Every morning...Every evening..Aint we got fun!

What a summer to be living on the river!!! Even though we have been having extremely hot weather, we have been able to enjoy the water and the cool breezes blowing off it.

Emma is loving having her cousin Matt here....they are playing amazingly well this year; could it be a sign of maturity on both of their parts? Probably the fact that I warned ahead of time if there was any bickering they were both going home!
Having the kids here, forces me to take a break and have a little fun myself. Matt and I have been enjoying the canoe...

The swim platform is getting a LOT of use!

The two of them love chasing the geese....

This is the boat I should be in....great for the legs!

We bought this slide when all the kids were small....boy did we get our money's worth out of this purchase!

Matt being the youngest of the first generation nieces and nephews got his boater's license last summer so I can finally sit back and be chauffeured. He drove all the way to town and home on Wednesday, docking by himself (first time ever) at both ends of the trip. OK dad, you can bring up your boat for him any time now!

Here's Greyson again....he's fast becoming the star of the blog. I may just kidnap this kid...he is so darn cute and happy. Look at the beautiful tan he is getting here on the island! This is a picture that is definitely getting printed out and put in the collage!!

My nephew Jordan and his sister Hannah went out fishing with their dad's parents and had a pretty good day!

Jordan just got his braces off....what a handsome dude. They are living in NY right now, but will be moving to California the first part of next month. Salt and I are going to have a relative in every state the way it's going. Will make traveling plans a lot easier!

This is an untouched iPhone picture taken by Paul Gebhardt....the St. Lawrence has got to be one of God's best creations!!!

I will close with my niece Chelsea's senior picture. Yep....I have a BEAUTIFUL family!!!

I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill.........

Betty, Emma and I l left the island at 6:30 this morning....drove to Enidicott (3 hours) to pick up Matthew, stopped at Gary's Berries, picked blueberries, went to Sam's to pick up Lupo's spiedies and were home by dinner time. Exhausted, but feeling accomplished.

Matthew in my grocery cart....sometimes they just don't want to grow up! The nice thing is when you are with Aunt Kitty (Grandma), you don't have to!!

I"m not sure how long Matt will be staying....as long as he can manage, I am sure!

Shall we gather at the River...Where bright angel feet have trod...With its crystal tide forever...Flowing by the throne of God...

Today was the annual "Outdoor Service" held on the river at the home of Dan and Janice McPhail.

In all the years I have been attending our Island church, I believe this was the most moving service I can remember. I think of course, the fact that two of my favorite babies were Christened, may have a lot to do with that!!

Jeff McArn, Chaplain at Colgate University, serves as our summer minister. Here he welcomes the crowd and gives thanks for a most beautiful sunny, warm day.


Our hostess, Janice McPhail.....

Caroline Larson reports on the Outreach program activity....

Eliza Moore www.elizamoore.com/bio.html a most amazing talent joins Jeff with his guitar. Having a college chaplain certainly brings some young blood to the ministry.

The children's lesson.....

Chairs, rocks, grass...anywhere you could grab a seat....It reminded me of hearing the stories of Jesus preaching to the multitudes..without the loaves and fish of course..

Clay Kolle and his family came in their beautiful wooden boat the "Deary", and found a spot in the shade.

Debbie Donaldson, www.dreamsinmotion.ca/ did an interpretive dance to the bible reading. She was joined by her daughter Jayce and one of her Canadian students. Debbie's dance/acting group will be presenting High School Musical 2 on July 30-31. Whoot...an excuse to eat at my favorite Chinese restaurant in Gananoque before the show!

Salt was elbowing me during the sermon, pointing out the DUCT tape on the minister's shoes. My first thought was OH NO!! he has gone totally "Grindstone" (we use duct tape for everything since there is no hardware store on the island).....then I realized he was wading in the water for one of the baptisms and didn't want to ruin his good shoes......

Here all the little children lead the procession to the river for Greyson Field's baptism.

As we all marched down, Eliza played "Wade in the Water" as the congregation sang....

Jeff took Greyson right into the river....the reeds reminding me of a picture I had as a child of Moses floating in his straw basket among the reeds. Jeff did such a great job....he spoke of Jesus being baptized in the River Jordan by John the Baptist...it was such an AWESOME ceremony. It actually brought me to tears (along with many others).......

Back up the hill for Lindsey Boyer's Christening.....Both kids were amazing....not a tear shed even in the heat!

I finally got a chance to meet Jayce and Jason's beautiful son James. James is Debbie and Steve Donaldson's grandson (first) and Phil and Yuvone Marra's first great grandson. It is so neat to see another generation being born and brought to the river.....

And here is Murphy, the McPhail's pup. I was trying to get him to smile and show his new $1,900.00 root canal. Dan started up the chain saw and Murphy attacked it. You can't help but laugh, even though it could have been much more serious.....And of course, I am sure Dan was not laughing when he paid the Doggie Dentist!!

A small group of us (family) gathered at Stub and Karen's for a celebratory luncheon.
Anna Larson (One of Greyson's two Godmothers) with Jada.....

Here is Greyson listening to his dad, who is deployed to Kuwait, congratulate him.

This little cutie is Ell...Mike and Sarah Matthews daughter. She was my camera on my lap and came up to me, tapped me on the leg and said "cheese"....she is ADORABLE!

Couldn't resist a picture of Josh's beautiful garden....will be buying our produce from him whenever he has extra.....yum!

I told Jada I needed at least one picture of her with her son. I think I have pictures of half the island holding him....no one can resist him.

After a full day, what better place to crash than on Grandma's lap under a shade tree!!!

First you spread your limbo feet...then you move to limbo beat....

We left Weezie's early, as we had committed to stop at the Luau at Dodge Memorial Center. I am so glad we did, as Grandma got to do some crazy dancing with Emma. Emma also won the limbo contest ($5.00) and she was ecstatic.

Cailin also got me up for a dance.....

Here is Emma with her other Grandmother....Emma has been blessed to have 2 grandmothers and a grandfather in her life from day 1.

Here Em is competing in the hula hoop contest which she "almost" won.....I am sure she will be practicing for next year as she doesn't like to be runner-up....hmmmm, wonder where she got that from?? And YES Grandma did get into it also....and YES I will be practicing too!!!

Jeff Marra was the DJ, and as always did an excellent job!

There is no age limit on having fun or how you dance at Dodge.....

Yvette Garnsey gets in the groove........

and her husband Kevin trys to keep up....

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I was ready to go take the alcoholic drink out of Betty's friends hands (Jeneane) until Betty told me she had SIX kids and one of them was 16. Wow, what is her secret?????

Erica Gamble celebrated her Bachlorette party last night and they ARE little devil horns!!

Some of the parade candidates line up for judging....

As I was heading out the door, I had to have one last shot of Greyson....dancing with Uncle Josh.