Good idea/Bad idea

Good Idea: Treat yourself to a pedicure.

Bad Idea: Tell the lady with the nail clippers how adorable her son running around the salon is and how much you enjoyed talking with the little guy while you were waiting only for her to look up and tell you that it is her 8 year old daughter. Cue the rapid foreign chatter while I sit there with red cheeks.

So, I am in the market for a new nail salon if anyone has any suggestions...

California Part 2

And let there be golf...

In our first corner is Team Marcellus. Headed up by Laura and her very golf-like polo, this team is rounded out by John, whose has a handicap of "has never played golf", and Joshy who wields a mean yellow putter. The first proponents of the "why walk when you can ride" golf philosophy, Team Marcellus is bringing little Joshua up in the great golf tradition of never setting the bar too high. Over celebrate the fact that you did not whiff as the ball rolls 30 feet forward and people will think it was all a part of the plan. Take 15 more shots to get to the green and people realize you are the reason playing 9 holes takes 5 hours. It is all fun and games until you are bad enough for them to institute miniature golf rules. Take ten shots and if not in the hole, just pick up the ball, take the 10 and move on. We're not in Augusta anymore, Toto.

In the next corner is Team Pettit. This team benefits from Donald, the seasoned professional in the field. When not driving for the green, he likes to spend spare time instructing the team's newest member, Krystina. She is new to the sport this year and has been taken under his wing...or outstretched hand...in the hopes to follow in the footsteps of taking 75 practice swings for every one shot. Donald's patented method of laying the golf club against your hips to determine ball trajectory has been accepted sport wide. I said across your hips. No, your hips. What good does it do if you just keep moving your feet back? I said YOUR HIPS. John, just give me the club...

Another little known fact is that Donald has borrowed the littlest member of Team Marcellus to work on his newest idea for the sport...synchronized golfing.

Last, but not least, we have Team Owens. A new pairing on the field, they seem to be still working the kinks out of their strategy. Currently the tactic seems to be a bait and switch. Ross comes to the course with distance and keeps the eye of the crowd with consistent drives to the freeway or other hole's fairways. Well, and water...ditches...did I mention a flock of Canada Geese? Then, out of nowhere comes Jess. This little known powerhouse comes to the tee and shoots one straight down the fairway, where Ross left the cart while he hiked into the woods to find his ball. The round was theirs to lose until Jess started to succumb to the mental game. We then got to see the other face of Jess. One that usually accompanies the phrase, "Ross...you just said to aim that way..."As a last ditch effort, Team Owens took to taking as many pictures of the opposing teams as possible in the hopes to throw them off their game. They did manage to get under the skin of Team Marcellus who is pictured here giving their best "f off" look.Unfortunately, Joshua was easier to sway...

Jessi's Camera and Naked Ben

California Part 1

There is hardly a way to encapsulate a 9 day vacation into one readable blog. Rewind that. No way for someone as long winded as me to encapsulate a 9 day vacation into a readable blog, so I have decided to break it down into pieces. That makes it a little less intimidating anyway. I just have to remember a day or two at a time and not try to cram every detail into an epilogue that is as tiresome to write as it is to read. Let's be honest. We all have lives here. No matter how much you love me and my family, the interest begins to fade after the fourth, okay second, time you hear about the bacon for breakfast, outdoors in the afternoon, swimming at night. So, here's the highlight tape in three easy installments. Mostly because installments just feel like they should come in threes.

The best childhood memories as those that, when revisited, are every bit as magical as they felt as a child. Going to our cabin is one of those memories for me. The smells, the sounds; they are all the same. All, just as I remembered. So with the itinerary.

The first stop, as always, was the Stanislaus river and Beaver Creek. All the water is mountain runoff. In other words, freezing. I remember being a little girl and sticking my feet in the water and shrieking at the chill. The magic came as I watched Joshua do the same. Of course my dad and Ross weren't men if they just let the cold water run over their feet. No, real men jump head first into 20 degree water that causes such a shock you have to remember not to gasp before surfacing. Soon, Tina followed suit and there were three frozen swimmers fighting to stay upstream. Well, when they weren't deciding it might be a good idea to float down the rapids, bouncing off each rock along the way. Moving up and down the shore meant navigating the slopes and edges of the rocks. It only takes a second for a balance check to become a tumble or a trip for your camera into the water. Tina can attest to that. Beaver Creek is far less the test of agility and the thigh deep water made it an easy playground for Joshy. I can't share all too many memories as I vaguely remember getting there, sitting down, and then waking up and hour or so later. It is possible I was more tired than I thought. I do remember 12 years ago when Beaver creek was Tina panning for gold and me taking pictures of Jess and Dorney on the rocks, they the models and me the famous photographer. Since then Jess has far surpassed me in skill and interest when it comes to photographing people. Not to mention quite the diva when it comes to getting credit for the pictures I "borrow" from time to time for this blog.

