Susan Hurlburt and some southern pickins'

This blog will be dedicated to Susan Hurlburt, the lovely young lady (white shirt, on right) in the photograph above (these pix are from my sister Laurie's wedding in 2004), and the bridesmaid holding the flowers in the picture below:

Susan is the step-daughter of my sister Lisa.  We have had the privilege of watching her grow from a spirited 7-year-old (when we first met her) through her teen years, then off to college, and soon to her next big adventure in life--her upcoming nuptials in mid-June.  Susan's pleasant personality, warmth, and grace have charmed us over the years, as has her hard work and determination.  Her fiance Jay also seems to be a wonderful person, and we are so excited for them!

Now that the kids are out of school, we have moved on to our summertime fun activities.  I know y'all in the Great Northwoods will be jealous, but we are already enjoying the bounty of locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables.  Below are ripe peaches we picked on Memorial Day from a local pick-your-own place near Monticello:

And, yes, they did taste every bit as good as they look!  Below, Lil' S shows of one of his prizes:

The kids loved to pick their own peaches and plums this day, but we've still got to work with them a bit on how ripe to pick them--they got a lot that were too ripe, and didn't survive the trip home!  Over the last week, Hope also ran a Cub Scout "twilight" camp--no, it is not based on that lame vampire book/movie series, but rather was a camp run over the course of several hours during the evenings (as opposed to during the day).  She prefers to have these twilight camps because for many of the boys and their families, it is easier to attend in the evening, and it is definitely cooler!  Swimming in the local pool is also a good way to dodge the heat, as Beth, Stephen, and one of their little friends found during one twilight camp session:

Hope put on a number of activities for the boys, including swimming, rain gutter regatta races (shown below), programs by an archeologist, a trip to UAM's planetarium, some BB gun shooting, and some Olympic-themed sport activities. 
 

I think all the boys enjoyed their time, and had a chance to earn some more awards and activity badges.  Kenny, being half fish, really enjoyed the pool time, particularly getting to jump off the diving board:

Kenny is in swim team again this year, but they don't do diving, so he can't use the diving board.  Our other big effort this spring has been expanding our driveway.  We decided we needed to repair our culvert and extend the area with culvert, so it wouldn't be such a steep drop-off from the end of our driveway.  Here is the final result:

We now have a lot more parking space for visitors that isn't on the street, and it will be much easier for us to back out of the house and to maneuver our camper without falling into the ditch.  Below, Stephen and a friend enjoy the sand of the volleyball area at a local park:

Yesterday, Hope and Kenny went to one of Kenny's swim meets, and I took Stephen and Beth and some of our other friends to a place east of town to pick blueberries.  En route, we took a quick detour to look at this house:

It may not look like much, but it was originally built back in the 1830s, and probably is one of the oldest houses still standing in this part of the state!  People are trying to get this house preserved and restored, and use it as part of a history interpretation.  Below, you can see some of the ripening blueberries we picked:

The blueberries are just starting to ripen--it is a little early this year, due to a warmer than average winter and spring.  We picked a bunch to eat fresh, some to give away, and some we froze to enjoy later.  Hopefully, the farmers around here will start to get some rain so they can take better advantage of the early growing season!