"No pictures of me"

That's what Matteo reported to Tracy from the free magazine stand in front of Doc Burnstein's in the Village after celebrating the cousins birthdays with ice cream. I looked at Tracy a little inquisitively, and she mentioned that Matteo had been on the cover of Central Coast Family Magazine quite a bit lately. I had no idea. But sure enough, the May 2016 cover. Tracy would not have known but for someone mentioning they thought Tracy was on the cover, but "the kids looked too young." Yup, this shot was taken a few years ago...

Cal Poly Pier

The Cal Poly Pier (near Avila Beach) is only open to the public two Saturday mornings per year. So, Papa Jamie, Matteo, and AJ took advantage of today's Open House.

All the pics are here.

Noah's Baptism

Cousin Noah, that is. Most of the boys (all but Sam who was with Don and Zoe) ran over to Visalia today to attend cousin Noah's baptism. And then stay and play with everyone and have a little lunch at Nicola and Danny's place for a while. The adults didn't see much of the kids! The trip included a stop at Big Bubba's Bad BBQ in Paso Robles on the way home - oh my!

The stage direction given was "be depressed."

"Best Day Ever"

Them's mighty powerful words from such a little girl, but she managed to squeeze them out on the way to the car at the end of the day. Tracy and Serafina joined Erin and family at Disneyland today. I hear Tower of Terror was a first...

Let There Be Light

Matteo (and Lucy) helped us set up lights at Grace 5 Cities this morning. We set up and hooked up the ten of these lights that run along the front of the screens and stage. You can see one of the lights pointed nearly at you in the upper left corner of the photo.

An Irish Wake

Well, sorta. We took the most fun parts and left out the rest, and had one heckuva party in honor of Lynn's Dad and Founder of the Compound, Bob McDonald. The most commonly heard phrase all afternoon and evening, was "Bob would have loved this!" The second most commonly heard phrase (a very close second) was, "This was the best memorial I've ever been to!"

It was pretty simple. We invited whomever we could think of that might want to attend from here in our neck of the woods. We mixed that with many of Bob's favorite foods and libations. And voila, a party!

All the pics are here.

This post contains a fun slideshow of "Bob pics".

And here's Bob's obit in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

To Bob! (This happened many times.)

Serafina would be quick to point out her makeup is for a show she's in.

Bob's youngest offspring on Lynn's branch, Lexi.

Die-hard shenanigans.

From Pat McCann: Bob in Kinsale, Ireland.

In Summer...

Two of my faves: Wolff Petite Sirah, and Olaf. I sang Olaf's "In Summer" for my Bye Bye Birdie audition. Must have done OK - I'll be in the show which runs June 3 through July 2 at the SLO Little Theatre. Good job, Lynn! Rockin' it at Vons again!