Fun Stuff

Last week Becca & Elise finished up swimming lessons and they both passed with flying colors!

Becca got really good at swimming on her back.

And Elise can now float with the best of them!

This past Friday evening we had the opportunity to visit with very old and dear friends from Mount Vernon. One family had moved away about 12 years ago and we still stay in touch as much as two very busy families can stay in touch. They live in Northern California now. We try to see them every time they come up here (once or twice a year) and sometimes if we’re driving to CA we stay at their home one night one way or the other. Love them. The other family moved away from Mount Vernon about 9 years ago, only to move back 4 years ago, only one year after we left! We stay in touch with them pretty well, though we don’t get the entire family together very often – once or maybe twice a year. Sarah and their oldest daughter have been buds since Sarah was born! She is 17 months older than Sarah, but they get along great.

I had great plans to take lovely family pictures, but you know how that goes. As everyone was walking out the door, I said, “WAIT! I must take pictures!”

Saturday was the Raspberry Festival in town. Such fun and incredible weather. Sunny, but not hot. A perfect day in the Pacific Northwest. We hung out downtown for a while…

  …saw giant tractors…

…and really cool old cars at the “Razz & Shine” car show. Oh my. This one was a beauty. Someday, when I have a midlife crisis and an empty nest, I think I’ll buy one of these. Who wants to go on a road trip?!?!

I was pretty infatuated with this here Thunderbird. I took a gagillion pictures, but I won’t make you look at them all.

I don’t know what kind of car this is, but we thought it was cool with the green grill in front.

And then…we saw it…a 1966 Ford Mustang.

Does this look familiar, dear big brother?

I was filled with frustration again, 20 years later, at the fact that my big brother totaled his 1967 Ford Mustang when he was in high school. Which meant that I never got to drive it. And I loved that car. My gut aches still to this day when I think about what that poor car looked like after he wrapped it around a telephone pole. Oh, and yeah, we’re grateful he wasn’t hurt and that he’s still alive and all that, but I could have been driving a 1967 Mustang in high school! Instead, I drove:

 

 

 

Except in gold. It’s a 1981 Pontiac Grand Le Mans. Just what every 16-year-old girl dreams of. Thanks, bro.

So, when I have a mid-life crisis and an empty nest, I might buy a turquoise Thunderbird convertible, or maybe a ‘67 Mustang…

 

… Or maybe this cute thing…

It has cotton candy pink seats and pink fuzzy dice!

But, until then, I’ll be happy with my mini-van that looks something like this:

We have this “Party Like A Preschooler” CD that the girls love to listen to in the van. It has a song on it that goes something like this:

'Cause it’s hard to be cool when you’re behind the wheel,
Of an eight-passenger automobile.
In a big bubble, cruisin’ down the street,
With-a Barney blarin’ and a baby seat.
Hey, it can be done, but I’m tellin’ you man,
It’s hard to be cool in a minivan.

I’m a lucky man I know.
Just wish my wife and kids could fit,
In a ’67 GTO 8 . Ho-ho-ho.
'Cause it’s hard to be cool when you’re behind the wheel,
Of an eight-passenger automobile.
In a big bubble, cruisin’ down the street,
With Barney blarin’ and a baby seat.
Hey, it can be done, but I’m tellin’ you man,
It’s hard to be cool in a minivan.
 

I didn’t really know I was in love with cute cars until I walked down Front St. during the Razz Fest. Hm. Good thing I am way more in love with this precious cargo I carry in that mini-van every day: