A grandparents' item on 9/17/07

Thanks to Susan and Jay for hosting such our reunion on Saturday. Lots of great food, conversation, and recollections which added more than a little HUMOR!
Don and Mary's family were present in force, Terri and Sandy, Bernadette, Patti, Tom, Lindsey, and Amanda, Kathy and Megan and Mary. Charleen and Bob were joined by Peggy, Kathy, Joe, Andrew and Kerry. Mark
brought Nemo, Calvin and Capri. Bridget joined us after she had a heavy golf invitational at Janesville where she placed 10th in the field. Current information about the rest of you was shared including
pictures featuring Freya from our Boise trip. All of you were missed.

Kudos to Magdalena and Domino for the time they have taken to share their new experiences during August and September. Must mention, too, Magdalena's picture post card with information about the lion encounter arrived on Friday. Domino's news about the Tempest part reminded me that I had seen
Paul Robeson playing Calaban in a Chicago performance which our Loras Players group attended on a college "field trip" during my Freshman first semester. Our high school chorus leader took a group of us to hear him sing some of those great "bass" numbers when he came to the then Iowa State Teachers' College in the early 40's. We were planning to observe Magdalena on 9/30 in a regatta, but as her crew will not compete there, we're now looking at another event on 10/6 which may give us an opportunity to hear more about South Africa. Hope that can work out and that we might be able to see Domino if we make the trip east. Presume that Domino's family was surprised about the fencing class! Don't recall any of you "7" being interested in it at Catholic Memorial where is was a unusal, but prominent, student activity. All of us will appreciate
more from both girls as they have time. Stephen, Nemo, Colin and Alex might have some interesting contributions, too! How about some high and middle and elementary school submissions????

Thanks to David for his alert on Google Earth where he first found the satelitte overhead view of our Rose Ave.
lot. He thought that the image made by the round compost ball was one of us standing near the 4 raised bed vegetable squares! Interesting.

Sorry we missed a phone visit with Kevin during the
reunion on Saturday and that we were only able to leave a anniversary message when we called later.
Congratulations Lyn and Kevin.

The drive for the Boise visit was enhanced when we were upgraded to a 2008 Saturn Aura with all the bells and whistles! Guess it had been since 1962 that we drove east on the route of I-90 route out of Seattle and over the Snoqualmie pass. While we had driven on another trip down the Yakima River valley following I-82 was new for us, then on to I-84 across the Columbia. Leaving Boise we followed a lot of great waterways all the way to Kalispell--the Boise, a Salmon
fork of one name or the other and the Salmon thru Stanley, Challis, Salmon and on to the Montana borde where we began to follow the Bitteroot to Missoula.
From there AAA routed us east to MT 83 to Kalispell which was east of Flathead Lake which saved us from the many slow areas on US 93 on the west side which we encountered as we headed west to Spokane and
Seattle. Couldn't remember how rugged the Idaho area is east of Cour d' Alene and the lack of interstate
rest stops! West of Spokane was smooth sailing, but we did take a break to enjoy the Columbia River Gorge where we accidentally pushed the On Star button and
had a voice ask us what trouble we were having and
state accurately where we were!! A great drive back thru the Cascades, too.

HI, EVERYONE==i GET TO TALK ABOUT FREYA. sHE HAS LEARNED SO MANY WORDS THAT IT IS FUN TO HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH HER. sHE REFERRED TO US AS WHAT SOUNDED LIKE GUMMA-GUPPA, AND WOULD ASK WHERE GUMMA-GUPPA GO? IF SHE DIDN'T SEE US. sHE LOVES TO READ BOOKS, AND WOULD DIG THROUGH HER TOY BOX UNTIL SHE FOUND THE RIGHT ONE, THEN EITHER CLIMB ONTO YOUR LAP OR SIT BETWEEN YOUR LEGS IF YOU WERE SITTING ON THE FLOOR, AND PROCEED TO TURN THE PAGES WHILE SHE IDENTIFIED THE DIFFERENT OBJECTS. SHE CAN RECITE THE ALPHABET WHEN SHE LOOKS AT THE PICTURES AND IDENTIFY NUMBERS. ANIMALS, THE SOUNDS THEY MAKE, sOMEHOW SHE HAS REVERSED KITCHEN AND CHICKEN, SO WHEN WE STOPPED AT cASEY,S FAVORITE PRODUCE STAND, SHE WANTED TO SEE THE KITCHENS. aPPARENTLY THE CHILDREN AT SCHOOL HAVE PLAYED AT BEING AIRPLANES, SO ONE DAY SHE MARCHED INTO THE KITCHEN AND PUT OUT HER ARMS AND WHIRLED AROUND IN CIRCLES, GRINNING FROM EAR TO EAR.wE WERE EXPECTING HER TO TUMBLE DOWN, BUT SHE KET ON GOING AS FAST AS SHE COULD AND REALLY ENJOYED THE APPLAUSE. tHEY ALSO PLAYED ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT, SO SHE TOOK HER MOM AND DAD.S HANDS AND MADE A ROWING A MOTION, THE IMPISH GRIN ON HER FACE. GETTING GROVER PROPERLY ALIGNED SO SHE COULD GET HER LEG OVER BEING FACE TOWARD HIS HEAD WAS ALSO INTERESTING TO
WATCH!!

Great to have been with Casey and Matt, again, and we
really appreciate their hospitality and their invitation to return, sometime.......

Still getting some produce from our garden, but the days without watering when we were gone took a
toll.

Had a quick nature trail walk yesterday afternoon at
Lapham Peak State Park near Delafield. Long time since we've been there. Lots of improvements. A really nice outing

Have to run, so there is no time for a spell check!

Love and prayers, Grandma and Grandpa