The youngest adult in this family ...

How's that for a distinction? It's true, though ~ our daughter-in-law, Rachel, is the youngest adult member of this large family. She isn't married to our youngest child, though, which is I guess why we always make such a big deal of her young age.
Rachel's name in Hebrew means "a lamb." When I think of a lamb, I think of a very delicate, very beautiful animal ~ so this is an appropriate name for our Rachel. However, lambs are not very bright and are kind of whimpy. This is not at all true of the Rachel we know. She is exceptionally bright and has a very strong personality! She is a wonderful writer, a very creative artist, and a musician as well!
Rachel blossoms around animals ~ horses, BIG dogs, kittens, little goats ~ any kind of animal; and they like her too.
She even takes to fake horses now and then, if you can catch her at it!
Doesn't she have such a beautiful smile? This picture was taken this past Christmas just before she got her new hairdo from Emily (our family beautician). And even though it was her birthday today, she was thoughtful enough of Grandpa Jones to phone and inform him of the totally free pancake deal over at I-HOP for today only! (How did THEY know it was Rachel's birthday?!)(I'm just teasing!) Sadly, Mr. Jones was already away at an all-day model-train session, so we won't be able to take advantage of this most-frugal-of-all-opportunities! Thanks for passing the information on to us anyway. We do wish you
THE VERY HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS!