A Salute to Grandparents

Happy Grandparents Day!

We didn't technically get cards or gifts or flowers delivered to our set of Grands (our intentions were so good... but somehow last week got really short) so thank goodness for the blog!

We are truly blessed with an astounding set of grandparents, all healthy and active and enjoying life and all the grandchildren it offers. Ok, I guess that mostly healthy is a bit more accurate - Gramma just got word a few weeks ago that her CA 125 (a blood marker for ovarian cancer) is higher than her doctors want it to be, but the CT scan came back clear so she's back on chemo again for a few treatments until the marker comes back down. But Gramma continually astounds us with her easygoing and fantastically positive attitude towards that stage 4 ovarian cancer that she's been fighting for the last 2 years - except for the baldness, you'd never know that anything was wrong from her activity and outlook. Go Gramma!

And Poppop continues to take care of Gramma while also keeping the grounds of the local golf course looking fantastic, growing more corn and tomatoes than any family could ever eat, and gearing up for another year of ski instructing at Ski Liberty.

And things are going similarly well on my side of the family. My grandfather, Poppoppop is still enjoying living at Virginia Beach, especially flying kites on the beach. If you're wondering about his name, we figured that when Sam was born, Poppop could be promoted with one more "pop", sort of like a "great" before "grandfather". Poppopop is gearing up for his 80th birthday this winter - wowzas!

Buddy is our last full-time employed grandparent, still working for the Carroll County Public Library system as the Assistant Administrator. Grammy keeps busy working at the local libraries at the Information Desk and doing Storytimes. Both of them keep threatening to retire soon and move out to Utah, and the current estimated season of move is Fall 2009. I have to admit that after living 2,000 miles from any parental unit for most of a decade, I think that having parents live close again sounds really nice.

We are astoundingly blessed to have parents who truly love God, love each other, and love their children and grandchildren with selflessness and devotion. And we are so grateful that our boys are able to enjoy a relationship with their wonderful Great Grandfather - that's a privilege that so few folks enjoy.

Happy Grandparents Day to each of you, and we sure hope to bring home a new grandbaby for you to dote on soon :)

Treehouse, Phase 1

The architectural plans were exacting, the specifications well-defined, and I can now say with confidence that The Treehouse, Phase 1, is completed! Ok... I guess that only two of three of the parts of Sam's plans are done - the walls that for some reason look like a bicycle seat in his diagram aren't up yet, but 66% isn't bad. Ok, I guess that technically 66% is an F, but only if you're not grading on a curve.

Anyway, as you can see the treehouse is perched amongst the branches of our apple tree which is a good use for the tree because we never actually harvest any apples from it (because we're lazy, not for want of trying on the tree's part). It's really a rather roomy treehouse - Steve and the boys did an exceptional job with it and the four of us ate our ice cream cones quite comfortably in the treehouse earlier this week. Obviously it's also pretty sturdy to support two kids and two adults and four ice cream cones!

And today Steve and the boys finished up the trap door specified in Sam's plans. In Mommyland, the presence of a trap door is basically equivalent to hundreds of pinched fingers and a few concussions as one boy drops the rather heavy door on the other's head as he climbs up, leaving the unfortunate bottom child hurtling to the ground from the rope ladder... but I will concede that may be more paranoid Mommy talk than actually likely outcome. Only time and emergency room visits will tell :)

But, if you're Sam and Ben, the presence of a trap door means that your treehouse is complete (or mostly complete, there's still the weighted down elevator and bucket on a pulley to finish, but I digress) because you can now require a password for entry to your treehouse. Sam explained to me tonight that the password to the treehouse would only be awarded if one brought "food or a drink or a new toy" to the treehouse dwellers. Those kids strike a hard bargain. Oh, and the trap door means that you can keep girls out - Sam has already finished his "No Girls Allowed" sign although he did concede that relatives are allowed up, but no other girls because they may bring up, and I quote, "dolls and stuff." And clearly this is precisely the kind of disaster that the treehouse trap door is meant to protect them from!

Sam's Calvin and Hobbes fantasies have finally been realized.

Wettest Concert Ever

They were serious when they printed "rain or shine" on our Bob Dylan tickets! But we love our Bobby more than we love our health or comfort and we came prepared Sunday for the long haul. We arrived at Deer Valley at 3:30 and were well-rewarded for our wait in line - Steve got the best seats! Here's a great shot of how close we were to the man, the legend (he's the one who looks like General Custer in the white hat and black suit with gold military stripes down the leg. When you're that famous, I guess you can get away with any outfit). Ok, so my hair leaves a little to be desired in this photo, but at this point in the evening we were well beyond worrying about appearances.

The rain didn't start in earnest until after we entered the gates at 6:30. And man did it rain... and thunder... and hail... but we were committed to the cause. I have to smile at the appropriateness of the "Thunder on the Mountain" shirt that I purchased at the concert. We actually had a nice break in the storm for most of Dylan's performance, but as you see from this photo we were pretty soaked by the end. Fortunately, there was plenty of fantastic music to dance to - I think we danced more to stave off the frostbite than anything else but, hey, whatever works!

It was a nice mix of classic and newer songs, most of which stayed pretty driving (a good thing - it was easier to dance our way to warmth with a rock beat). Interestingly, Bob exclusively played keys, which was a little sad since the keyboard is so much less cool than the guitar (that was for you, Rich), but let's face it, Bob plays all instruments with a style all his own. Plus it was fun watching him play harmonica and organ at the same time.

We've been to enough Dylan concerts to know that there are good Dylan concerts and there are bad Dylan concerts (this was number six in our repertoire - not bad!). We are pleased to report that Bob's concert at Deer Valley rates in the first group. And we haven't contracted pneumonia... yet. There was a chance of it at the end of the concert, but he encored with Like a Rolling Stone and the sheer joy of it all kept us going. Here's a link to the Salt Lake Tribune's coverage of the concert with the full set list. It's a pretty good write up except - hey! - they stole my opening line from this blog posting for their story!