Judy Mulroy is Jody's mother's sister.  For those of you who know Leona, Judy is Leona's younger daughter, after Joan.  Jody had lived with Judy and Mike, and their two children, Mickey and Caragh, for a half year or so, and was thus especially attached to the Mulroy family.  We had traveled out to Georgia for both Mickey and Caragh's weddings, and the Mulroys typically visited in California once a year or so.  So this was something of a reunion, especially with all the new kids about.  Mickey and Mary Beth have two children, Walton, 6, and Grace, 2.  As I mentioned, Mary Beth and her children were down visiting from Washington DC.  We would have to wait until April or May to see Mickey, which we planned on doing once we made it that far up the Eastern seaboard.  Below is a picture of Mike and Judy on their back deck, taken with Mike's digital camera.

Caragh, her husband Dave, and their two boys, John Robert, 3, and Joseph, not yet 1 year, lived in Augusta.  We spent much of our time at the Mulroy home, but often visited during this week with Caragh and Dave at their house, about 15 minutes from the Mulroy's.  Here are Caragh and Dave, and Joseph.

This day was to be a celebration of Grace's second birthday, so Caragh and Dave and 'the boys' were over for the party, which was barbie-themed, right down to the cake.  The Barbie cake was made to look like a billowing dress, with Barbie's very iced torso sticking out the top.  Grace really enjoyed the cake portion of the party, and really liked the frosting part -- she carefully licked most of it off the Barbie torso.

That evening, most of the adults who were not occupied with little ones had a fascinating, far-ranging conversation covering, among other things: world governing bodies, the environment, race relations, paranormal perceptions, and out-body-experiences.  We all went to bed way too late -- a pattern we later found hard to break, and very tough on the parents of the little folks, who often arose before daybreak.