Let's Backtrack A Bit

In between my postings about our trip up to New England, I will attempt to backtrack a bit and share some of our fun and exciting events back in June. For some reason, June was a very hectic month and I never really got around to blogging as much as I should because there were lots of different things going on.
I already blogged about our oldest daughter Taylor graduating from high school but I never blogged about all the fun we had at her graduation party that weekend. We had lots of family members come and visit to be here for her special day. Dan's mom and dad (Mary and Jim) flew in with on of his sisters, Marghee. His sister Linda drove down from New Hampshire My mom (also Linda) flew all the way from San Fran to join us too. We would have loved for more of our family to join us but unfortunately, we live miles and miles and states away from everyone so it makes it very difficult. We know they were here in spirit.
My mom came first and helped so much with all the preparations. I had found this couch sitting on the side of the road back in May sometime. After driving past it for about 3 days I started thinking...hmmm...I could do things with that couch. It is really nice wood and very sturdy. So I took the seats out of our old van and drove over and put it into the back. It sat on our back deck then while I tried to think about what exactly I should do with it. I figured it was about the size of a futon so I picked up a futon cushion for $5 on Craigslist. After that I was kind of stuck. When my mom came, she was great at the "less thinking and more doing" way of things. We went over to JoAnn's fabric store and bought some sturdy "outdoorsy" looking fabric and went to work. Well, really she went to work with a small amount of help from me and lots of help from Taylor. She fixed the futon cushion so it was the right size and then covered it with the fabric. Then she made two throw pillows with the extra stuffing not needed from the cushion. She is so creative! I finally have it so that it can stay out all the time with a waterproof cover over it so the kids use it a lot more. (it was such a pain to bring in and out each time you wanted to use it!)
























































Here I am with Dan's mom Mary and Rebecca is with Dan's dad Jim














I looked everywhere for a good picture of Linda but apparently she decided to be a bit camera shy this time...very unlike her!










Here are Taylor and Marghee out front trying to plant the beautiful flowers Taylor got from my mom...unfortunately they did not survive our two week vacation (sorry mom!) but neither did any of our other plants. (Taylor's poor upside down tomatoes)












Here is Taylor with her best friend Micayla. We have known Micayla and her mother Pam for close to 10 years now. They are practically family!! They are always sooooo helpful. Such great friends are hard to find!! Thanks Pam!



















Taylor's culinary teacher even stopped by with a little something for her. A frame with a whole bunch of pictures from the past year in the kitchen at school! So neat!