August

The  August moon, beautiful but a bit melancholy.  Summer is passing too quickly.

Plants know this too.  They flower and set seed for the future.

Cats don't do much of anything besides growing slightly thicker coats...

....and finding comfortable places to sleep.

Sisters and cousins....

Alina's family came over for a farewell picnic before Jonathan and Alina headed out to Finland.

Our old friends Bob and Cindy Harder stopped over for a wonderful evening of reminiscing and sharing.

Life goes on and our children have all grown up, but inside we're still those young kids that got to know each way back when.  We need to do this more often, Bob and Cindy.

Jonathan and Alina loading up for Finland.

Gwen volunteered to drive them to the Twin Cities to catch their flight.  Thank you, Gwen!

Dang!  We just got to know Alina last Christmas and now Jonathan has hauled her halfway across the world!  I guess I'm partly to blame.  Forty years earlier, in the month of August,  I headed off for Finland to go to school at the University of Helsinki.  During that year I met Marja, and the rest is history.

But guess what, just when the kids up and leave us for Finland, we get to meet our newest granddaughter.

Life is sweet.

Life is good.

Fathers and sons.