The Atlanta 2018 Review

This time you may need to fasten your seatbelt because of everything that happened in 1.5 weeks surrounding the high school graduation of g'son Nicholas.  It really was a ride and both Astrid and I showed it in bits-n-bobs on Facebook!

 Before we do anything else, of course, we have to get the "new" growth stats.  HA!

This is the 4th year we've done this with Astrid and Nicholas.
Lucky for us, he already had his cap and gown before the actual graduation ceremony.

SIL Dennis' Mom Judy and daughter, Brooke, arrived the same day, from California.

Family.

So, then, of course, we had all the shenanigans...while we were "waiting" for the big day.

Not to be outdone by Mom, here comes g'ma!
As I said on FB, if anyone says "I like big butts and I cannot lie" (Sir Mix-a Lot), I'll shoot you.  HA!

I'm so lucky to have Astrid document so many fun, happy moments.

Astrid was the one who gave the basketball hoop to Nicholas as a house-warming gift in 2016.

Nicholas grew up shooting baskets with g'ma!  Couldn't let that go to waste!

  Saturday before graduation, Nicholas, Astrid and I went with son Mark to the last Star Wars movie.

After that, Mark took us on a tour of his M3 company where he is now in Quality Assurance.

A colleague, appropriately, had the Wookie bobble-head on his desk.

Then it was Memorial Day Monday when g'pa Bill and Linda joined us, from Florida.

Bill is my ex, so, yes, families do change and blend and merge, sometimes gracefully.

I loved that Astrid shared her own take on the day...her first time meeting my "distant past."

[Bill and I were married 21 years, from 1969-1990.]

Then it was the big day:  Tuesday, 29 May 2018.

Lambert High School, Suwanee, GA, Class of 2018.

(Remember that I had just had my 55th reunion, Class of '63, a couple weeks before!)

He did it!

The party afterwards was almost as important as the graduation itself.

Astrid's collage is fabulous, showing all the "usual suspects."

I absolutely love this for all the people important to Nicholas.

(Yes, that's my other ex, Donica, who played an important part in Nicholas' first years with me,
on the top, far right.)

From that point on, Wednesday till when we left on Saturday for Amsterdam,

Astrid and I took walks every day in the delightful subdivision where Amy lives.

The trail is near the Chattahoochee River and so has inlets throughout.

(I loved it until someone on FB told me about the venomous water snakes in Georgia.)

The Nature Trail was exploding with fungi because of many days of rain.

I loved picking-n-choosing different images for our Shutterchance photoblog.

Here's Astrid's take.  Don't you love it!

One day she even caught this black racer, sunning itself a block away from Amy's.

OMG!  Who knew they were in the neighborhood! 

(NOT poisonous, thankfully.) 

She also did this collage of the geese down at the neighborhood pond.

Sometimes I practice using my macro mode on the camera , of course.

The flowers at this time of the year were plentiful and gorgeous.

We aren't usually there when the magnolias are in bloom!

Saturday evening, 2 June 2018, Astrid, Nicholas and I flew back to The Netherlands.

THAT'S what's coming up next....