50 Years and More Beautiful Than Ever.

We celebrated Linda's 50th birthday on Thursday night. We will be on a river trip on her actual birthday, so everyone was invited over to have dinner and visit. I spent most of my time cooking Mexican marinated steak and fixing pulled pork burritos, so I was only able to get four pictures of the event.

It was a great feast and the food was amazing (if I may say so)! Alex gave me all the recipes to create the pulled pork in authentic red sauce. He even gave me his secret marinade ingredients that turned the beef into a dish so good that Jim Headley and John Sutherland stood and ate it like it was popcorn. Emily's mother cooked up a big pot of Mexican rice that was amazing! We ate and talked and enjoyed everyone who attended.

I had been planning the event for a long time, we changed dates to accommodate friends who were on river trips, many of our friends went to great lengths to arrange their lives to be there, and I thank them for making this a wonderful night for Linda. There were many of our friends who could not attend because they were on extended trips for the summer and we wished they could have made it but we understand. We'll catch up when they return and definitely we'll see pictures of their adventures (maybe meet their husband). We just wanted them to know we were thinking about them.

We talked rivers, traveling, squirrels, teaching, and summer fun. I don't know why we don't gather like this more often, It was so much fun and meant a lot to Linda. She had tears in her eyes when she opened the gift from Marcy and Darren of a hand made quilt. Her face glowed when Jim Headely gave her a big hug and sang Happy Birthday to Bug! Later she sighed and said "I love Jim, he is so special."

My brother Dale and Judy attended, wow two events in one week, some times we don't see each other for months! They had recovered from the wedding last Saturday and both looked rested and happy.

Linda is always excited to be able to visit with Barbra, she missed her so much this last year. Those darned teacher bonds go real deep.

I know that most of our Wednesday night church group had to suck it up and leave their river gear laying around there place, wet, dirty and in disrepair, to join us. Thank you for coming it meant a lot to Linda.

So now we start packing for our river trip. I'll be posting in a couple weeks I think. Our schedule is going to be busy from here on out till the snow flies. Snow flies, oh my gosh, let's not think about that!