A Friend Comes to Visit and a Photoshoot (Long Picture Post)

::A Sunday afternoon walk that started out like this. (No person was injured in the making of this picture.)::

::Aud, Christine, Amy and me. (Amy is a grand friend who was visiting for the weekend.)::

 

:: "Please pose with us?" ::

:: (He did) ::

 ::Walking the rails ::

::Blake and Christine ::

:: I love this series of pictures::

::So glad you came, Amy! It was a blast!!!::

::Isn't this a neat building?!::

::Scouting out a new place for pictures. (Poison ivy everywhere.)::

::But we got a picture anyway.::

::Walking up to a nice old cemetery ::

::We were trying to look either 'solemn' or 'peaceful' ::

:: Amy ::

:: Aud ::

::Siblings!::

::Hmm...wonder who Logan is texting?! =) ::

:: Their house! ::

:: Logan and Aud ::

:: Cousin Joe even posed for a picture with me! =) ::

:: Company came over ::

:: Thanks, Amy, for washing dishes! ::

:: Duet time. Plus Logan 'teaching' Clay how to play ::

:: "Look, I can sing!!!" ::

:: Today we girls all went on an all day shopping trip. Plus visiting old friends of Amy's.::

:: Sundaes! Aud, Amy, Jennifer (a friend who joined us), Shan and Mia ::

:: We love stores who have a lot of samples. We tried out ALL of the pickle samples. =) ::

 :: More samples! ::

It was grand having you here, Amy!!! Looking forward to you coming again soon and staying longer!!! Jennifer, if you are reading this, we are so glad you came along! And it was good to see you too, Roshena!

Blake has his work lined up

Shannah and I were driving down the road earlier and happened to drive by Blake's shop.  We were surprised to see the entire driveway lined up with trucks.  I figured he was either:  throwing one huge party (not like him), having some sort of swap meet (I doubted it), or cleaning up his truck lot (BINGO).  I told him it was an eerie sight to see all those trucks lined up like that (when they're parked willy-nilly about the place, it didn't look like quite so many of them, I guess)!

It'll be a while 'til he gets all of those fixed....

Daniel

::Daniel....as he looked when he first arrived here.  Since he was four years older than Blake, Mom thought he seemed so old by comparison.  Looking back, he was GARTH'S age!::

::Around the time that Daniel was thirteen, his parents decided to send him over to our farm once a week just to give him a different experience.  His dad is a graphic designer and here, well, we're farmers, of course.::

::After several years of once a week, he finished homeschooling and went to IT school.  He eventually ended up here on the farm every day for a couple years.::

:: Daniel, a man of many diverse skills, developed a fondness for washing dishes!!!:::

::...which may or may not have been due to the fact that Janel was visiting. Mom and Janel's mom met through a homeschooling group.  Though our families lived at the opposite ends of the state,our families eventually met. Over the next several years, Janel would come stay for a few days every once in a while. She and Daniel were about 14 and 16 and they seemed to get along quite well.::

::We kids always had a blast during the winter, riding our bikes around in the barn. Especially when Daniel joined us.::

::He read to us sometimes, but his biggest talent was telling us stories. He read a lot of books and then, while he was working, we kids would gather around him and he would tell us all about it. He was wonderful at remembering details and used different voices for different characters.::

::Here we are all listening to Daniel read a letter from Janel, written to one of the girls. Those letters were all greatly enjoyed.::

 ::When we had re-varnished and hadn't put the table and chairs back in the kitchen, Daniel joined us on the floor for some pizza.::

::Bringing milk in from the milk house was one of the jobs Daniel took upon himself before every meal.::

 ::Like I said, Daniel was always like a big brother to us...::

 ::He was always willing to try everything with us.::

 ::And pose for weird pictures. ::

 ::He made a great 'bad guy' in our little home videos that we made. Very convincing actor he was.::

 ::Whenever we went somewhere, we always did our best to convince Daniel to go along because he always helped make everything more interesting.::

 ::This is Daniel's REAL family. The ones who usually only saw him late at night and over the weekends. Despite that fact, they have always been great friends of ours.::

::This was during the time that Logan and Maria (I) milked cows, morning and evening. Daniel usually came and helped, and we had grand times. Logan and I became concerned that Daniel was getting on in years and wasn't married yet. (I think he was about 20.) So, we became his (unwanted) advisers. We hinted strongly that he might consider Janel.::

::The rest, as they say, is history::

::Hanging out at the State House::

::At Janel's sister's graduation party/Civil War Era Ball::

::Male bonding time while reflooring the barn::

::Spontaneous concert::

::And so Daniel decided to get married to Janel.::

 :: The Elwood side of the family::

::After Daniel left the farm and got married, he went to work for Alltel doing.....something important.  Something with the IT skills he learned.  Here he poses with Chad, the Alltel guy from the ads.::

::Daniel, Janel, and Natasha.  They just returned to the States after being gone for five months to Panama..::