Family, friends and a good cause...

We went to the my parent house this weekend for a long overdue visit. Grace screamed bloody murder most of the way there. Neal had to stop me jumping out the window a couple of times. As you can see here that once we arrived Grace was thrilled. We stuck her in the exersaucer while we unpacked the car. We did so many great things on our visit. Grace had her first bath in a bathtub and as you can see in the picture, she loved it! How do like the mohawk I gave her? She splashed and laughed and so did we.









There was another reason we made the trip to my parents house. Neal's friend, Jerry that he kayaks with was diagnosed with ALS less than a year ago. In this short time he has struggled and has now lost his ability to speak and stand for any length of time. He will probably only live for another few months. So this weekend a group of local kayakers and road bikers organized a benefit to raise money for ALS reasearch called "Jerry's Baddle". There was a kayak race down the Green River and a 26 mile road bike race. They also held a silent auction and a pig picking. So on Saturday Neal paddled and then Grace and I met him at the party. It was a bittersweet reunion of a lot of good people (including Dr. Bob who fleew in from Vermont). People told stories they had experienced with Jerry throughout the years. Jerry and his wife were there and she read a speech that Jerry had writen since he could not speak himself. His words were beautiful and heartfelt. They raised $13,000 for a wonderful cause and Jerry was touched.


On the way home from the party we had to make the stop for boiled peanuts. God I love those things! The man selling them was a little bored with no one to talk to so he did his best to keep us there to chat "mountain talk". It was such a wonderful weekend to be in the mountains but we are glad to be home. Love to all.