My Baby is 18!!!

Samantha is serving the cake and we're singing Happy Birthday. It was just the 3 of us last night, but Mike had plans later. And earlier for that matter. Nightmare Before Christmas came out in 3-D and he has an "in" at the theater, so he went with a group of friends to see it. He invited Sam to go with, and she did. A good time was had. Here he had just blown out his candles. Eighteen of 'em. God, I can't believe that... Just think.... 18 years ago today....
Here he's opening a flash drive he needed.
Here he is hamming it up with the flash drive.
That's all the pictures I took, but not all the gifts he got. He was very pleased (so it seemed) with everyone's gifts. Thanks Bill! Thanks Aunt Kathryn! Thanks Sam! Mike wanted a pair of flip flops very badly and Sam thought the size large would fit.... Nuh-uh... Size 13 shoe for Mike! So it was back to the Rainbow store for Sam today to get the XL. Happy Birthday, Buddy! Sniff sniff... 18....

Kathryn and Bill and Bonnie Visit Chimney Rock. Again.

I was supposed to go with Kathryn to visit Huntsville, AL, the place of our birth, but Michael learned a lesson about driving fast on gravel the hard way... So money issues as well as Mike-being-carless issues precluded my trip. So Kathryn came here! Yay! We had the best time. It was great to see her. She wanted to visit Chimney Rock so we did.

Here are Bill and Kathryn with the scenery there. Me and Bill.
Me and Kathryn.

Kathryn is holding this rock up! See the grimace??
Hickory Nut Falls was woefully slow. A trickle, really. I remember standing on that deck years ago and the water came down with such force that we got wet just from the spray. Not any more.
Kathryn and Bill rocked a little in the chairs in front of the gift shop.
This is one of those machines where you put in a penny (and 50 cents...) and you turn the crank and your penny gets smushed into a little copper souvenier. Kathryn did the penny smushing.
And so did I... Here's me with my penny.

And Kathryn with her penny.
This tree at the top of Chimney Rock grows right out of the rock. How does it do that???
Bonnie and Kathryn.
This little guy was IN THE TRASHCAN and scurried out with a snack.
He charged at me right after I took this picture. Everyone laughed at me as I scurried away. OK, maybe he just jumped out of the trash can and startled me, but I FELT like he might be charging...

Kathryn and Bill and I tried repeatedly to get my camera to take a good shot with the timer set. By the time we got this one, we were all crouching down.
Kathryn and Bonnie and scenery.
Us again.
We had a great time. We watched the original "The Producers" (thanks Mike!!) which Kathryn, unbelievably, didn't even know existed! We played Scrabble. We went to Mike's pre-birthday party. We chatted. We had a great time. Hey, Kathryn, come back next weekend, OK?

Now she's back home and Bill's left for a very long trip, so all is kind of back to normal. That was a good weekend.

Mike's First (Eighteenth) Birthday Party

Mike will be 18! Gosh, I can't believe that.... Dave's moving back to Florida so he and his family came to have a pre-birthday birthday party for him. This is Samantha holding Brooke on her lap. Kat and Bill are standing in the background. Here are Mike and Kat. Mike's about to serve up some birthday cake. It's cheesecake.
Dave brought this tiny dog. It's half chihuahua (however you spell that...) and half something else very small. This dog is small. I'm talking small...

Here's Kathryn and Rudy the Tiny.
Ace did not like Rudy and is keeping a close eye on him. From across the room.
Sam and Kathryn.
Mike and Kathryn.
Happy 18th Birthday in advance Mike! Mwah!!!

Tattoo Day

Here are our feet. Yes, we got matcing tattoos. Close up of Bill's.
Close up of mine

The work being done on Bill.
Here is where we got them done. We love the people there.
This girl at Jack of the Wood had her hair up in a way that I thought you'd like, Samantha!
Obscene window display in Asheville at a toy store.