July 2008 found us back on Block Island after Shelley's niece Jessie's wedding on June 19th. 

We have our new pup Sammie with us and he is developing into a very nice dog.  The only ongoing issue we have is with his food....or maybe I should say our food.  Sammie is not eating very much which causes us some consternation.  The other day Norm left his sandwich on the dining room table and when he got back in less than 5 minutes, it was gone.  Sammie was busy munching on the bread in the middle of the living room.  One night, the wind was so fierce that a hot dog fell off of the plate on the way into the house from the grill.  Sammie LUNGED at it and inhaled (literally) half of the hot dog in one swallow.  It came back 30 minutes later in the same shape it went down - he threw it up in one piece.  Not a pretty picture.

Anyway, our friends Ingrid and Wally came up for a 5 day week-end over July 4th holiday!  It was great!  We went to the traditional Block Island parade, enjoyed the steak fry at the Fire Station and went to the beach.  Carol and Barry Sachs came over for a visit, along with Lisa and Andrew (Carol & Barry's daughter and son in law) and their new little baby Kate!  We had a nice visit and made plans to go on Andrew's boat the following week-end.

Ingrid, Wally & Shelley	All of us!	Ingrid & Sammie	Sammie	Shelley & Sammie reading

 

On Tuesday, we had 2 12 year old boys from Hell's Kitchen staying with us for 5 days.  They are part of the "52nd St. Project" which is a theater group from NYC.  We housed them and drove them back and forth to their "base camp" where they wrote, directed and practiced their individual one act plays.  On the Friday before they left, they put on 10 1 act plays and we had a great BBQ.  The boys were very polite, sweet, well spoken and nice to have around.

Alvin, Ralphie & Sammie	Alvin doing his play	Ralphie, the mad scientist!	Haley "back on the farm"	Sweet Melissa	All the kids and adults

 

On July 18th, Stacy and Alex came for a week-end visit, with Alex staying for the week.  Stacy loves clams so we went clamming one afternoon and got 32 clams!  I took Alex back to the house while Stacy and Norm caught our dinner!  I made half of them boiled and the other half stuffed.  We all decided that we liked our clams grilled much better.  Alex has gotten really good on his bike and he and Norm have been biking in the mornings.  The afternoons are taken up by beach bumming.  He enjoys the waves and is much braver than last year.

Alex hamming it up for the camera	Muscle Man!	Alex & Stacy	Sammie's new best friend!	Alex at the beach	Conquering that wave!	He wanted to be buried....oy veh!	Muscle Man!