Clarification and the End of Summer

In re-reading my post of last night and the comments that followed, I just wanted to make sure I was not leading anyone astray!  First, thank you all so much for your supportive comments.  The encouragement is much appreciated.  I have a feeling the next few months/years may be a challenging time for us.

Yes, we definitely want to sell the house but we are NOT at this time planning on becoming full-timers (although nothing is outside the realm of possibility!).  We just really need to downsize and get something we can manage from our physical and financial resources.  I still feel the need of someplace I can go home to, but who knows what a year may bring.  We have learned to never say never!!

And now on to the end of summer.  It feels like summer is ending all too quickly this year…perhaps because it just got started??  We had the Portland girls, Anna and Bekah, for their last visit of the season last week.  They were only here for three days and we took them home on Wednesday.  Now we are busy getting the motor home waxed and stocked and ready to roll this Saturday for a 1 week camping trip.  Really looking forward to that.  After that we are home for about 10 days and then off on our long September trip.

So here’s what our last few days were like.  We tried to pack in as many memories as we could knowing that this may have to last a while.  We went miniature golfing on Sunday.





It’s a great miniature Golf Course – our favorite river-side pizza parlor is at the back of the lot, but the neighborhood is not the greatest.  This is what is across the street from the golf course.  Glad it was closed on Sunday!!  Click to enlarge.


And a couple of doors down from that wonderful shop is the building where Russ worked many years ago.  This used to be the headquarters for a local petroleum company, before the Big Guys put all the Little Guys out of business.  Russ was the controller for Sunny Service Stations for about 7 years and he is still friends with the former owner of the business.  It was a great local company for many years and probably Russ’s favorite job ever.  The neighborhood was nicer then too!!



After golfing we had pizza at Roaring Rapids but I have posted photos of that before so didn’t take any new ones.

Monday we went to a movie and then roamed the mall for a bit.



The girls wanted to try out the massage chairs in the middle of the mall.



It was fine until Grandpa decided he wanted to join them.



Tuesday we had a final girl’s swim – probably the last one of the summer.



Several years ago, when my first two grandsons were small, I bought a 3/4 size guitar.  I always wanted to encourage the kids in the pursuit of music and Mike showed great promise in stringed instruments.  However, he never really took to the guitar so I got it back.  Over the years it has gone from one grandchild to another and no one ever liked it enough to do much with it.  I was ready to sell it on Craig's List when Cailin decided she would like to give it another try.  This has been quite a few months ago and I haven’t seen any evidence of her continuing interest in the guitar.  HOWEVER, just when I was about to give up hope, Cailin’s Uncle Barry (on her mother’s side) came from Texas for a visit last weekend.  Seems Uncle Barry is quite gifted on the guitar and after a long weekend, had taught Cailin a few things.  She brought her guitar over on Tuesday to show me what she had learned in a few short days.  I was so impressed and SO HAPPY that someone was finally getting some use out of the guitar.  So take a look at a proud Grandma’s video of Cailin showing me what she has learned.  She is already quite good on the piano and I think she has a lot of promise on her second instrument as well.  Remember, last week at this time she couldn't play anything on the guitar!



And another talented youngster…I swear there are no special effects here other than the sound effects I added!!  I know, it's just too precious for words ...


So although it’s been short, it has been a great summer.  I don’t know what next summer will bring, but whatever it is, I’ll be ready…and you can be sure it will involve family.