From the river, the opposite side of Big Trees State Park is just what the name suggests...big trees. I don't know if big alone can convey the size and wonder of these trees. Trunks bigger than you can reach around. Bigger than five of you linked together can reach around. Trunks big enough that it takes seven people stretched finger tip to finger tip just to span its width. As we walked through the trail, Joshua was looking at the map of the trees and when asked, told us it was a map to find the bear. Soon, the family got in on the fun and would run ahead on the trail and hide behind a bush, shaking it and growling as Joshy got near. We would say, "Joshy, what is that?". He would then respond..."A bear...a Ross bear". All together he found a Ross bear, B bear, Papa bear and Jessi bear. Still, a two mile walk right at nap time is a long walk for a three year old and by the end, I ended up with a three year old on my shoulders. Grandma and Pop sat by the Discovery Stump while we navigated the trail, chatting up a retired professor from Purdue.

Along the trail there is a tree that had fallen long ago and is covered with the carvings of those who have passed by through the years. We could not find the names that we carved as children in the heavily etched bark, so we carved them anew.

Do you see a Ross Bear in this picture...

Quote of the Week

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. - Washington Irving (1783-1859)

Is there a doctor in the house?

Over the last few days Ben has been increasingly showing those familiar signs of an ear infection. Today we decided it was time to take him into town to get him checked out as we are flying back to Oklahoma on Sunday and did not want to cut it too close if he needed an antibiotic. So we drive to the strip mall in Arnold, to the Mark Twain St. Johns Medical Clinic. When we walk in, we are informed that they, in fact, do not take walk-ins. My first thought is, um, do you realize that you are located in a strip mall? That is a universal truth, strip mall clinic=walk in. Either way, we make an appointment for later in the day and then head back to the cabin. On the way, we see another medical practice and decide to stop in the case they have an earlier appointment. John runs in and asks if they take walk-ins. With no attempt to hide her annoyance, she tells him that perhaps he should try the clinic in the strip mall. See! When we made it back for our appointment, we waited in the lobby for an hour while the receptionists laughed and carried on. Nothing about it said "trust the health care we are about to provide you". One lady was railing into some guy who typed a wrong code into a machine. An overweight nurse is running back and forth talking about the internet working in the back room. Someone is testing one of those cardiac arrest machines that keeps repeating the phrase "you can now call for help, you can now call for help". The two receptionists are laughing back and forth and clearly oblivious to my stares intended to show my discontent. I would have understood if the place was packed with patients, but we were the only ones in the entire place. When we finally did get taken back, I could hear them scrambling outside our door about two positive strep B tests and if anyone knew they were positive and trying to get the kids back in the office. We are, of course, in the same exam room they used earlier, so I look at John and say, don't touch anything. When the doctor finally arrived everything went smoothly. She was a kiwi and I am not sure why but her accent immediately put me at ease. Ben is on medicine and will hopefully be feeling better by the time Sunday rolls around. All I know is that I have never been more thankful for Mercy Health Edmond than I am today.

Happy Birthday Ali

It is hard to believe how much you have grown since just a year ago.

Your uncle and aunt love you.

Joshy and the dinosaurs

Joshy has been going through his dinosaur phase as encouraged by his teacher at his former daycare. He knows names of dinosaurs that I have never heard of and loves to sit and watch all sorts of dinosaur videos on YouTube. The funny thing is that he will ask for them by some descriptive detail in one of the opening scenes. So, it is not, can I watch the video with the tyrannosaurus rex and the triceratops but instead he will say, "I want to watch the purple one". I have just learned through trial and error that he means the video where the dinosaurs head in the opening scene looks purple. If you don't hit the right one, he will tell you so and remind you that he wants the purple one. Oh okay, well let me just click on every one of the 2000 dinosaur videos on YouTube until we find the one you are looking for. We learned fast the joys of bookmarking. Many nights he runs around acting out the roll of dinosaur. At first it was more of a muted growl that was precious and entertaining. Now, it has developed into a bellowing deep throated burst of noise that leans a little more towards psycho than dino. You never really see it coming and the best is that the roar knows no bounds. This is not merely a "inside" growl but he has growled at people in the mall, on the street or anywhere else he gets the urge. Oh and if you are not paying attention, it will scare the crap out of you. Still, if he is not growling at people, he is saying hello. Well, not just hello. He will say "Hi" and then turn to us and say "I said hi...I am friendly". Very good Joshua. Whenever he is a dinosaur/snake/lion/fill in the blank, he always qualifies it as "good"___ or "bad"____. We of course cuddle with the good and run screaming from the bad until mom and dad get tired and say "how about a dino video" in our best excited tone. Tonight as we were allowing him to watch one dinosaur video before he went to bed, he this time asked to watch a video where dinosaurs ate people. Nice. It always amuses me the connections his brain makes. Or that a three year old already wants to see footage of people being dismembered and chewed. At least he didn't ask to see a video of the "parasaurolophus" again. Try figuring out what in the world a three year old is getting that when he spits that out in toddler speak.