Summer Vacation Part VI

Saturday night (I think it was Saturday...not really sure), John and Leea (Eileen's son and daughter-in-law) had everyone over to their house for lasagna.  By the McDermott standards, this was a small gathering of maybe 25 people.  Leea makes a great lasagna--I think she comes from an Italian family, and she cooked enough for a small army.  Ashley and I played the part of Japanese tourists, snapping pictures and trying not to be intrusive.  In no particular order, here are some pictures of the group.  First up is Charlie and Jessica, who are very happy to be alive.  Jessica ran the Boston Marathon this year.  Evidently Charlie was standing right next to bomb #2.  Fortunately, Jessica is quite the runner, so she finished well before the detonation.

Next is a great shot of Charlie and his daughter, Jamie, and Tom, the youngest of Eileen's kids.  Tom is a pharmacist by trade, but he spends at least an hour a day getting in a surf (you don't think that hair just happens, do you?).  I do not think you could meet a more laid back person than Tom.

Next up is a nice picture of me, Bode, and Great Aunt Eileen.

Here is John holding his nephew, Dane (Charlie's youngest).

For this next picture, Ashley let me take some pictures.  Ashley, Eileen, and her son, Jim, Ashley's surf instructor (although if you want to split hairs, these pictures were taken before the day in the surf, so Jim had not yet earned the title of instructor.  I'll claim writer's discretion--the facts don't have to be completely accurate if the narrative is improved).

Kristen and I posed for a good picture.  Kristen remembers when I was just a little kid--maybe seven or eight?  I think we both look the same as we did those many years ago.

At some point, John opened up the hot-tub.  This was probably the second-best part of the evening for the kids.

In the tub with Bode are Charlie, Locklund, Jamie, and Dane.  Playing the roll of life guards are...

Jared, Rory, Max, and Shannon.  I'm pretty sure the above four all participated in the six-week junior life-guards course on the beach, so the youngsters could not have been in better hands.  Recall, I said the hot-tub was the second best part of the evening.  The highlight had to have been eating cake in the hot-tub.  I think I heard one of the kids say, "You know boys, it doesn't get any better than this." (Wait until they discover beer).

I'm pretty sure on this particular day, Bode was busy from wakeup until the cake.  After the sugar wore off, Bode came up to us and said, "I want to go home and go to sleep."  Simply awesome.  Before leaving, we snapped this picture with Shannon, who did a heroic job watching the kids.

Maybe two more posts summarizing the California trip.  I can't believe we did as much as we did.