A snow storm in July???

Actually folks, that is hail-- a lot of it!  It hailed for a solid 10 minutes here on Saturday leaving this mess behind on our deck.  Most of the hail was marble sized, but there were a few golf ball-sized exceptions (as you can see in the next photo).  It was crazy to watch and so noisy!  You can see all the leaves that were knocked off the trees and all the hail in the yard also.

That big piece of hail is sitting next to some cherry tomatoes that were knocked off the vine in the storm. Doesn't the inside of that hailstone look cool?  Its layers remind me of an everlasting Gobstopper or something.  It took an hour and a half for all of the hail in our yard and on our deck to melt.  It was such a strange day weatherwise.  At three different times throughout the day we were under severe thunderstorm warnings (and under a tornado warning once).  Funny thing is that the sun came out in between each storm. 

 
In other news, our new kitten now has an official name.  Her name is "Pixel".  We think it will suit her well.  I forgot how much energy kittens have.  She is so bold, too.  She harrasses our other cat ("Train") like crazy.  They tolerate each other, but I just know that my older cat is saying to himself, "What the heck were you people thinking?"  I'm hoping that they become good buds soon.

And last, but not least...Phil and Rosie are building a tree house as their summer project.  They have spent lots of hours clearing a spot in the yard to make it free of brush and other debris.  They have been using two books that Phil got on Amazon.com as their guide.  The books are full of plans and step-by-step directions of how each particular tree house should be built.  It should be pretty cool when it is done.  I will share their progress here with all of you.   

Busy Summer!

We have had such a busy summer so far!  School let out and I have been chasing my tail ever since.  Ellen took a big step in her adolescent life and took her Driver's Ed training the two weeks after getting out of school.  We still need to get her in to get her permit, though. 

The afternoon that Ellen finished up her driver's training, we all jumped into our Subaru Legacy and headed out for a summer road trip to Washington DC.  We brought my mother-in-law along, too.  We all had a great time and got to see so much history!  I admit, when Phil expressed interest in Washington DC, I wasn't all that thrilled.  Now I can't wait to go back!  There is so much to see and so much of it is free so it really is a cheap vacation.  Some of the things we saw were the Smithsonian Museums, the Holocuast Museum, Bureau of Engraving and Printing (they were printing $20 and $100 that day), Mount Vernon, the Ford Theater, Arlington National Cemetery (and the changing of the guard), and countless other memorials and monuments in the area.  It was so cool to see all that stuff up close.  We also rode the subway for the first time, which we all enjoyed.

Phil and I in front of the Obamas's place

Ellen and Rosie on the Capitol lawn

Camille, Amelia, and Ellen at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

In other news, we adopted a new kitten from Ellen's friend Erin's farm.  She is a cute and fluffy gray tabby and white kitten.  For the moment her name is "Delaney", but now we are feeling like that is too similar to our other cat's nickname "Train-y".  We are considering Opal or Kiwi as possible alternatives.  I'll keep you posted. 

Delaney or Opal or Kiwi (which is it...?)

Help!  I'm stuck behind the sliding glass door!

Well, that's about it for now.  I'll update soon with our consensus for the new kitten's name and some other exciting summer events going on around here.  TTYL!