Spring Vacation

It was nice to hear from the Kubins today since they are now at Disneyland. Ron must be there too by now. He loves to talk and since there’s no Dorena to listen he is eager to even talk on the phone these days. Actually I understand this very well as I started writing on this site for just the same reasons. No one got to hear about what I did every day and what I thought about so I forced the issue. Maybe Ron will take up blogging soon.

Lucas and I are headed to Portland on Monday for a few days. I talked to Gayle on the phone one day about MD and she offered to go to the science museum in Portland with us as well as spend a day at the beach. She has not been working for a while so was kind enough to offer us a place to stay for several days. The following week I think she is going on a cruise with Jim.

You and I still need to make air reservations for September. It’s great that we’re already having heated discussions about visas for Brunei. I don’t care what we do I just want to be right all the time which is difficult as you feel exactly the same. Miss Clara had us pegged didn’t she?

Someone on Flickr asked to use my photo of the Culver Hotel in an annual contest. You didn’t know I could take good photos. It was a fluke.

I can’t believe you didn’t go on the road trip with Hank. You missed sunny weather and Texas barbecue.

You know you're old when your daughter is 45!

Really I know I’m old when she and her family arrive for the weekend to join their cousins here for a birthday party. Everything happens at fast forward speed. We race to get in the car to go to dinner, we attempt to keep the meal timely and urge boys to eat, we hurry home to have the cake as soon as each boy gets to decorate with a candle and watch carefully while we light the candles and sing quickly. When everyone has some ice cream cake in front of them, they take one or two bites and get busy dragging out toys. I still saying, wait, wait but they don’t know that word.

We also had Spiderman and SpongeBob cupcakes and they were a big hit with the kids. They licked all the frosting off the cupcakes and left the rest so Dave suggested next year I save time and just buy a large container of prepared frosting. Doesn’t that sound icky?

The boys have a good time together and like to hug one another but I wonder how this little house will hold up in the coming years. My neighbor says the boys will slow down as they age so that gives me some relief in thinking of the future.

We also went to a St. Patrick’s parade and the boys love the cement trucks, fire trucks and Shriners. We stopped to visit Alberta and she responded very little. I thought she’d liked to see the twins but she was very tired. I like for someone else to give impressions to me as I tend to make up things I want to see.

Since it is Monday evening Lucas and Miles will be here for a few hours while their parents are at Judo. They can each make their own sandwiches now and pour milk so the dinner preparation is easy. They are going to make good husbands too. These busy families have few sit-down dinners together. Remember how our mother’s always started dinner by boiling potatoes?

Thanks for finding all the Borneo information. Were you riveted by the Hurt Locker?

Grand Mound

This is a place some genius entrepreneur dreamed up to help parents entertain their children. If you lived near Chuck E. Cheese in Spokane you’d understand why it resembles this arcade place with wave pool and water slides added. It does contain some cultural Native American items and many dead wolves to make the name Great Wolf Lodge fit. Claire and I met Cyd and her family there last week for a fun splash in the waves.

We went on to spend a few days with Peyton and Walker. Their dad surprised them one day with a paste-on mustache so when they found one in a vending machine they desperately needed it. I tried to get them interested in Sponge Bob or Mario but this mustache thing must be something only guys can understand. It kept them very busy for a few hours. After shopping we watched Shorts and Up so we could cry through most of Up. Did you miss this winning animated film?

Lucas finished his own cake this year. It is on the little picture square. He changed from an Alligator to a Candy Corn Crocodile and he took charge of the decorating after I assembled and frosted the sheet cake. He has lots of confidence when it comes to decorating but he was disappointed that he didn’t win the cake on the cake walk.

The sprinkler repairman has been scheduled so I’ll be first in line maybe. Claire drove to Seattle and back for the first time entirely without Raymond so that makes her ready to drive anywhere now almost.

Maybe it is time to firm up our flight arrangements. I’ll call you the first of next week and see what you have worked out. Do you have a good map?

Here’s a saying for you from Frank Lloyd Wright- I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.