We spent all of this week getting ready for the Manchester, N.H. Rubber Stamp Convention. Laura pressed tons of new images and I spent a lot of the day outside on the patio cutting out the unmounteds and getting them ready for the show. Today we packed the van and tomorrow is set up. We are finally ready! My sister arrived today from NC with her two girls to visit with my dad at rehab and my mom at her house. On Sunday they are going to drive down to Manchester to see us. It will be nice to see them all.

Our yard has been a real delight this summer. We have many new families of birds making homes in our birdhouses. One of the families is a pair of Red Cardinals. So far we have only spotted two little ones with them. Laura and Bob were out and Laura spotted this baby one at the bird bath. He waited until she came back into the house to get her camera so she could snap this picture of him.

Father's Day

This is where we all went on Father's day. Laura took this picture of the Nubble Light House in York, Maine. It was the perfect stop after taking Bob out for seafood. The lighthouse sits on an Island, high on the cliff overlooking the ocean and the waves hitting the rocks. It is typical Maine. It is one of our favorite places to go when we want a outing that is fairly close to home. The other is a great picture of Laura together with Bob taken on the rocks.

Bob's Garden

Bob's garden is finally in bloom. We never thought that summer would get here! Last year was the first year he planted this type of flower. We loved them so much that he planted them in a couple other places in the garden for this year. These are Alliums. They are very large. We dried the ones he grew last year and they were awesome as dried flowers as well. Our roses have just started blooming on the trellises and lots of flowers are almost ready to open.

I know I have not posted on here for what seems forever. I am going to try to work harder at keeping this up and adding more post. This is Mattie! He has really grown and just turned 1 year old last week! Here he is doing one of the things he loves to do--crawling in under the covers. This time he is home, but we did take him on the road with us to a few conventions and he did this at all of the hotels. He just made himself right at home. His longest trip was to the Allentown Pa conventions. It was his first road trip and he was a real trooper! He loved traveling in the van. He got to meet lots of our vendor friends as well as our customers. He loves the way Amy makes barking noises and barks back at her and he loves to play with John. He has several dog friends at the conventions as well. For now he will be staying home, but we will be on the road to the Manchester NH convention this coming weekend. Hope to see some of you there!