Life is good...

Take somebody's hand.

Nevermind the storm clouds.

Build your dreams.

At Daniel's art show

A summer highlight was Daniel's senior art show (Dan has just graduated from the University of Washington). Boppa, Daddy and I left the deep discussions of art inside the gallery to reflect and cogitate on what we had seen. Art is best pondered in a hammock.

A day at the Lynden Fair

Just south of the border, the city of Lynden hosts the annual Northwest Washington Fair, which is more popularly known as "The Lynden Fair" among locals. Now, Janelle has told me that the county fair is a quintessential rural American experience, which just whetted this city boy's appetite to go. Part of the cultural experience is the food apparently, which will give you a coronary if you eat it all the time (i.e. it is delicious). And that's the very appeal of the fair from the culinary perspective--that $10 ticket is your license to guiltlessly relish gross stuff like corn dogs, chili cheese nachos, elephant ears (fried dough), funnel cakes and plenty of other American culinary wonders. The cultural experience aside, there was a very important reason to go to the county fair this year--Anastacia Tippery (my sister-in-law Liz's youngest sister) was showing her pig Charles along with her projects from her 4H club. Talya adores Anastacia (who wouldn't?) and got to learn a thing or two about raising pigs. Matter of fact, the lucky girl got to see pigs getting born! After all of that education about the farming life, it was time for fun--face painting, roller coasters (mild ones that Talya really enjoyed, albeit Dad's retina felt like it was going to detach again), and the carousel. The photo is blurred but the look of unadulterated joy is priceless.