Mid October 2011; Grumpy's Castle --
The First Wife* has been repeatedly compla .. er, I mean hinting that my BLOG is the only one that she regularly visits, which hasn't been updated for a lo-oo-ng time. So, at the risk of boring some of you with "news" that you know is quite old, I am herewith submitting photos and words about some things that have taken place within the past month or more that I haven't already written about.
*[I still call her that because that's what she is -- my one and only --, even though she has warned me that some people might misinterpret it to mean that I have more than one -- maybe even at the same time!]
Mainly, this post will probably talk about (and show) some events related to Uncle Bob's visit last month. I already told about the sight-seeing flight over the Olympics. So now I'll tell you about the visits that happened while he was here.
 |
| Ramiro, Olivia and Adolfo |
 |
| Jennifer and Ramiro |
We were all invited to a Qinciniera in honor of the 15th birthday of a lovely young Latino girl. Ramiro had been chosen to be one of her six male escorts and dance partners. I was not able to get close enough, past the "official" photographers and other onlookers to get a good picture of Ramiro dancing with the young lady.
 |
| Lily |
However, one little girl, all dressed in her own white formal dress, tried to steal the stage from the honored 15-year old!
On a beautiful (still!) Summer day, Susan invited us up to her house for a backyard picnic and good old family get-together. And was it ever a family get-together! Amy and John came with their lively brood. And Mike and Jessie came with Oliver; we sorely missed seeing Emileigh this time.
Everybody, some adults included, took advantage of Aunt Rachel's patient ability to entertain them with tours of her "secret" and private wilderness hideout. Oliver preferred to sneak drinks from the decorative water fountain that was the centerpiece of the backyard picnic area.All kinds of activity took place on this balmy day:
There was kite-flying, with brothers Malachi and Amos, who made up for the lack of any appreciable wind by providing their own means of making a "difference" in velocity between their kites and the almost still air around us.
There was running, with Elianna, shown here "beating it down" the gravelled roadway for no reason at all except maybe to escape from the Great Grumpy. 
And then there were of course the great "expectations" of coming attractions. Amy "soldiered" through this event like many others before -- and a few afterwards -- finally giving birth a week later to a new little boy who is called Daniel.
