Winding down the year of school......

 

This week Jena didn't have theater and golf, which was good because she had a couple of choir practices after school for the final choir performance on Thursday evening.  Here is Jena with Shelly and Brooke, two friends who are in choir and also in functional skills with her.  The performance was centered on Broadway music and was a very fun concert complete with costume changes and dancing.  That means Jena loved it.  Her favorite songs were "Edelweiss" with her teacher's husband playing the guitar and "Rainbow Connection".

Wednesday they went on a "field trip" to "The Lego Movie".  I am not a big fan of these bus trips to attend movies but Jena likes going with her friends so we let her go from time to time.  Thursday was her field trip to Lagoon which she also loved.  High School can be rough!!???

Brooke and Jena at Lagoon
Bracken, one of the peer tutors who went with
Jena posted lots of pictures from
Lagoon so I copied this one.
Jena gets so excited when friends post pictures
of things they have done together.
Whatever we might think of Face book, it does
provided a social interaction for Jena with
typical peers which wasn't possible 20 years ago.

Jena also brought home her art work from her painting class.  We have been hearing about her pictures all semester so it was fun to see them.

A sunset:

 Elsie and the Ice Castle

 

After track on Saturday, Ben and I went to work on our garden and Gary and Jena got the flags ready for the first flag flying holiday.  I love that about Gary--how he takes care of the flags.  I didn't have it on my list of husband qualifying  traits but it is a good one.  There were lots of traits I didn't know I wanted in my future husband that I lucked out with Gary.  He loves Cub scouting and pinewood derby races, he understand my obsession about the beach and helps get me to beach when possible, he likes planning parties with me and he is totally supportive of my "Just for Fun Mortal Goal List"  (most people call it your bucket list , but I hadn't heard that title before I created my list.) and he makes me laugh (I might have had that on that original husband list.)

 All of those thoughts as I watched him and Jena check the flags for the year.  I love you, Gary Hall!

Speaking of flying flags we enjoyed all of the flags posted at our Syracuse cemetery today when we went to visit the graves of our family members.  It was the first Memorial day (well, the Sunday before) since Valerie (Gary's sister) passed away.  She and Allan had designed their tombstone and it had been sitting on their plots for a couple of years.  I teased her all of the time about it.  It just seemed creepy to see you names on a tombstone.  However this year, as Allan looked at the tombstone it made it very happy.  It has a very calm scene of a single man catching a fish in a mountain lake.  He said it made him feel so peaceful and calm just looking at it.  I never heard Valerie talk about dying before Allan.  I don't know if she had a feeling about it or not.  But I was thankful that she had followed through because I think none of us could have design a better tombstone to represent them, their relationship and would leave Allan with a peaceful feeling when he looked at it.  Good job, Valerie.

The sound of the flags in the wind and watching them flutter

is such a sweet reminder of our country and those who serve it

in the military--Shout out to our current military men-- Airman Austen Russell and Nate Williams--Marines(my nephew in law married to Kristen Ipson Williams) and Johnathan Page-Air Force and all who have served in the past from the Hall, Page, Quigley, Giberson, Owen, Ackley and other family lines.