Trip to Springfield for wedding and Father's Day

Last weekend took us to Springfield for a friend's wedding.  Lucky for us, the trip also allowed us to spend time with family and celebrate Andy's first Father's Day.

As luck would have it, Anthony's Kickapoo High School football team was hosting a golf tournament Saturday morning.  Amidst t-shirts bearing the Kickapoo rally cry of FEAR THE POO, four of us entered the fray.  Even though Anthony's football coaches scowled at me as I repeatedly suggested that Anthony should abandon this football nonsense and join the golf team, I had a blast!

    

Later that day, Helen and I attended Jerry and Leslie's wedding in their backyard.  It was beautiful.  

We got to see good friends

and meet Phil's new family.

Sunday was Father's Day.  We gathered the Springfield Crows and Anthony's Grandparents for a Happy Father's Day lunch and photo shoot. A group photo was taken.

So was a photo of Anthony and his Grandparents.

And a photo of Helen holding Hope.  (A common sight.)

And a photo of cute baby Hope with Andy on his first Father's Day.

That afternoon, we drove home to Topeka where I got to hug my wonderful father.  

That evening, I got to talk with my loving daughter.  So, in the spirit of fatherhood, and with special warm memories of Opa,

I hope you had a good Father's Day weekend.

Mark adopts Daya

Today Mark adopted Daya.   While she has always been regarded as family, today Daya is also legally a part of the family.  

Now THAT's pretty cool!

Happy Flag Day

Like Wow!

Check out the spectacular, beautiful, fantastic, enormous, vast, extensive, giant, massive, colossal, mammoth, immense, monumental, titanic, towering, elephantine, gargantuan, monster, whopping, humongous, jumbo, hulking, and ginormous US flag that Abbie gave me for Flag Day.

How fabulous is that!

Thanks, Abbie.

Mother has a birthday!

Today is my dear Mother's 87th birthday.  Last night we had a little Birthday Eve celebration.  Aunt Nancy was there and Samantha joined us by phone.  Helen brought a giant (and very tasty) fruit bouquet ... which we ate while waiting for dinner. 

It was fun.

Happy Birthday Mother.

Love you.

Capital Children's Choir

Our friend Heather introduced us to the enchanted voices of the Capital Children's Choir of London.  Here are a couple of our favorites.

I hope you enjoy them too.

Thanks Heather.

Memorial Day Weekend with Hope

Memorial Day weekend was a hoot.  Andy and Donna came with the forever cute Hope.  SACII and Cheryl arrived as well.  Granny LOVED fussing over Hope which caused me to snap a bunch of fun photos.

Granny even climbed around on the floor with Hope.

Sure, I got pictures of other people too but all of them seemed to include Hope.

 Including this goofy one of 4 generations.

Hope you had a good Memorial Day too.

Dan in Arkansas

Last week I ventured to Bella Vista, Arkansas, for the Annual 5-day meeting of the Brotherhood.   Here is my good friend Nile monitoring arrival activities.

All 8 attendees were treated to mega amounts of golf and adequate quantities of adult beverages.  I wonder why it takes me 2 to 3 days to recover from this trip?

International weekend - wedding and graduation

This weekend allowed us to celebrate 2 wonderful International events.  

The first was another Internet success story that resulted in a joyous wedding celebration.  Adrian, a physician from Romania who is working here in Topeka, met Elisa, a multi-talented and beautiful woman from Brazil, on the Internet.  Their first date was in Ireland and their wedding celebration was yesterday in Topeka.

Helen and I were lucky to be included.  Both fitting and appropriate for an Internet love story, this celebration was transmitted via Skype to family in Brazil.

The second celebration focused on our friend Juri from South Korea.  Juri graduated from Topeka High School with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.  Her exchange program extended to 2 years and she has grown sooooo much during that time.  We will miss her.  Congratulations to Juri!

Four continents came a little closer together yesterday.

Peace.

Samantha and Jake visit for Mother's Day

Last Saturday Samantha and Jake arrived for a Mother's Day visit.  It was a short visit ... but a blast!  We started with a nice Saturday visit topped by a steak dinner at the North Star.  Jake ordered a steak .... and got two.

Sunday was Mother's Day.  Samantha had been contacted by her 4th cousin, Ted Worner, via 23andMe which somehow connected their DNA.  The Internet makes this kind of thing possible.  Amazing.  Ted was gracious enough to drive from Kansas City where he joined us for Mother's Day lunch.  Here is Ted being subjected to his first Crow Family group photo ...

 and here is Ted with his 4th Cousin, Samantha Quist.

Our Mother's Day shifted to fuss over Oma.  Here is a nice picture of Oma with Samantha.

Mega, mucho, grande thanks to Jake and Samantha for joining us for a fun Mother's Day weekend.

As always, we LOVE being with you.

Helen Crow turns 60

Today is Helen's 60th birthday.

She is as cute as ever. 

Happy Birthday Helen.