Rainy Memorial Day Remembering and Partying

This has been the rainiest, chilliest May in a long time.  It continues to drizzle outside, and a cold wind is still blowing.  This has gone on for days.  It made for an unpleasant trip to the cemetery today to visit Susan's mom's grave for Memorial Day, and it drove us indoors for a barbecue that we were invited to attend at our friends' house.  First, the photos:

Hillary's Second Ninth Birthday

Faithful Reader, you may recall that, for Hillary's ninth birthday, we were in Missoula for a Sons of Norway convention.  She did a lot of fun, available-only-in-Missoula kinds of things that day, but she didn't get a birthday like what our kids are used to.  Usually we let the birthday girl make a lot of decisions on how we spend the special day: what to make for breakfast, what restaurant to go to for dinner, what kind of birthday party to have and where to have it, whom to invite for a sleepover--that kind of thing.  Since Hillary didn't get to do that on her actual birthday, we let her do it today and made this a "do-over" or substitute birthday for her!