Updated pic of Asa 

Emily has been teaching Ethan to make cards for his friends. Here he is making one for our neighbor. 

Retaining wall progress update. This is going a little more slowly than I had hoped. My original goal was to finish this by the end of fall 2005, but I think it may stretch into next summer too.

Cousins Hannah & Maggie learning to play together (sort of) 

Ethan & Asa 

This Independence Day was also Ethan's first experience with sparklers. 

My brother Joel & his girlfriend Sarah 

This is Emma, daughter of my brother Kris and his wife Sarah 

We took Ethan to the 4th of July parade www.thomaston4thofjuly.com in Thomaston, Maine. This the first parade he has ever been to. 

This pic speaks for itself.  

"The construction project that is our yard" - I'm slowly picking away at building a retaining wall in our front yard. I finally got the drainage done and now I'm starting to place stones. 

Here's another shot of our little studley dudley. :) 

I've been kinda slack lately about getting updated pics on our site. Here's one of Asa that Em just took today (Friday). 

Asa learned to smile a few days ago. Here's proof! 

An updated picture of Asa 

We decided there weren't any fish at Ayer Park (see prior post), so we headed to Lermond Pond with Lee's new Old Town canoe (I think it's a Discovery Sport 15 if you're curious). We didn't catch any fish there either. Oh well.

Ethan went fishing for the first time today. First, Grampa Pelletier took Ethan & me (Jeff) to Ayer Park on Seven Tree Pond in Union. 

My brother Kris came a little early to our cookout to help me remove a poorly-built entryway from the front of our house. With all the things the guys in my family accomplished for me Saturday, it leaves me thinking I should have a cookout every weekend! 

A redneck in his natural habitat: his truck. 

Can I just say that I LOVE having rednecks in the family? The stump in the picture used to be in a section of my yard that I'm trying to turn into lawn. We chopped a couple of the roots, and a few twitches from Josh's 3/4 ton Chevy 4x4 was all it took to have the whole stump out of the ground. Thanks Josh! L to R: Josh Callahan, my brother in law; Don Ficek, Emily's dad; Lee Pelletier, mom's husband; Me; and Joel, my brother.