ADDITIONAL DIVERSIONS

Soooo many things fill my day, and I'm blessed by being surrounded by diversions and happy things. The best of my diversions = relationships!

My best friend, Amy, and her daughter, Mary, came to visit. They made a trip to see us! They stopped to visit with my daughters first. I'm so glad for their relationships! And then she spent time with us! I had so much fun playing games, visiting, eating and laughing that I didn't think to get any pictures. Here's two I managed to get from my daughter and husband.

Mary, Katia, Kiara, Amy and Mango

Playing games with the DeThortenhausens...

Yes, Chris came to visit too!

I love nature. Check out these beautiful mushrooms and this unusual cloud formation:

These perfect specimens were in my yard. They are about the size of a quarter each.

This was in my neighbor's yard. It's the size of my palm.

How?! God is amazing!

Perhaps that is a portal to another world?!

My favorite diversions are my husband, children and grandchildren:

Red Skittle while waiting for the bus decides to do some planks.

I love that my son shows me he loves me

by taking random photos of himself with my grandson.

It really brightens my day!

My beautiful daughter's first day of school, 2024

This made me laugh.

Mango switches places with the tenor ukulele.

Playing peek-a-boo!

Gorgeous! I love the pictures Katia sends me every day!

Wide awake!

And fast asleep!

Stunning

He makes me laugh!

I'm sooooo blessed!

I love all my happy, eternal diversions!

A "BLESSING" FROM HEAVEN

Mango has been a blessing in our lives in so many ways. And one way: we got to celebrate her baby blessing at the beginning of this month. Skylar pronounced a beautiful blessing that matched our "perfect" granddaughter! And we were privileged that so many people came to celebrate her birth with us.

My granddaughter's amazing parents!

Three Generations

(We really miss my mom... but I know she's smiling down from heaven!)

Mommy's side of the family

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this picture of my dad and Mango!

We love being grandparents!

Best. Job. Ever!

Grandpa and Grandma Brown

We get to share grandparent responsibilities with our favorites!

Kiara is soooo excited to be an aunt!

The Honda Family also joined in the fun!

These are the guys that stood in the blessing circle!

GJ and I have decided to share grandchildren!

And little Mango loves her Grandma GJ!

I love that my nephew, Kapp, wanted to hold my girl too!

I got lots of grandma duty at the blessing.

Glad I got to spend some of the time with my grandson!

Red Skittle loves his cousin!

And Aunt Kiara is determined to be "the favorite!"

These two boys hold my heart!

Even Uncle Cody is excited to welcome our girl!

And we FINALLY got Red Skittle to hold Mango!

Aren't they perfect!?

I'm soooooo blessed!

She is definitely a blessing from heaven!

A DELIGHTFUL WEEK OF COMPANY

Kiara and my redheaded grandson came to visit us for a week before Red Skittle started Kindergarten. We had so much fun! And we ended by celebrating my 52nd birthday! What a truly wonderful week. Check it out:

First: I got a picture with BOTH of my grandchildren!

I absolutely love the name "Grandma!"

And I love these two kids who gave me that name!

We threw rocks.

I love my Leftie!

He really loves throwing rocks.

Red Skittle and I have been reading the Tales of Winnie the Pooh.

After reading about how Christopher Robin and the crew going on an

expedition to discover the North Pole, we decided to do the same thing:

On our "trip", we had many adventures.

We found it!

It's the North Pole!

We stopped for "provisions" because so did Winnie the Pooh.

We feasted on skittles, while Pooh had honey.

Then we kidnapped Licorice and Cantaloupe.

We visited Babby Farms.

It's a really fun place.

Itty Bitty Goats... adorable...

Red Skittle, Cantaloupe, and Licorice

Love that smile!

Isn't she so cute?!

Licorice is a truly remarkable kid!

A Brazilian Armadillo... so cool...

Love these kiddos!

Petting a kangaroo!

And dogs too!

Red Skittle wasn't thrilled with his newsboy hat.

I was so excited to give it to him.

He prefers fadoras.

My birthday present was highly inappropriate from my daughters.

They thought it was so funny.

I thought it was kinda naughty.

You won't catch me wearing it in public.

We all went to go see Little Shop of Horrors for my birthday!

I absolutely LOVED it!

I laughed so hard.

And the music was GREAT!

Love these two who joined me for the show.

Zane and Tara also let me take a class for free on arranging dried flowers.

I love how it turned out!

Guess what?!

Red Skittle is officially a Kindergartener.

First Day of School

First Day on the Bus

And doesn't Mango look amazing in her yellow dress?!

I had to add a few pictures of my granddaughter!

"Hurry and take the picture, Mom!"

Shhhhhh! Mango is sleeping!

"What did you say?!"

And while I had a delightful week of company from Kiara and Skittles, and lots of pictures from Katia and Mango, my sister and father went to Colorado. I got lots of pictures from their trip too, but here are just a few:

Needletop is where my grandfather was born.

I love this picture!

My sister's dream is to drive a tractor and farm and homestead....

My mother's grave.

My grandparents' grave.

More Needletop Mountain

Whew! What a week! What a birthday! What a long blog post! If you made it reading this far, give yourself a pat on the back....