Mommy Day 2014 Vander Yacht Style

Mark, Steven, Doug and I drove up to Mom and Dad V's house for Mom's Day.

Right after greeting Mom and Dad I had to greet a certain young man.

Well hello Duke. You're looking good!

Soon family started to arrive.

This little cutie is hoping her Pa will let her out.

And Gus is hoping as well.

I mean, how could you say no to this face? I mean really!

Doug and Jessica catch up.

Doug......

Cousin love is one of the best loves.

Education is important!! Reading is fundamental.....

Band-Aids were shown off.

Don't you love the high tops?

My cutie.

Laughter was all over the place.

And pretzels. Always pretzels.

Steven. Mark. Enough said.

All was forgiven.

Pretzels and beer solve many of the world's worries.

The running of the llamas.

Well hello there!!

Time to personally witness the running of the llamas.

Doug and Owen hit it off BIG time. Owen began to call Doug his 'big brother'.

Here Owen wanted to show off his band-aide.

Here these two are plotting something.

I think I need to leave before things get out of hand.

Our very pretty girl showing off her walking skills.

Our other pretty girl showing off CAKE and flowers!!

Mom had displayed some of the plates the girls had made her over the years.

Rachel did this one many years ago: it's a portrait of her Dad.

Randy, I can see it. Yes, there is a 'slight' resemblance. 

Mary Jo did this plate while she was in the first grade. So colorful and cute!

Jessica did this plate a 'few' years ago.

Smile!!!!

Mark and his Mom.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture!!!!

You may think you have the world's greatest Mother-In-Law.

Well I truly believe I do. And Mark felt the same way about my Mom.

We are so very lucky to have our family.

 

I liked this shot of the llama.

These are the times I wish I had a better camera.

One day. One fine day I will.

I mean, think what a great shot this would be with a better camera!!

As we left Strawberry Boy bid farewell to one and all.

Thank you Mom and Dad V for a lovely, wonderful Mother's Day.

What a way to start a Saturday!

Mark and I got up early and headed into Portland.

Foot Traffic, a local running store, was having a run/walk from their store to the Moda Center to celebrate the Trail Blazers being in the play offs.

I love the buildings in Portland.

We took off. Thank goodness the rain held off!

Go Blazers!!!!

Not a good turn off to take.....just saying.....

Love this: tracks the amount of bikes that goes by.

I had wanted to take part in one of Foot Traffic's 10Ks due to the cool glasses they were giving away, but I already had something going. SO when I saw that they had several of these to give away in their drawing, and I didn't win anything, I asked afterwards if I could buy a couple.

He gave me a couple! Yeah!

 

Very. Yummy. Breakfast!!!!

Then they were having a plant sale next door.

Cool day my friends. Cool day!

Way to go Mary-Jo!

Okay, I had to laugh! I went to Goodwill today to find some stuff for Relay

and this sign so cracked me up!

Sorry Mary Jo: I couldn't resist......and you go girl!

A nice way to say "Thank you"

Last week Jan, Mark, and I met with a young man from a local paper.

He is writing an article on our Relay and he was so darn nice!

He sent us an email thanking us for sharing our story, and I in return thanked him and offered to create a Luminaria for him: he'd mentioned during our talk that he'd lost his Grandmother to colon cancer. He responded that he'd like that and gave a suggestion on the wording.

I think it came out very nicely, and I think he's going to like it.

The world should have more great young men like Dillon,

and I'm sure his Grandmother was very proud of him.

Lire gives it her best shot!

Lire ad I have been working on creating Luminaria for Bark.

I follow a Face Book page called 'Gabe, Cancer Kitty Warrior'. He is a black and white kitty who is fighting cancer and his 'parents' share how brave he is and it's very inspiring.

I created a Luminaria for Gabe (you know who was NO help). Mark and I worked with Lire to take some pictures. We dressed her up with proper pirate gear and gave it a shot.

Look how it started.....

It got a bit better.

Whoops....

She decided to check it out. And yes she approved!

I think she approved.

She dumped the pirate gear. Mark put it back on.

She took off promptly.  We were done.

My friend Capi make a donation in honor of our friend Rhonda's dog Rufio.

Rufio was a true sweetheart. Whenever I would go to Rhonda's I'd hang out with this adorable pup.

So while we were working on the Luminia one of the Relay team captains came by to pick up some Luinaira. The next thing we know Lire is loving on her shoe big time!!!!

Stephanie told us she'd just been rowing and had walked through goose poop.

Who knew Lire loved her some goose poop??

 

Now I'm working on Deacon's Luminaria, and I have a couple of other loved pets to do them for as well. Cancer touches your life in all aspects. I can't wait until we end it once and for all.