All Things Anne

Sunday morning, we went to Grandpa’s church. There was a man with an upright bass, and he let me try that; it was cool! Then in the afternoon, went to the Manor, which is a retirement home. It was a very nice place! We gave a concert there, and it was a lot better than the one the previous day! We didn’t use ear monitors, too. Someone at Grandpa’s church had printed papers with little bios about each of us on it, and there were leftovers, so we handed them out to the folks at the Manor. There was this one Chinese man, and I watched him a little; he sat there with the biography paper and memorized all our names! So afterwards, he came up to Dad and shook his hand and called him by name, and the boys! His name was Wen Han, but “Wen” sounds more like “Wayne” with his accent, and he was calling himself John Wayne! He was a funny old guy, and he invited us to go out to Panda Buffet with him on Tuesday!

Unfortunately, we didn’t get any performing pictures from the Manor, but here are a few other ones!

A bunch of us toured the Manor with Mrs. Ethel (the elderly lady on the far left…she’s 92, believe it or not!), and one of the boys took a picture of us on the bridge
Another bridge shot

If you wanted to know what the backs of the outfits look like, I’m on the left, and Mom in her modified one is on the right. Hers was a modified men’s vest pattern.

Then we went back to Grandpa’s. It was Paul’s 17th birthday, so we had lemon meringue pie for his cake, and we had dinner, then went to bed!

Paul and his pie…no, he didn’t turn 1!

On Saturday, the boys went fairly early to Grandpa’s church to set up the music stuff, as this was the day of our concert. After setting up, they came back, and a few hours later we all went to the church and did a soundcheck and gave the concert. It turned out pretty badly, really; a lady had a heart attack and passed out (fortunately a relative of ours was there, and she’s an RN, so she gave the lady CPR and revived her before the fire department people took her to the hospital); and we had a technical problem where Dad had too many things plugged into his mixer stuff, so in our earbud monitors, when we were singing we couldn’t hear the guitars, and when we weren’t singing, the guitars were loud! We were all perfectly in tune with each other’s voices, but not with the guitars!

Joe
The choir…left to right, me (pink) on with the bass, Kate (red), Em (pink), Beth (green), Mom (purple), Tess (red, in front of Mom), Rase (yellow), and Jay (dark blue).
All of us…not a very good picture, I know. Choir on the left, (Abby’s in light blue, you can just see her vest, behind me in front of the others)…Dad’s in the purple with the cream guitar, Ben’s in the red behind the drums, Eric in the back right (blue), and Joe front right (green)
Another picture…
and another!

Afterwards, there was a very nice potluck, though!

Left to right…Mom, John, Grandpa (in the blue shirt), Paul, and Aunt Laurie.
Mom, Grandpa, and Aunt Laurie

Left to right, Nana (my babysitter when I was very young), Grammoo (I don’t know the lady behind her), Papa, and Dad

And I got to play the church organ, which was awesome!

Me on the left, Beth on the right
It was sooo much fun!!
See all the knobs? I couldn’t figure out what to do with them all!

We left home at 5:15 pm on Thursday, June 26, because we had to get to Laurel by 6 to pick up a hubcap. By the way, those things are spendy, so be gentle with your hubcaps! Fortunately nobody threw up on the way there.

Along the way, Elle Janie had a bad diaper (surprise surprise, eh?) and we stopped to change it at a park. There was a swingset there, and we had fun on it.

Mom and Dad swinging, doesn’t it look like they’re having fun?
Dad pushing Mom

Daredevil Dad!

At 9:57 Oregon time, we arrived at Grammoo’s house! While she finished making lunch (we got there earlier than she expected), we played around. We played baseball/softball with this toy ball (that was stuffed) and a bat (that was also stuffed). Joe (and the other photographer, either Eric or Beth) got some great pictures!

Eric at bat, Ben the very confident catcher, and Dad the pitcher.
Joe

Me at bat; Abby in the pink pants, and Joe the not-so-confident catcher (and he had a right to be! I only hit the ball once in three tries!)
Dad, taking his turn batting…Joe as catcher again

Dad, doing the classic wind-up, Joe pitching, and Ben and Abby watching. Ben’s the tall one with the tan shirt and Abby’s the short one with the pink pants. I promise.
Abby’s batter stance!

Then we had an awesome roast beef dinner, and the boys did some yardwork. Here’s a few random pictures.

Dad was trying to get out of a lawn chair, and Ben asked what he could do to help. “Carry me,” Dad said.
I don’t know which is funnier, the picture or Mom’s expression!

Papa and his chihuahua, Heidi.

Joe took some pictures of Elle Janie…

Elle Janie in a daisy crown I made
again…
…and again!

yet again…she’s just so cute!!
last one!

…and Beth and the baby…

Beth and Elle Janie
Beth and Elle Janie

…me…

Me…
and again…
and again!

then Dad took pictures of Beth and I together!

Beth and I
and again!

At 5:40 we took off and headed for Grandpa’s. We had dinner there, even though we were still mostly full from Grammoo’s lunch! But it was good, too!! After a while, we went to bed…we were pretty much exhausted!