Family. Wonderful.

This has simply been a week of family. Korak, Jana, Josiah and Lilly arrived Monday afternoon and we have been enjoying every minute of it. The kids are having fun playing in the back yard and going for bike rides. Wednesday was Joyce and my anniversary so Korak and Jana took us out to dinner at a new restaurant on the bank of the Rogue River. Really nice. Actually we combined celebrations for Father's Day and our anniversary.

Friday, Korak and I put in some round stepping stones and gravel to kind of "finish" the back yard makeover. I was grateful for his help but we almost had a tragedy. I borrowed the neighbor's small utility trailer to haul the rock. Because it is old I didn't want to load it too heavily so we made three trips. On the second trip it came off the hitch and scooted along the pavement until the trailer hit the hitch ball and stopped. The scary part is that the safety chain broke so it could have gone anywhere it wanted but it stayed right behind the pickup. This happened just around the corner from a very, very busy intersection. I left Korak to direct traffic and made a quick trip home to get bottle jacks. It didn't take very long and we had the thing hooked back up and were on our way. The local policeman who stopped by didn't even offer to help lift! Oh, did I mention we were having a heat wave. The temps hit 99* that day! We drank a lot and sweat a lot but we got it done.

Saturday was Independence Day. Happy 4th, by the way. A little late. Anyway, we left early in the morning, drove to Salem, had a picnic lunch with Ginger, her clients, and their families. Then went down to the the riverfront park to let Josiah and Lilly enjoy some carnival rides. The park also has a permanent, really, really nice carousel and the kids love riding on it. Only 75 cents!

We were back home in time to light some fireworks on the street in front of our house. Of course, you understand we did this for Josiah and Lilly's benefit. Actually Lilly didn't like it because some of them were too loud but Josiah loved it.

Today we went to Worship in the Park at Riverside Park in Grants Pass. This was a community event with most (or at least many) of the churches participating. Fortunately, the weather was a little cooler and we also found some shade. Couldn't see too well, but we had shade.

Tomorrow, Korak goes home to work to pay for all this vacation stuff. But Jana and the kids stay here. So stay tuned. More family coming up. And pictures when my connection will allow.