may 10th part 1

may 10th was great grandpa's 83rd birthday, so we spent the lovely, sunny day in lodi.

shelby loves it here. someday we will definitely need a backyard. in the house their are toys galore. her cousins tasha and jasmine give her all of their old toys (makeup chairs, jewelry boxes, dolls) and there are all of brett's old toys (trains, tractors, dinasours, airplanes) and a children's library full of children's books that were mine, richards, and even mom's!

what do we have here? hmmm a hot dog in each hand. i know shelby refuses to eat those...

so who are they for?

for blue the dog!

poor blue, the lone ranger.

the first puppy born in this pen

and the last dog left. 

(he does have one surviving sister, fro, who is great grandpa lou's dog.) 

he was one of 11 puppies born to a dog we adopted after being told she was fixed. 

surprise! definitely the best day ever at the thawley house!

brett was probably 4 or 5 at the time i am guessing, which is why he was named after blue's clues. 

he was a big, sweet, dumb dog who barked at anyone who came on the property and made us feel safe. i'm glad i have these pictures because we had to put him down in june. you were a good boy blue.

shelby loves to water the grass, which just shows that she is related to her grandpa rich. he has spent countless hours watering the big lodi lawn, with a fire hose! no kidding. and it was so heavy that i couldn't lift the hose and help....or so i said! :)

we have a funny joke in the family about the trees in lodi. 

these ones look fantastic. they were so little when planted about 16 years ago.

these ones were only planted 6 and a half years ago. you know, when dad was sprucing up the backyard because he knew instantly after meeting trevor that i would be marrying him and having a reception here! pretty cute, right?

but here's the joke, only 3 of our original backyard trees lived! apparently there were parts of the ground that were deadly and resulted in these sad, stunted trees. ok anyways, it's not really funny to anyone else. but we just kept waiting for them to grow!

oh, here's a fun game!

it's a very country girl kind of thing to do called...

put the cat in a box.

orangey was happy to have some attention. living a bachelor life can be tough.

we sure love mr. orange cat.

the most mellow cat around.

hey orange!!!!

i see youuuuuuuu!

"mom! i see orangey in my telescope!"

but orangey wasn't in the mood to just be admired.

and he sure didn't want his tail in a telescope.

i think orangey's look here says "that's enough attention. see you in two weeks."

he was ready for us to go back to pleasanton.

while cora and i were enjoying getting our daily dose of vitamin d, our cousins reid and blair came by! they were so excited to finally meet cora. 

i am so old. i remember holding them as babies.

and now they are holding mine.

not that you would guess, but they were on their way to baseball practice. both of their teams had great seasons. and their dad helped coach blair's team- the white sox. you know, boy stuff. wonder if i will ever get to take a kid to baseball practice? i know i will be doing ballet car pooling for sure.

the boys cracked me up. they were so confused by the fact that cora didn't have any teeth. "but how does she eat? just milk? from where?" and their dad didn't really answer them. even when i went to the back of the house to nurse, they found me. luckily i was able to be discreet and say she was sleeping under a blanket. they never figured out what was happening. i sure didn't want to scar them for life! someone else can tell them where the milk comes from!