Daryl's Mom, Donna and her husband Ken just left to return to their home in Oregon. They decided to spend their two week vacation with us here in Oceanside instead of Hawaii! We are flattered. Even more so since Donna is not a big fan of air travel and suffered through another rough ride evident by her BLACK EYE (you'll have to ask her for the full story)! We had a great couple of weeks. It was a low key trip which is just what D & I needd, both fighting mild colds. The first weekend, we were joined by Ken's daughter Sue & her husband Chuck Kelley. They drove out from Denver and flew their daughter Katie out as well. We enjoyed several meals out and played Whoonu, of course. We just hung out and talked a lot, too. The ladies all took baby Phoenix to Old Town San Diego while the men hit the Air & Space Museum. When we returned, with a little convincing, I talked Katie in to donning some of my vintage items I'll be listing on eBay. It was a lot of fun to piece together the vintage looks and Donna was our consultant for accuracy. It was nice to finally meet Katie. Although she's very photogenic, it was hearing her talk about her life right now that was most interesting. It's so exciting to hear the plans of someone on the cusp of leaving college and making all those big life decisions. I won't gush too much about her, but I'll just say she is a wonderful person or as her mother says, "special" :) It made me miss my sisters a lot.
Once the Kelley's left, we drove by Ken's parent old home in Encinitas. It was a little tricky since the area had changed so much since then. We took advantage of having the Grandparents around and got lots of free babysitting! We even snuck off to the movies on Friday night for a "date." We saw Bridge to Terabithia. It was a good family movie, but lacked the promised fantasy themes from the ads. We squeezed in a game of Yahtzee which I haven't played for years. It was nice and mindless and we invented a dampening pad so we could roll the dice without waking the baby. We learned to yell quietly. Ken proved himself the lucky dog of the group doubling the next nearest score for a solid victory. I told him I wanted to take him to Vegas. We also played Pictionary--Donna & I against Ken & Daryl. It was perfect teams for maximum competition. Very entertaining. I won't go into too much detail what Ken drew for the clue "Chest," but I will say the name Dolly Parton was mentioned. But, it was Donna's bizarre portrait of George Washington that won the prize for biggest laugh. Donna and I won despite her attempts to sabotage our victory by repeatedly rolling a 1 on the die :)
Donna and I got to hit the "fun train," my Yard Saling parade on two Saturdays. Ken volunteered to babysit. We found some fun items. I think our best find was a near new crock pot for $3. We had a crock pot meal the next day. Donna was great helping with the baby, cleaning and cooking. I felt a little guilty, but I know this is a time we just need to accept help and be thankful. They spoiled us by doing the grocery shopping and making sure there was a steady supply of brownies and ice cream, too. Ken worked on the truck and fixed various lingering home projects around the apartment. Donna saved the day by figuring out how the playpen opened. Daryl and I were debating about how to disassemble it to repair the problem while Donna was in the background reading the directions. I was just about to throw the darn thing away when Daryl and Donna pointed it out sitting perfectly in the corner. We might stencil some Seuss characters on to it. Donna brought a couple of things for us in her luggage including Daryl's birthday present, a book on U2 by U2 and a project for me. She brought me a journal by a 5th grader. The student, Allison, had an assignment to send a journal that was to be written in and then sent on. Larry, Ken's son, had it last and sent it on to me. So we spent a couple of days writing up a little essay on me and illustrating it with some fun photos. I'm sending it on to Victoria. But Donna managed to get in some R&R, too. Ken and Donna enjoyed lots of cat naps in the sun on the back deck. I'll leave it a mystery what creative item she used to protect her under-eyes from the sun (see photo).
We went fishing on the pier one day. It was a perfect day for fishing except for the sorry lack of fish. Oh well. Ken promises me fish if we go up to Oregon.
Phoenix is 5 months old now. He developed a lot while they were here. We'vebeen focusing on giving him some time on his back in the playpen to see if he'll show interest in rolling over . He's very close and rolled once from his tummy to his back. He also started eating carrots! We had to get them in the jar after we found out carrots is one of the 5 things your not supposed to give a baby home made. FYI It can contain a lot fo nitrates that can lead to anemia.
Well, those are some of the highlights. I'm sure there are some things I missed, but we enjoyed lots of hugs, too. Phoenix is going to miss them both, but we plan to get up there soon. Who's next?!
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