Here is the past several months all rolled up into one photo post. Fun, stress, excitement, worry, friends, family.
That’s what life is all about…isn’t it?
Bear graduated from pre-school.
NY had lasik surgery. This is a fairly common procedure to correct vision. Because he had RK (Radial Keratotomy) surgery 25 years ago the surgery was much more complicated.
The Princess finally has enough hair to pull up into ribbons and bows. Mindi’s mom said that when Mindi was little, she had very fine hair like The Princess. Now Mindi has thick gorgeous hair so, like mother, like daughter, right?
We put the swimming pool up. Actually we bought a new one as last years had a fast (opposed to slow) leak.
A new swing set made our little backyard more like a “Park” as The Princess and Bear like to say.
Sometimes we took the grand kids to the theater and sometimes we went alone.
Just like the theater, we took the grand kids to Disneyland and many times we went alone or met with family for a birthday celebration.
We reviewed Trix cereal.
We took our Cub Scouts to the Train Museum. Unfortunately, we didn’t allow for enough time and were only able to see the Street Car warehouse.
There was a bumper crop of grapes in the backyard. The vines grew everywhere! There are even grapes growing outside our upstairs bedroom window in the orange trees.
Austin cracks me up!! We had just picked a huge bowl of grapes and he picked up a bunch with the leaves still attached.
“Look!” he said, “The Olive Garden Restaurant!”
Austin practiced for the Olympics.
Kennedy wrote drew love notes for everyone.
One summer afternoon my dear friend Diane and three of her grandchildren came for a visit and sleep over. The six “cousins” had a delightful time. They went swimming, swinging, climbing, and ate grapes right off the vine. We’d peek outside and one or more of them would be holding up a huge bunch of grapes and would be biting the grapes off. Six yummy but sticky kiddos letting their imaginations run wild with each other!
Diane and I have been dear friends for 50 years! We met when we were pre-schoolers and have been through good and bad times together. The day after Britt died, she left her family, boarded a plane and stayed with me for over a week. Most importantly, Diane introduced me to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by inviting me to Girl’s Camp.
Have I said thank you recently Diane, and told you how much I love you and how much you mean to me?
Austin traced Kennedy…
…and Kennedy traced Austin. NY came in the house that evening and said with all the bodies drawn on the patio we had the perfect crime scene minus the yellow crime scene tape. Six kids and they had all been tracing each other!
I noticed the beautiful blooming trees along the drive way of our local market.
We celebrated Brian’s 32nd birthday,
and the 1st birthday of our little city. At the city celebration, Austin and Cody played a wicked game of laser tag. Cody went right for the target…
…while Austin used a bit of strategy.
Austin took a flying leap down the giant slide…
…fearlessly followed by Kennedy…
…who took the shortcut to the top of the slide while Cody was sliding down…
…because she wanted to go down again with her mother.
The guy who ran the giant slide was not happy with Kennedy running up the down. LOL!! Not happy at all.
Some days at Disneyland were spent just walking around,
or sitting in the shade while the little ones climbed the rock wall.
The kids and the babies cooled off at the beach.
We went to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Mr. Gravity was the head clown and Austin’s favorite.
Ny’s brother, Gary, came for a visit with his grandson Derek.
My mom came for a visit while my sister went on a camping holiday. She’s a kick in the pants with her antics but I spent many a day and night in tears. We learned a lot about Alzheimer’s Disease. At times she was totally lucid but a moment later would ask me where the man on the floor under the table went. “What man?” I asked. “Well I didn’t get his name.” she replied.
She needs 24/7 care and we couldn’t leave the room (to use the bathroom) without her taking that opportunity to get into mischief. She fell down our stairs twice. We spent a day in the ER and x-rays and a cat scan showed mom to be fine. She’s stealth! Even with a baby monitor in her room we weren’t able to hear her get up and sneak around in the early morning hours. The hospital told us it’s come to the point where she cannot be at home anymore. Mom’s back at my sister’s house and we’re working with the doctors to place her where she can get around the clock care in a safe environment.
There were picnics in the backyard.
And days Kennedy would dress herself.
NY’s vision is slowly improving. Very slowly. He’s been released to return to work by our orthopedic surgeon (bombing injuries) but now our ophthalmologist won’t release him to go back in the air.
We had four generations.
And Austin mastered the handstand!!
Summer’s almost over as the grand babies all start school on Wednesday.
Austin, age 9, will be in the fourth grade. Fourth grade in California includes California history. We would like to take him to visit all the California Missions.
Cody will be in Kindergarten and Kennedy will be in pre-school.
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