Some time in Denver

Ahhhhhh.........laying in soft grass on a summer's day with sun warming the skin. I think this is one of my favorite things to do during summer. Caught Parrish doing this just outside my mom's swim club. I have a new appreciation for grass that has no sign of ants or dampness. Something we contend with all the time here in Singapore.

The neighborhood pool at my mom's house in Parker was fun to visit almost every day. They don't heat the pool so it was really cold! Now why doesn't this bother young kids with barely any body fat?

Cousin Raeanne shows Parrish the horses she gets to work with this summer as a camp wrangler for the Girl Scouts.

Sabrina walking with a mission as we hike around the grounds at the Scout camp. It was so nice to be in Colorado for the summer for me. It brought back memories of how nice it is to grow up and live in the Denver area. I was enchanted with the beauty of the Rockies and company of family.

The town of Parker has an old historic section that we could get to on a pathway from my mom's house. This made a wonderful leisure afternoon with just me and the girls. Rob headed back to Portland for a few days and then had to return to Singapore for work.

Below: visiting Tiny Town USA. A village of over 100 buildings at 1/6 scale size. Open to the public since the 1920's and at one point was the State of Colorado's most popular attraction . This is not far from where I grew up, but I had never heard of it until now. The train is tiny too, but big enough for adults. The kids loved it. The afternoon shower and thunderstorm didn't spoil the picnic. How fondly I remember these from summers of my youth!

Cory getting a nudge for a smile from my sister.

Oregon Part 2 - meeting new cousin

A long goodbye

Getting some time to spend with Lucy this summer was so fun. She is turning 12 this August and we sure do miss her. Rob's sister Suzy and brother-in-law Tim have welcomed Lucy into their home and made her part of their family. She lives with two yellow lab cousins that keep her company and kindly encourage her to eat all her dinner as they are held back while Lucy is served first. I know it's an odd thing for a lab to be finicky about food, but for some indescribable reason, that's the way she is.

We had a lot of great beach time. There is no shortage of unique places to eat drink on the Oregon coast. This Tiki bar (below) was the place for coffee and a chat with the owner's parrot named "Gypsy".

Things I love about Oregon.......

Can you tell where Parrish is?

Mr. Green

Problem solver extra-ordinaire

Never mind that I have put my career on hold and now stay home to take care of kids.....there is still some opportunity to do a little technical work at home. Crosswords and soduko can keep your brain sharp.... but I also like to fix things. Make them last longer. Remember my complaint in the last post about old computer that wont read my camera memory card? My frustration turned into determination to find out exactly what was going on and to find out if it could be and easy fix.....or more importantly, a cheap fix. (I am my father's daughter). Just when I was about ready to go out and buy a new piece of hardware that I thought would fix the problem, a burning thought in my head was "let me just check one more thing....."

Eureka! I found out that we had a device plugged into our computer that needed to be turned off in order to read new memory cards, like the one in my camera. I wont go into the not-so-interesting details as to why this was the case. But I will say that solving a problem like this is like winning something.....a little something......maybe a door prize, $20 playing the lottery, or a lucky draw....

So here is the first picture I decided to download because I know all you American's back home might have a laugh at this:



Our friends from Perth brought this back for us. Not only is it amusing that paper doll cutouts of the Obama's are being sold in Australia, but this was the last book available on the shelf, apparently. Parrish immediately starting cutting out the clothes and playing dress-up. Sabrina liked dancing around the house with them. Now they are well loved and unfortunately discarded to the side as sadly what happens to some new toys around here. So our paper Obama dolls are tucked away in some toy box with slightly creased knees and a an article of clothing falling due to overused paper clothing tabs.

A picture tells a thousand words......but not today

I love using pictures as updates on this blog. However, I have lost the ability to load pictures from my camera onto my computer once again. I have learned/realized that my 5 year old PC is apparently too old to read the latest memory cards in my camera that require an new version of USB hardware. No quick software upgrade will help.....so I will go for script and do my best to give you an update on some everyday stuff that is perhaps worth reading.....

Last night we were eating dinner in a cafeteria style food junction that is similar to a food court in a mall. The girls were eating roti prata (dough based flat pancake) and I had some fish curry and briyani rice. Rob wanted to see who couldn't finish their meal first before ordering. Does anyone ever do this? We do this all the time. I'm ok sharing a meal with a child, but sharing a drink is different. I can't tell you how many times I am reminded that once I give my child a drink from my water bottle, it's attack of the floaties. My father used to eat gooey things out of our hands when my sister's and I were little. All of us went through a phase when we insisted on sharing our food after we had squished it in our fingers for a few minutes. My dad obliged. What a saint.......I can't do it.....nor can I share a drink with floaties.

Sabrina and Parrish are really into turtles right now. Especially Sabrina. She has this cute little stuffed turtle named Mr Green and he sleeps with her every night. It never fails that the first thing she asks for when she wakes up is her turtle, "where's turtle?". We have these multi colored Ikea plastic plates and she wants to eat off the green one. She wants the green ribbon and prefers her green dress. Go green!!