We survived a week without Dad......

Sam went to a meeting in Vancouver last week. He hardly ever travels whereas I feel like I am gone all the time. I don't know how he copes!!!!  I spent a huge amount of time cleaning up after the animals (cats and birds), watering the garden, and running around after the kids.
Ben and Maggie were very cooperative.  I had to drop them off and pick them up every day, so I did a lot of running around.  I had meetings that I couldn't avoid, so Ben had to stay late at SLU a couple of days.  He took his Anatomy book with him to read, and was still reading it sitting on the porch at night!!!  Maggie is curled up with her phone as close to the wall outlet as she can get!!!!!
We love this porch.  We have been sitting on it every night since it was finished.....

Apparently, the week was just too much for Ben.  Oh, the life of a teenager!!!!

It has been hot and dry so I had to water every other day.  My beds are doing really well, although I suspect I have over planted as usual!!!!!

Cleo is obsessed with Sam and I'm not sure she left the front door the whole time he was gone!!!!

Maggie's glasses came in, so we went to get them.  She says everything is amazingly clear now

The cats are also obsessed with Ben (especially Ferdy) and will not leave him if he lets them in his room.  That's fine until you hear "Mum, Ferdy threw up on my bed" right before you are walking out the door

We went to see Shakespeare in the Park on Thursday night.  They are doing Winter's Tale this year and it was absolutely fantastic.  We only made it to the interval though as we were all so tired.....

Lilies at MBG

The Japanse iris were a disappointment, but the lilies were spectacular.....

Trip to MBG to see the Japanese irises

 We met Arline at MBG right after dropping Sam off at the airport.  It was forecast to be very hot, so we wanted to get there early.  The advantage of it being early was that there were very few people around.  I don't very often get a photo of the Ottoman garden with no one in it!!!

 Maggie loves to get her photo taken with the sheep

 There was no one else on them, which never happens!!!!

 The lotus are starting to blossom in the Japanese garden

 The Japanese garden is always an oasis of tranquility

 We went to see the Japanese iris, but unfortunately they were almost over....

 I found this Deinanthe hydrangea in the English garden.  So unusual and of course I want one!!!!

 The gatehouse is looking lovely as they start doing the landscaping around it

 The crew.....

Now, that's how to do a 5K!!!!!

This is the first year I have done the Komen Race for a Cure.  I am usually out of town, but had told Ratna last year that I would do it with her in 2017.  Ratna doesn't run, but was willing to walk it with me.  I had no idea walking one of these could be so much fun.  We just talked the whole way round.  There was a huge number of people walking, so we didn't feel out of place at all.
SLU had a team and so we were able to get a shuttle from the SLU garage to the start of the race, which was huge because we didn't have to pay to park and fight the traffic to get downtown.
I got a rare picture of the hard-core runners at the start (usually I'm waiting somewhere at the back of this pack)

Selfie before the start!!!!

Here they go.....

SLU had these balloon arches over the road by the parking garage, so cool!!!!

We found the Billiken!!!!

And, we were done in about 1 hour and 15 mins.  Not bad for hanging out for photos, going into the arena and strolling along......

Two teenagers in the house

Maggie turned 13 today. I still cannot believe it!!!!  She had her hair cut yesterday and it looks fabulous.  Her new look is to have it hanging in her eyes all the time, drives the rest of us crazy!!!
She is doing soccer camp at SLU this week.  She loved her first day.  She jumps right into everything

Picture of early morning with teenagers!!!

Ben stole Maggie's hash browns because he'll never let her forget she ate his kolache on his birthday!!!!

Ben started his internship at SLU today.  There are 16 high school kids doing it, chosen from over 100 applicants.  He had a great first day.

We had dinner at Slider House for Maggie's birthday.  They didn't have any shakes though, made me sad!!!

The students at work "decorated" my office for my birthday.  Apart from that, it pretty much went by unnoticed!!!