Another lovely weekend

This weekend we took of for Olathe to visit the Groves. Cami was having her girl party over at Rita's, so Vicki went there. Mark and I stayed back with the kids. Tossed the ball around with Nathanial. Looked at lots of stuff Cassie wanted us to look at.... went to the pool. Mark was smoking pork ribs (which it turns out are very difficult to get in your pipe and harder to light ;-) ). We played the guitars and sat around and talked. Beer? Of course!

It rained some at the pool ... but that always reminds me of the old Dennis the Menace cartoon "But we came here to get wet!" as his parents are dragging him off a rainy beach to the car. It didn't rain much, but we headed back around 3:00 or so.

Cami had bought a mountain dulcimer on clearance at Walmart. I've wanted to get one for a while now but I didn't want to pay $100 for one -- which is about what the less expensive ones often go for. Well this one was clearanced for $30. So I hoofed it up there and scored one. On my way back, the skies opened up and we got some pretty heavy rain. Anyway, the dulcimer sounds pretty good. And, it doesn't have hearts for sound holes!!!!!!

The ribs were great. John and his father Don (John and Jutta live next door -- and Jutta was at the girl party) came over and ate with us. Mark read the first chapter of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" to the kids, and they went to bed. The girls got back around 11:00. We stayed up until around 1:00.

Didn't do much Sunday. The weather was beautiful -- a strong cold front was what triggered Saturday's rain, so the relief from the heat was welcomed. Left for home around 2:00. Then there was this made-for-tv AMC western on, a new one a-la "Open Range". This one is "Broken Trail" starring and produced by Robert Duvall. Same idea as "Open Range" (Which he was also in). It's good. Part II is on tonight!

(Nathanial making goofy faces.)