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Thanks to his own hard work, the family had a beautiful venue in which to celebrate Paul’s birthday. He built a privacy fence around the backyard, landscaped, and added a spa. Sarah set the table outside. The setting reminded me of those old Ernest & Julio Gallo advertisements where their family is at the table out in the vineyard. Only my family is better looking of course.

Happy birthday, Paul.

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It was wonderful to be with our family this Easter weekend. We still have a few youngsters willing to entertain us by searching for Easter eggs. But there just isn’t much better than seeing so many family members gathered together with love, laughter, and harmony. I wish that Will, Alex, and Paul, could have been there. You guys were missed. Click on the picture for the slideshow or the caption for the album. (I should mention that some of Sarah’s pictures are included without attribution. On some of them I lost track of whose was which.)

Who would you most want to be like? When I am asked that question, the first human who pops into my head is my Dad. He has bathed his family in love from well before I was ever born. In addition, there are many graduates of WVU who refer to him affectionately as “Dad”. I have yet to attend an engineering conference where someone didn’t reminisce fondly about their days as his student.

Several of us submitted photos of good times we have enjoyed with Dad which were compiled into a video which we watched together after dinner. It was fun as family members would call out where it was that a particular picture was taken.

He would love to have had Ruth, Will, Alex, Dick, and R.P. (who scanned in several of Susie’s pictures) there (all of whom were there in spirit), but sadly they couldn’t make it for the party. We missed each of you. But we did have his wife Pat; his sister Susie; his children Janet, myself, Sarah, and Wayne; as well as Joy; Paul; Kim and Cassandra; Matt and Sera; Mary and Jimmy; Dan, Diane, Tyler, and Shelby. As always, Janet threw a great party and we all had a great time. Congratulations and Happy Birthday, Dad.

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It was great to see Joy’s kids and Clayton up in d’burgh.  Enjoying great food, a gift exchange, and our two dogs playing with each other non-stop.  Hope you got to spend Christmas with the ones you love.

Mom seemed thrilled with her new iPad.  Dad got a new TV for his man-cave.  But, like them, I think we were all most grateful just for the time together to share love, food, and a lot of laughing.

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Hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving as much as we did. It could only have been better if Alex and Will had been with us.

It was a real treat to have lunch with both my Father and my Son.

Note: The video may take a moment to load, but it will be worth it.

The title of this post is an expression Joy often uses as we enjoy our lake, a scene from a cruise ship portal, or time with you, our family and friends.  The greatest blessing in our opinion is the shared blessing.  Last weekend we enjoyed having family down from Morgantown and this weekend the Pittsburgh contingent came through, followed closely by our church community group.  Every moment shared with you guys makes that moment richer – and, yes, I do know how sappy that sounds – deal with it.

Saturday morning started with picking up the new WaveRunner, a Yamaha Cruiser VX.  Things have come an awful long way since the days of my old SeaDoo.  This ski is more comfortable, faster, and even more fun.  Lindsay and Clayton and Bobby and Kristin broke it in for us before our friends from church came and took their turns.  It was hilarious watching people ride and tube.  When the church gang went for a tour of the lake in our pontoon boat we stopped for a swim and happened on an Osprey.  They were common when we were doing coastal cruising, but have become a rare treat on this little inland lake.

Hope your weekend was not just a good one, but a shared one.  “How blessed are we?”   Very, very.

Occasionally one gets to enjoy a very nearly perfect day.  Our Fourth of July was just such a day.  Sherry was already here.  (For a staff photographer, she does one heck of a cleaning job.)  Thanks for the help, sister.  Then mid-morning Mother, Dad, my two sisters, my brother-in-law, my niece and Jack arrived.  Jack had been seated at the far end of a Rio Grande restaurant table one night some time ago but we had never had a chance to visit.  I started to become a fan when he wore Moku out with a game of fetch.  Diving off the dock and playing in the water just cemented the deal.  We spent most of the day sitting in the shade at the lake and watching people launch their boats on the ramp across the way and piling on to and off of tubes those boats were there to pull.  It is quite an entertaining show.  They brought some good Carolina bbq and cole slaw which made for delicious sandwiches.  Most of us piled onto the pontoon boat and did a quick-ish tour of the lake.  This was followed by more eating and drinking and cheering on the bustling waterway full of people.  Everyone seemed to have a good time and to help everyone else to have a good time, so guess what?  I had a very good time.