Today we celebrated my Uncle Gale's 50th birthday! Gale is my mom's baby brother. She is an only girl with 4 brothers- the oldest brother, Lee, and Gale (the youngest), are 20 years apart in age. Since Gale is a mere 9 years older than me, I remember playing with his hot wheels and other toys when we would visit grandma and grandpa. It was pretty cool having a young uncle! This is a picture of a picture, so it's not great, but these are the cousins from all the families on my mom's side except for Lee's family. L to R: Brenda, Debbie Diane, Dennis Jr. (Denny!), Shelly, ME, Don (Donny!!), Sharon, and Gale. I think he got lumped in with the cousins a lot!

My mom with her brothers:

This is a picture of the card my sister decorated for him. These are some of my favorite pictures:

He has driven race cars as long as I can remember and is still a regular driver at The Meridian Speedway:

There were quite a few people at this shindig. It was a simple lunch in Gale and Tracy's backyard with plenty of time and tables to just sit around and visit. My dad and Rob:

My mom with the birthday boy and Dennis:

My Aunt Pat was the grown up in my life that always gave me her undivided attention. They lived in Washington when I was growing up so we didn't get to see them very often, but I always looked forward to the times when she would look me straight in the eye and ask me what was going on in my life. Here she is with Ethan:

And with Spencer:

Rob isn't as crazy about my new camera because I can take pretty much an unlimited amount of pictures now!! He's getting a little tired of it:

And my brother-in-law, Dave, is just tired:)

Aunt Pat with cousin Brenda and her oldest son, Camden. It's hard to believe he's entering his last year of college!!

Gale and Tracy:

The kid's were all looking forward to swimming in Gale and Tracy's pool.

It was much more appealing to Ethan when he was forbidden to get in:

When permission was granted, he allowed Rob to put on his swimmies:

It's rare to see these two this close together without teasing on Rob's part and suspicion on Ethan's!!

Ethan wasn't too sure that this was a good idea:

Gloria tried to help, but he still wasn't convinced:

The kid's who could stand up and still touch the bottom had the advantage.

They all had a good time.

Ethan recovered from the experience by snuggling with Grandma:

Shelly is helping Zach design his room to resemble Endor:

This is a much more accurate look at Rob and Ethan's relationship:

Dave, threatening Gloria with a dunking, which is really no threat at all!!

Later, at home, we watched a storm roll in:

Gloria, dancing in the wind:

Gloria, running inside to beat the storm:

The brief summer storm:

Have I mentioned that I love my new camera????

Church on Sunday

Gloria was very happy to see Joe today!!!

Pre-game concert at The Hawks Nest- Wild Card

It was 80's night at The Boise Hawk's game tonight and the band, Wild Card, rocked the Hawk's Nest with good old 80's tunes. I'm pretty sure they were too young to have experienced the 80's first hand, but they did a great job. AND they have the right look:

Gloria spent most of her time in the kid's area playing baseball:

Once again they provided us with great seats:

Gloria went out on the field with a bunch of other kids to sing, "Take Me Out To The Ballgame":

Hawks won by 2.

Gloria was hoping to have some of the players sign her Hawks cap after the game but she couldn't find any of them. We went back to the stage to load the truck and pretty soon a bunch of the players came over to the stage area to eat. They were happy to sign the cap and they even called other players over as they arrived to have them sign it, too. Just one more perk of this job!!

Home to bed before midnight.

August 1-3 Winnemucca trip: Light Show For The Belamy Brothers

This is the second year we've been asked to run the lights for the Superior Livestock Auction concert in Winnemucca, Nevada. Last year the band was great but I hadn't heard of them before. This year it's The Belamy Brothers. Although I have heard of them, before I checked out their website, I couldn't tell you any of the songs they sang. (http://www.bellamybrothers.com/)

At any rate, I've been looking forward to the trip. We have a couple that is coming to stay at the house with the kids and the dogs, so Rob and I are taking this little trip together- just the two of us. Dale and Rob loaded the van and the trailer on Tuesday, so we were able to hit the road at a fairly reasonable time on Wednesday.

Set-up time on Thursday was 8:00 a.m. Just like last year, 4 stage hands were available for the entire day to help with whatever we needed.

This made the whole event easier for me. It was funny to watch Rob put up these lights with the help of three other people:

It was the exact same set-up as last year so we knew what to expect. We were set up in plenty of time and were making final adjustments when the Bellamy Brothers tour bus pulled up to unload.

We had a nice big break in the middle of the day. The convention center next to the stage had a cool wild animal display:

One of the perks of this show is that they feed us the same delicious food they serve the ranchers attending the auction. Spaghetti and meatballs for lunch and steak and all the fixins' for dinner.

There are probably several thousand people here for this event and it's obvious that money is flowing freely- both at the auction AND the casinos. It was nice to not be in charge of audio at this event (Rob would disagree) so we just sat back and watched the sound check:

This is one of the few times this dance floor was empty. Even between bands, people were dancing to the background CD music:

This is a band that played during dinner on a side stage. We had nothing to do with it at all, but they were really good!

This is the band that opened for the Bellamy Brothers. I didn't catch the name and I only listened to one song- I went back to the hotel for awhile:

This is the view of the concert area from our hotel across the street:

The opening band was just finishing up when I got back:

The Bellamy Brothers:

I think it's safe to say that 80% of these dancers are stinkin' drunk:

The Brother's stopped playing around 11:00 p.m. when the Midnight Riders took over. We had to wait to tear our stuff down until the band and the sound company cleared the stage so we were the last ones out of there (besides one very drunk man who was passed out at one of the tables). It was close to 2 a.m. before we headed back to the hotel:

We got a slow start on Friday morning when it was time to head home. We were pretty tired from the late night so we took our time getting ready to leave. This is one of the most boring roads to travel- it's 5 hours of nothing but road and sagebrush:

I couldn't help but think of Bilbo's song in LOTR. I could only remember a couple of stanzas so I had to google it at home:

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

The Road goes ever on and on

Out from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

Let others follow it who can!

Let them a journey new begin,

But I at last with weary feet

Will turn towards the lighted inn,

My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

-- J R R Tolkien

Gloria was very happy to see us when we finally got home:

We topped off the day with dinner at Texas Roadhouse and a rented movie.

It was a really good trip, but it's so nice to be home.

New Camera!!!!!!!!!

I love Ebay! I won the camera on Saturday, the seller shipped it on Monday morning and it came in the mail Wednesday morning!!! It's a Nikon Coolpix and it's cute and just perfect for what I need! This is the very first picture I took when I opened the package: