Seattle Pictures

Great Day

It was such a great day. We started off with coffee at Forza. Then the king called to us. We spent nearly an hour with King Tut. My impression is the exhibit 30 years ago was better, but I'm sure there are more security issues now. Anyway we enjoyed it.
From there we hopped the monorail and got delivered a few blocks from Pike Street Market.  We strolled through and bought a cool frog. Saw the cutest teepees for little kids and wondered if Betty could make one. We had lunch at the Athenian and watched the waterfront of the Puget Sound. It was so lovely. Bought a couple t-shirts for our little people. Caught the monorail back.
We had dinner at the hotel restaurant. And then spent time relaxing. The hotel had upgraded our room, so I took advantage of the jacuzzi tub. I liked how I never ran out of hot water in filling it. They take a lot of water to fill. It felt really nice after all the walking we did.

28 Years

Today Dave and I have been married for 28 years. It is a long time.  We have been through a lot of life in that time.  We have experienced the illness and death of our fathers. Lost three grandparents to old age. Lived through alcoholism and recovery.  We gave birth to our son and raised him. We built a house.  We took on raising our grandchildren. We survived having an ex-spouse and finding a place of understanding with her. We raised the children from that marriage. We survived the tumultuous relationship with Tanya. We are blessed in our new daughter-in-law Kristie.  We applaud our son Doug for his life choices. We have been saddened with our son Mike's choices in his addiction.  We have survived all of it.
We continue to live through recovery, addiction, parenting grandchildren, my mom's dementia and life in general.  Seems like yesterday and many lifetimes ago we got married. We have lived many lifetimes since then.  And today we rejoice in having lived through all of it and still stand united for 28 years. Happy anniversary Dave. I love you. Thanks for being with me through all the good and the hard.

Bits and Pieces

Things I forgot. On the flight down to Reno, we had all male flight attendants. They tend to be a tad bit funnier. The airline has wi-fi available for laptops. After safety instructions one of the flight attendants told of the amenity with a glib reference to if you really need to connect to the Internet in our hour flight.  It took me a moment to grasp what he said, and then I found it very funny.
On the flight home I spilled my soda.  The attendant gave me some napkins and kicked the ice out of the walkway. The other attendant came by and picked up the ice, asking who was throwing it around. I admitted to it. She then asked me if I wanted another beverage in a cup with a lid. Too funny.
Other than the casinos being noisy, Reno is a pretty quiet city. I took a walk and was amazed at the lack of noise.
Pat and I went to the Harley Davidson store in the casino. I thought I was surprised at the prices in the Harley shops in Hawaii and London.  $37 for a woman's tank top. Man. We did not buy anything in that shop. I just bought some plain old Reno t-shirts down the street.

Working On It

So the kitchen is again clean and the floor really mopped to get up the yogurt.  The little kids have had baths and smell much better.  The laundry is almost done including the load that I started before I left and was still in the washer when I got back. Audrie's bed is made.  The toys were almost all picked up.  Funny how they don't stay that way.  Now to get the little kids back on their schedules.  They are so far off.  Maybe tomorrow Dave won't need to sleep all day.  Good to be home, and I suspect I won't be going again any time in the near future.

Creativity

I think Audrie has been trying to tell us that she wants to do some creative projects.  She loves the feel of cat litter sifting through her hands.  And isn't that pleasant?  Must be time to break out the sand box again.  She painted her brother yesterday with yogurt.  Must be time to get some finger paint.  See where I'm going with this.  We did get out the color crayons the other day and she drew a beautiful picture for Nana Nita.  She told me there was a cat in the picture.  One little bitty section was what she pointed to for the cat.  `
I've been reading these amazing blogs by women who are creative and do all kinds of creative things with their kids.  I keep thinking we should try some of these things like finger painting in the bathtub.  The problem is at our house we don't just have creative supplies around.  The exception to that being the crayons and markers in a basket from before.  Must be time for Nana to do some shopping and stock up.  I truly think Audrie needs some more outlets for her creativity.

Home

I am back home safe and sound.  The house is a little worse for wear.  The little kids are a little worse for wear.  Papa is a lot worse for wear.  But we all survived it.  Papa is going back to his short work week with short hours.  The little kids had baths and cleaned up pretty nice.  The little man says Nana, Nana a lot now. Warms my heart.  Audrie has discovered that jam on toast is pretty good.  Her daddy wouldn't even try it until he was about six years-old.  It felt good to get back to hugs, kisses, snuggles, cuddles and smiles.  Dave liked my hair.  The little man fell asleep on me twice.  And Audrie just keeps giving me lovings.  It was great to get away and great to get back.