We arrived at Tom's and Julie's on Friday, September 4. It has been a nice visit but, a noisy one. Whitney is here with her three young'uns, Pepper, Kade and sweet little Emree. Pepper and Kade are growing fast and battling it all the way. I mean that in the truest sense. Kade is all boy and pushes Pepper to the limit every chance he gets. It's been a riot, but mostly fun to watch. There were several times I pitied poor Whitney, but she is taking it in stride and has managed not to leave any lasting marks. But, then there is Emree. Emree is the happiest little baby I think I've ever seen. If she is not smiling or cooing you'd better feed her because she's hungry. She was demanding her dinner so often, Whitney said she was getting sore. So, she tried giving Emree her first solid food. Emree took to it like she had been eating solids for weeks. It took no coaxing or even teaching. She gobbled it up beginning with the first spoonful. It was a real treat to watch her eat. And, Whitney got her needed break.
We were there over the Labor Day weekend and Tom, Jr. had a great schedule. He managed to get off Friday through the following Tuesday. Saturday, Chris Koeneman dove up from Boston and spent the night. That Saturday afternoon we all went to the river bridge just up the road. Tom had taken the kids there several days earlier and they had built a dam and channeled the water across a big flat rock to make their own water slide. Tom wanted us to see them in action at the "slide". So, Tom, Chris, Pepper and Kade walked up while the rest of us drove up in Julie's minivan. Julie pulled down the little dirt lane that dead-ended at the river very near the special spot where the "slide" was. There were small saplings and willows along the edge of the river blocking my view, but Julie, sitting in the driver's seat, had a pretty good view of the "slide"...where a guy was squatting with his pants down, obviously taking a crap right in the river, right near the "slide". Julie let out a yell, "He's taking a crap in the river!" or something to that effect. "I can't believe he's doing that!", she said loudly so the guy could hear. Then she inched the car up for a closer look. "I can see his nuts!" Now that's not something Julie expected to come out of her own mouth, but it did. I guess the sight was just too much. With the car noise and some woman shrieking, I guess the guy lost the urge because he jerked up his pants and just sat down on a rock nearby, never once looking our way. After a while he moved to another bigger rock and sat down, still never looking our way. Finally he got up and waded upstream to his two boys who were swimming in a pool there. Tom, Chris and the kids arrived about then. Julie told Tom the story and Tom and the kids waded out to the "slide". Tom looked around and eventually turned to face the guy, now upstream out of my sight. "Is this where you crapped?", Tom yelled at the guy. The guy, of course, denied it so Tom told him Julie had seen him doing it and asked the guy again, "Did you crap here?", Tom asked, pointing at the "slide". I don't recall the exact response Tom said the guy made, but it was a very incriminating response and then he gathered up his boys and trudged to his car and left...still, not once, looking in Julie's direction. But, the water was swift and the water was clear and no crap was to be seen, so the kids played on their "slide" and soaked each other with super duper water guns and the rest of the afternoon went fine.
Ditto and I walked home with Tom and Chris and Pepper and the rest rode back with Julie. On the way back, Pepper made an obvious effort to be on the opposite side of the road as we walked past a small telephone equipment shack. She was a bit frightened of it and Tom explained that a few days earlier when they walked along the road by the shack, he had convinced the kids there was a cranky mean old man named Att that lived there. His name was on the door - "ATT". Pepper just knew the old man would jump out and get her if she disturbed him. At the time, I was holding Pepper's hand while traffic went by on the road. So, I talked Pepper into going over and knocking on the door and running. As we started gingerly across the road, Tom came with us. Pepper knocked real hard and then tried to run, but Tom caught her and said no one had come out...maybe he wasn't home. Tom led Pepper back to the door and lifted her up where she found a peephole in the door and was convinced "Att" was in there peeping out. We all ran.
Chris spent the night and after a nice visit, left Sunday afternoon. Monday was IT day so Tom and I worked on his computers and movie server. Then we tested our work heavily that evening. It passed.
Tuesday...huh! I don't remember what we did Tuesday. Wednesday through Friday Tom went back to work and I mostly just goofed off either with the computers or with the kids my favorite time being when I held Emree...until she got hungry.
Saturday was a dreary day, weather wise. The girls all went to town shopping while us men all stayed home. It was once again movie time. Kade wanted to see his favorite dinosaur movie (some animated thing), so we watched Jurassic Park. Kade decided to do something else.
Saturday night was "feed the missionaries" night, so the two young men on their mission service came to eat taco soup. And eat they did.
This is our last night here. Tomorrow we'll head for Idaho...the long way, no doubt.
