Our First Graduate!

Yikes!!  Does that mean we're getting old?!?  

Reid graduated on June 14th, the first of many graduates to come in our family!  There were about 430 graduates in his class, with him being ranked as #24, with a 3.87 GPA.

This little piece of paper allowed us to get in. . .

. . .After we waited in this long line - that was really about 4-5 times as long as you can see!  I thought we were going to get there early so we'd get a good seat, so we got there one hour early.  As you can see, I've learned something for next year . . . I will probably be there two hours early!!  We actually got a decent seat, just on the opposite side of the gym from where Reid was.

None of these pictures turned out good, but they're what I got:)

After graduation photos.

 

Now Reid is taking on his adult life, framing with/for his Uncle Paul, working harder than he ever has in his life:)

On June 16th, we had a graduation party for him, along with his cousins, Douglas and Melodie, at Karl & Darla's.

Douglas, Melodie and Reid

Picture board I made for him.

Visiting with his friends.

My cousin, Ethel,  came to the party (early) and saved the day for us:)  She helped tons with preparation and cleanup . . . and keeping everything going during it.  Thanks a million, Ethel!!

Strawberries

I thought I was going to get my kids to go strawberry picking until I came across an ad on Craigslist for strawberries already picked . . . $17 a flat or $14 a flat if you bought 10 or more.  I thought there must've been some kind of typo there, because $17 a flat for already picked berries is pretty cheap around here, and $14 is just about unbelievable!  I called and they said that really was the price.  (The place I was going to u-pick at was $1.35 a pound and these were going to be $1.40 a pound!!)  I texted my sister to let her know about it.  I couldn't get berries then because I was too busy, but I could the following week.  She made arrangements and placed the order; I just needed to be there at 10:00 a.m. on the promised day to pick up my 12 flats.  I just have to add in here that my brother-in-law did stop by the stand to make sure the berries looked good.

On said day, my son didn't have school or work, so I got him to go pick up the berries - YAY!  When the berries got home I was amazed . . . they were beautiful and big:)

   

They had virtually no waste and they lasted for several days in the fridge.  I saved one crate to use for my jello on Saturday and they were still good.

Time for the fun to begin!! I made about 50 pints of freezer jam.

My girls froze 45 quart bags of them.  We cut them and freeze with sugar.  We use these in our frozen fruit mix, on waffles with whipped cream, etc.

At late o'clock at night we still had more berries to do, so I let the girls freeze them whole . . . something we've never done.  Tonight we're going to try to make strawberry butter from them after they thaw.  We've only made it with fresh berries before, but we're hoping it will work with these berries.

This is our first thing to go in the freezer for this season.  It's fairly empty now but I'm sure by late August it will be stuffed!!  I love getting all my fruit and berries frozen for the year.

Family

David's whole family hadn't all been together in one place since he was two years old, when they were here for his sister's funeral.  So, they were definitely long overdue for a family reunion.  A few of the girls were going to be coming, so we decided to see if we could get everyone to come. . .and it worked!  They were coming from three corners of the US, to the fourth corner.

David's parents had 11 children.  Their 7th child, Pauline, died of Leukemia when she was 3.  Their 10th child, Janet, was hit by a car and killed when she was 7, and their 4th child, John, died of pancreatic cancer when he was 39. This family has known much sorrow!!

There were only the two boys, so it is just David and his seven sisters who are still living.  Several of David's older sisters are probably more like aunts to him, as 3 of them were married before he was born, and he has several older nieces and nephews.

Everyone was invited to our house on the one day that the family could be together.  Most of the girls were just coming for a long weekend, so Sunday was the only full day everyone would be here.  We knew we definitely needed to get pictures, and right away since we weren't sure how long everyone would stay.  All told, 79 people were here.  We were very thankful for a beautiful day, not too hot, not too cold and not raining!!

We got pictures of just the two of them, but this picture was better, so I decided to crop the others out:)  Almost 67 years of wedded happiness!

Back L to R - Kathy, Anne, Lois, Mary, Faith, Marti.

Front - David, Mom, Dad, Karen

All or at least most of the grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchild who were here that day.  There are in total sixty something grandchildren, 130-140 something great granchildren (I think - although that number grows quite fast, so it may be bigger) and 2 great great grandchildren . . . one of which Grandma is holding.

 It's not looking to promising that we'll ever get a 5 generation photo.  The middle generation didn't make it . . .she was here about a month earlier.

And a final picture of the paparazzi there:)

We're so happy that everyone got to come out here.