I guess it depends upon your definition of the term "decline" related to GDP growth. Does that mean negative, or simply that real GDP growth was down for 2 consecutive quarters?
According to this: decline - Definitions from Dictionary.com
Definition #14 states:
14.a downward movement, as of prices or population; diminution: a decline in the stock market.
I see two red lines consecutively less than the previous one starting in April 2006.
I suppose it hasn't been laid out correctly. From Wikpedia for Recession: "In macroeconomics, a recession is a decline in a country's gross domestic product (GDP), or negative real economic growth, for two or more successive quarters of a year."
No negative real growth, as evident from the graph.
From your Dictionary.com reference, I would posit that you're not interpreting it correctly.
GDP is not yet on a downward slope.
Say you have a dollar. The next month you have $1.10. The next month you have $1.11. The next month it's $1.14. The next month it's $1.15.
The growth graph would look similar to the GDP... you couldn't say your money ever declined, though. You ended each month with more than you started.
The next month it's $1.13.
Now, you had a decline... negative growth. It went down 2 cents from your starting value.