It's a Wonderful Life

Erik's sister, Erin, had a cute Father's Day text message idea for their Dad.  Each family sent in a picture of them holding up a sign that all together would read, "We Love You Dad and Poppy."  We were in charge of the 'love'.  Before church on Sunday, I took these shots of the kids . . . gosh I love them! After church, the kids were finally given the go-ahead to give Erik his presents.  M&Ms and this fire pit.  After our yummy salmon dinner, we decided to make some peach cobbler over the fire pit along with some homemade vanilla ice cream. The weather was super great and we took advantage of it by hanging out in the back.  There isn't anything better than visiting with family on a Sunday afternoon! Grammy surprised the boys with some army men!  They loved them, and have built some pretty cool forts for their guys :) Anna loving the little plastic slide Checking the final product...

On Saturday we drove over to Antietam Battlefield.  It was really amazing.  Antietam was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.  During one day alone 23,000 people lost their lives!!  Watching the documentary they have at the visitor's center and then walking out onto this gorgeous grassy field was really quite emotional.  I think it was the juxtaposition of the beauty of the surroundings and then imagining the blood and carnage that was everywhere in 1862 . . . anyway, I'm glad we finally went b/c it was one of those things that I have been wanting to do.  It also makes me want to finally watch the Ken Burns documentary on The Civil War that much more. pretty Grammy and pretty Anna Jackson was pretty proud of himself that he felt comfortable enough to be so close to the horse for a picture :) This was the church that was used an aid station for the Confederate army and an embalming station for th...