A Fourth Trip to California

Good morning, my friends. As some of you already know, in September we went to California to visit with my brother, sister-in-law, and two nephews for a few days. We had a lovely time there and on the way back we got to see one of my aunts and my other brother.

 We left on Friday and got there very early Saturday morning, whereupon we went right to sleep. Later on Saturday we went to Morro Rock.

This is Walter.

This is Owen.

Here's my mommy, who was very pleased to be holding her grandson again.

This is my lovely sister-in-law, Margaret.

This is my brother, Matthew.

That's me with Walter.

Here's Mother with Walter.

Here's Daddy with Walter.

We read to the boys a lot the whole time we were there.

Owen loved his grandpa.

And Walter Loved the homemade raisins Grandma brought him.

 On our way home, we stopped at my Aunt Sue's and my brother Patrick's houses.

We had a wonderful time with everyone, and I can't wait to see them again. But, of course, it's nice to be home.

Originally I had called this our third trip to California, but it's really our fourth. I don't know why I thought it was only our third. Perhaps it was because I didn't write about our trip last year, but whatever the reason, this is our fourth trip to California, not third.

Birthdays and Family

Good morning everyone! As you know, yesterday was my birthday. Yes, I am now 16 years old. Of course I would rather be 6 again. 6 was a wonderful year. But enough of that. I need to get on with the post that I promised a while ago.

Last May Matthew, Margaret, Walter, and Owen came from California to visit, and my other brother, Patrick, and his dog Lando came for a few days. On Saturday we had even more family members over and it was great fun. We had such a lovely time with everyone that, despite my darling mother's constant asking, I really didn't get many pictures. That's all right, though. There are certainly enough good ones to make a pleasantly long blog post.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these pictures; I'll be back soon with lots more fun posts.

A Little Medley in Time for Spring

As I was sitting here browsing Facebook and sipping tea, there was only one thing on my mind: I should probably blog. For the past few days I've been thinking about how many interesting topics I have to write about, some happy, some sad. I suppose I ought to start with the sad part, since no one wants to end anything on a sad note, and the happier part is much longer than the sad part.

Well, you know how I live in a house surrounded by tall, beautiful trees? Heh. Not anymore. Our new neighbors clear-cut their property and now all that's left are stumps and slash piles. It makes me very sad to see the woods I used to walk past almost every day gone. To make matters worse, though, another neighbor is logging now too. Now, these woods were the ones I used to play in all the time. I went over there yesterday evening and looked at all the trees that had been cut down. I have many memories of those trees, and it pains me to think that I'll never be able to make more.

Now that the terribly sad, frustrating part of my life is out of the way, we can get on to the happier parts.

First, we have some wonderful newish chicks. We actually got them a few months ago, but they're still just as cute as they were when they fit into my hand. I have two very special ones in the group. At first I had planned on picking out one special chick to be my pet and naming her Barrow after one of my favorite "Downton Abbey" characters (yes, I still love that show), but then the smallest chick of the group, an Ameraucauna, was acting awfully sick. Daddy noticed her, and Mother and I held her and fed her and gave her water until we went to bed that night. In the morning we expected her to be dead, but she was fine! I was a bit funny, though, because I had named her Sybil after "Downton Abbey," and then she happened to be the chick who almost died. It was all rather appropriate for the poor thing. Anyway, Sybbie became very close to people because we held her so long and took care of her, so now she and Barrow are my two pet chickens and they always stick together like the best of chick friends. I'm afraid I don't have any recent pictures of the two at the moment, so here's a picture of when they were much smaller.

Sybil is now white with black instead of yellow and black, but Barrow has basically the same coloring (Barrow's a Buff Orpington). When they were little I had lots of fun setting them up with the dollhouse furniture. I do love to play with my little chicks.

You might remember that this time last year, my brother, his wonderful wife, and, of course, my nephew Walter came up here from California and we had a family reunion. Well, they're coming on Wednesday to stay for a few days. This time, though, I have two nephews to play with and take on walks down the (treeless) driveway. The last time they came, Margaret was pregnant with Owen, who's now eight months old. We saw him when we went to California in the fall, but of course he's completely different now. I'm sure you'll be waiting for me to blog all about their stay here and how much fun we all had, which I shall certainly do.

I'll be quite busy in the next few days, as one of my other brothers, Patrick, is coming home on Sunday, and Sunday happens to be Mother's Day. I must also do a great deal of cleaning this week. My room's just a bit of a mess at the moment.

I'll talk to you all in a few weeks!

Walter

Two weeks ago we picked up my brother, sister-in-law and nephew at the airport.  They stayed with us until Tuesday, so we had plenty of time to spend with them.  Friday, Sunday and Monday were spent relaxing and playing with Walter, but on Saturday we had a family reunion, and I happen to have lots of pictures of those days.

I started taking pictures on Sunday because Mother was practically begging me to.  Actually, my dear almost-sister Kari took some of the pictures too, so I thank you, Kari, for making Mother smile.

In this picture, Mother and my cousin's husband and their son Joshua were feeding the turtle some worms.  Silly Sara was scared, though, so it took her a little while to eat them.

Walter and Josh had quite a bit of fun climbing on my beanbag chair.

Walter with my cousin Meghan and Joshua.

Josh and Beyonca (Kari's friend's daughter) holding hands and dancing.

Saturday went by quickly and Sunday was here in a snap.  We had a lot of fun on Sunday.

Walter and Grandma watching Grandpa's tractor.

Walter and Grandpa on the tractor together.

Walter's mama, Walter and my mama walking down the driveway.

Walter playing in our playroom.

Walter and his Uncle Patrick making music.

Walter and Uncle Patrick playing.  To be perfectly honest, these two pictures of Patrick and Walter were taken on Friday, but we are going to pretend they're from Sunday.

 On Monday I had a chance to take Walter out alone while Mother cleaned up the house a bit and everyone else was gone.

I think the pictures make it obvious, but Walter loved Rosey very much.  I do believe Rosey loved Walter, too.

Walter played on the swing a bit,

Slid on the slide,

And just ran around the yard.

Tuesday came much too quickly.  Since I had been the one taking pictures, there weren't many of me and Walter, so I had Mother take a picture of me with Walter, and then I took one of the two of them together.  After the three of us walked the dogs, we went home and got ready to drive to Oregon.  Once there we visited my great-grandma.  Finally, it was time to say goodbye to Margaret, Matthew and dear little Walter.   They got into Margaret's father's car and drove off to her parent's house where they spent a week.  They're home in California now, but we had so much fun with all of them, especially Walter, and I'm glad to have so many pictures by which I may remember the wonderful time we had.