Great Grandpa Gil is 87!

This weekend we celberated Great Gpa Gil's 87th B'day.The celebration brought a visit from Uncle Abe and Aunt Renee as well! The kids were so excited to see everyone they were counting the days. This great man is so loving and fun with the kids and such a great encourager to them. Grandma Verna is a doll as well. They hold a special place in my heart, too, as I haven't had any of my own grandparents around for quite sometime now. They are always so willing to share stories of the past with the kids and to teach them all they can about their life experiences. They are so wonderfully generous with their thoughtful little gifts and money that gets slipped into their hands from time to time. Though most of all we just love seeing their smiles and hearing their laughs! Someday we won't have them around anymore and when that day comes we will be sad, but we are blessed for now and thrilled to celebrate this 87th birthday. Grandpa is in great health and comes from a family of long lives, so we pray he's around for many more years. God knows what is in store for him and us and we take it one year at a time. He said as he told us goodbye that he hopes he is around for Rae Rae's 16th year- so do we!


The wonderful birthday brought a special Aunt and Uncle as well. Aunt Renee and Uncle Abe(and if you didn't know Tirzah is named for Grandma Verna and Aunt Renee- her name is Tirzah Renee Verna). Each day the kids asked," Is this the day we see Aunt Renee and Uncle Abe?" They live in The Bay Area so we don't see them as often as we would like, but it makes their trips so special. We treasure the time we spend with them. They are both so great at really focusing on the kids when they come, too; asking about their activities, talking and playing. They each played catch with Andy and watched Rae Rae's DVD of a current show of hers. Tirzah got her fair share of attention as well. They are so fun and the kids were sent off with the typical "last tag" game that Aunt Renee has passed down through the years!

Uncle Evan also came, which is always fun! He got the really good pictures, so when he sends them I'll post again. I'll be sure to post Aunt Renee's monkey face! :)

So a very Happy birthday to Grandpa and an official cyber space,"last tag," for Aunt Renee!

LEGOLAND

Well we did it! We finally went to Legoland! We are Disneyland fans so always spent the money on tickets there rather than locally at Legoland. Thanks to a raffle drawing we won free passes and off we went.
The kids were so excited as the older two visited the park last year with their grandparents. Tirzah was excited by all the colors and fun looking things as soon as we walked in.
The very first ride was one with a possibility of getting wet, but they didn't care so Daddy took them as Tirzah and I watched. She wanted so badly to be on the ride in the "wa wa." She proceeded to crack up laughing each time they came around the circle by us and were getting splashed!
The day started out wonderful and continued with more fun. Daddy and Andy dared to ride this crazy ride that twisted and turned them all over. Meanwhile Tirzah cried as she wasn't big enough to ride the very tame horsey ride around the castle area. RR begged to find the fairy brook ride and we all tried Granny's apple fries( Mommy and Daddy loved them, kids not so much...though T and RR did love the cream).
The best part of the whole trip we all agreed was the mini land USA- that was AMAZING! The kids all wanted to keep walking around and looking for more details. RR found 3 wedding scenes, Tirzah loved the "copter" on top of a skyscraper in NYC and Andy searched for Elvis in Vegas for RR.(incase you didn't know the Elvis gene skips a generation as my mom LOVED him and I can do with out but somehow my kids LOVE him!
Tirzah was able to ride an airplane ride early in the day and then towards the end we finally found some more adventures for her. She loved driving the safari jeep- ok so she was 1/4 inch to short to ride but they let her on anyhow.
Overall we had fun, but noticed a few things. There is no spark there- no life no noise! As we walked around we couldn't help but compare it with Disneyland as we have spent so many days there in our lifetime. We commented how there was very rarely any music or performers around- things that make Disneyland so alive. Even the employs(with the exception of 2 ride attendants and our waiter) were very depressing people, they were neither nice nor happy to be at their job. The whole land is very much marketed for 6-11yr olds which is a very small age group. I just can't see any kids older really liking it and the younger ones only have a couple rides they are allowed on. So thank you Broadway Theater Arts Academy for the trip but as far as Legoland I don't think we will be spending our own money to visit again anytime soon. Off to the happiest place in the world we will go...DISNEYLAND!

It's about time...

Well, seeing that the Internet looks like it may be here to stay, we thought it was probably time to step into the 21st century and start a family blog....I think that's what it's called!

Those of you that know me know that I've never been accused of being too caught up with the newest and latest technology. I guess the, "information age" has been a little slow in getting to me. I've checked the mailbox every day for the last ten years and it still hasn't arrived. And did you guys know that you can actually get on the Internet without a phone line? Can you believe that they make computers that run on a battery? I guess to say that I've been a little behind the times is about as big of an understatement that you'll ever hear.

Don't even get me started on cell phones, Ipod's, cranberry's or blackberry's or whatever those things are called. I know it's called the information age but come on. I don't know how much information my little brain can handle these days. I don't get the paper delivered....who needs to? With a few clicks, I can find out the weather at my favorite fishing spot, all the results of European soccer and how much gasoline is costing at a small truck stop outside of Barstow. Does anyone care about any of that? Well, maybe the weather at my favorite fishing hole is very important information to start my day just so I know what kind of clothing to wear during my day dreaming. But 90 percent of the stuff you find out there is useless...and most of you will probably include this into that category!

Whatever happened to sending mail or making phone calls that only lasted a few minutes? Free night and weekends, rollover minutes, mobile to mobile calls, etc, etc. Are you kidding me? Don't get me wrong folks, I love to stay in touch with my friends and family as much as the next guy, but things are out of control. I guess the world is just a little too small for me these days. When I sit at my desk with a cell phone to my ear, the sound of land line ringing while the fax is transmitting all while I'm checking email and getting an instant message at the computer is enough to make my brain begins to smoke a little.

So with careful thought and consideration, Jodi and I thought we should start a blog so we can do our fair share in contributing to the madness! However, you should be advised that there are no guarantees that this will do anything other than take up more of your precious time. After all, it may be about time that we stepped into the age of information but when it's all said and done, "it's about time" is exactly that....TIME. You can use yours however you want but we do thank you for sharing some of it with us.

Enjoy...

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