Grandpa's 70th Birthday. Shhh it's a surprise

70 years old is a big birthday and not to be ignored or given a simple card and a kiss.  Oh no.  We are doing a big surprise/rootbeer/cream soda tasting Party.  Yay.  Yes he was very surprised.  No Idea. YES

We gave him old people stuff that he will soon need.  Like a cane that honks when you walk. 

Everyone was able to be there.  There were some lies told.  Alli said that she was going to a cabin with some friends.  Amanda and Doug made up some kind of excuse.  Sounding very flaky indeed.  

Lindsey and her brood

All the bottles on the table are rootbeer, cream soda and a couple odd balls like ginger beer (yuck, mom liked it though) and apple beer.  You see my dad loves root beer and cream soda.  So I went to the wine and more store and bought all the different kinds of root beer and cream soda for a taste test.  I got a bunch of shot glasses for the tasting.  It was a delicious adventure. 

We also had ribs and lemon cake for dessert.  Yum.  Happy birthday Daddy Dear Darling.

The favorite root beer was dog and suds.  I think the favorite cream soda was Stewarts.

Sweetest little baby JuJo and Grandpa.

I have a picture with my dad that is very similar to this.

Laughter and family and happy birthday to my dad.  Such a great dad. I found some old pictures of dad.  The funny thing is, he doesn't look that different.  He ages well.  I hope I get that too.

I think this one was when I was pretty little. I remember the photo session pictures when he was dressed like this.   So Late 70's.  Oh ya the mustache and jacket gave that away.   Snicker

Next is a picture with dad and his son, my brother Steve.  He lives in Michigan now with his 2 kids.  Carrie Ann and Kyle.

This one is really old.  Dad with Kim and Steve from his first marriage.  Early 70's I believe.  

Dad Circa 1992 in Phyllis's old Z.  I LOVEd this car.  Got to drive it when I was a teenager.  How cool is that?

Dad in his domain.  A house full of girls... Ya he had his own space.  Oh man that is so funny.  I remember alot of that stuff.  There is a bucket of wheat from 1984 so it was after that.  

This picture with our old van, it is orange but you can't tell in the picture.  I think it was 1985 or 86.  Alli is such a trickster with the bunny ears on Amanda.  

Dad, letting Lindsey take the wheel on a trip, probably to Idaho.  So cute.  Great trip down memory lane with these. Love my daddy.  

Eclipse May 20th 2012

Did you see it?  The earth went dark for a short time on that day.  Here is what I found online about it.  From Wikipedia, An annular solar eclipse took place onMay 20, 2012 (May 21, 2012 in local time in the Eastern Hemisphere), with a magnitude of 0.9439. A solar eclipseoccurs when the Moon passes betweenEarth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun, causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring), blocking most of the Sun's light. An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region thousands of kilometres wide. This is also known as Ring of Fire.

We got out side when it was half way across.  I finally figured out how to get a picture of it.  I had to stop down my exposure to about -3.  Might have been -4.  iso 200, F/30, 1/3200 shutter speed. With my 50mm lens.  Not a long lens, so I had to crop it.  Gives you an idea.  But the cool thing about eclipses is the shadows they cast.

See the little crescent moons. Our finger tips looked pretty freaky.

All the borders of the shadows were distorted.  We all got out and the family favored me with a family picture.  Thanks guys.  Burton I think was the one missing. Some times he just isn't up for the picture thing.  

It was really amazing.  I was probably the most excited about it.  But everyone had fun.

Mother's Day 2012

Lovely Children and Nathan took pictures so he is lovely too.  Thanks Babe

I do love the fun and mayhem in my bed on Mother's day.  Kids stepping on me and each other.  Don't put the food on the bed until after they kiss and hug on you.  You will end up with syrup all over you.  

Dang, I am so lucky.

Love this picture of Ox and I so so much.

I had another picture of Burton and I but we both looked pretty  bad so this cropped one will have to be it.  How darling is he.?

They all wrote me nice notes and gave me chocolate.  Great job.  So happy to be a mom.  Best job ever, and hardest.  

Oh my goodness look at what I just found a picture of my mom on mother's day. Amanda's glasses, ha ha.  So sweet.  Love this picture.  So grateful to my parents for taking pictures while we were growing up.  I will try to incorporate these more often.  

Had the family over for dinner and set up my lights and back ground to snap some pictures.  It wasn't planned so my sisters raided my closet.  It was pretty funny. This picture, I didn't like the colors of our dresses, they didn't match.  So Photoshop magic....

And we have more pleasing colors. 

I have the best sisters and mom and dad.  So grateful for their example and friendship.

I found another one.  I can't pass up our awkward family photo from 1994.  Hilarious.  Lots of great times at that old house.  Love this...

My momma.  Yes we look alike.  

Casino Night for our 10th anniversary

This party took place on May12th 2012.  Pinnacle Physical Therapy is 10 years old.  Starting out at the corner of Germann and Alma School.  Since then we have moved 2 miles south into a bigger facility. We have the funnest staff.  It didn't take much coaxing to get them into the Theme of James Bond 007.  They were totally on board. 

I learned what a step and repeat is.  It is that big poster right behind us.  Everybody got star treatment.  Complete with paparazzi!

A picture of 2 gals who are rarely on this end of the camera.  How did we do.? Ha

We had a great company come in and run gambling tables for us.  Roulette, craps, blackjack, and poker.  So much fun.  Everybody loved learning how to gamble.  It was all play money and just a good time.  We gave away some fabulous gifts to our guests.  It was a great time.  Nathan has been trying to get this party together for years.  Finally pulled it off.

Our moms. So supportive and we were so glad to have them there.  The dads were there too.  This is just a fun picture. We had a bunch of old fashioned pops for our guests. 

Dr Crisp, Amanda and Doug giving blackjack a try.  

Everybody looked amazing and we had a great time.  Thank you to all our staff and former staff that showed up to celebrate our 10th year of business.