - especially in digging a hole - Jackie started it and 'Mantha usurped. We played cards and looked at DVDs of videos from 1984-1985. Noah helped John work on a big planter box for Yvonne next to the new downstairs deck of the guest bedroom. Jenny practiced accupuncture diagnosis and treatment on all the adults. Morgan, Opal Anne, and Jackson were great company - to us and each other. Jackson at 4 months was bigger than Opal at 7 though she's no peanut. The kids got lots of attention and we all got to know them better. Lots of neighborhood walks. Very nice sunny, 70s days. What a nice group of people our kids and their spouses are. We hated to see them leave and we weren't even especially tired.