Sunday, July 23, 2006

fun family visit



auntie debbie and rhys looking at nants (ants) while irene watches


debbie and jake enjoying a moment in our front yard as the sun starts to go down ever so slowly

Chuck, Rob, and Rhys returning from our walk

we had a very nice family visit. it was short (always too short), but really lovely and relaxing and fun. the rabys (rob's oldest sister, debbie, brother-in-law, chuck, and nephew, jake, who is exactly 10 years older than rhys) arrived around 4:30 pm yesterday on their way to wyoming. we hadn't seen chuck since....um....gosh, it's been more than a year! that's too long, isn't it? we saw debbie and jake last summer when they were heading toward the raby family reunion. again, much too long. rob misses his sisters. *I* miss his sisters. we get to see connie and melissa more often b/c we meet up at pat and bob's in lodi (c & m live in the bay area). debbie and family live in texas. so we don't get to see them nearly as often as we'd like to. both of the kids were overjoyed at seeing jake (though they were both a little shy at first). jake is now taller than me by about a head! i know, i know, it's not hard to do, and yes, i will always be the shortest in my family. i really don't mind.

we brought home some black rock pizza for dinner (for those that know black rock, we got a Mt Rose, Tin Horn, and Red Headed Stranger). it was delicious! and b/c we were at home, we just relaxed and enjoyed each others company. we tried to catch up as much as we could. we're all *mostly* good about e-mailing updates. debbie and rob are better than i am...i used to be much better about it when i had only one child...ahh well.

anyway, we took a walk around our neighborhood, irene showed them her bike riding skills, debbie shared with us her photo dvd montage from the trip she and jake took to beaumont, MS to help with the hurricaine rita relief effort. it was VERY touching and i'm so proud of them for going and helping where the help was needed. one set of pictures was of a little boy that the volunteers (from one of the methodist churches in flower mound, tx) were teaching to ride a bike! they'd received bikes but their dad is parapallegic (i hope i have this story right), and hadn't been able to teach them how to do it. it hit close to home since i just did the same thing with irene. anyway, debbie and chuck kindly suffered through the WAY too many pictures i took (i haven't edited them down yet) at the cabin. THANK YOU, DEBBIE AND CHUCK! :)

i also got to show off and tell debbie (who is an amazing quilter with the most amazing tiny stitches that are the SAME LENGTH) about the quilt that debR gave me *beam*

i've read 1/2 of my niece, beth's, thesis that she had to write in order to graduate from reed college. it's really quite good and fascinating. i meant to give it back to debbie before she left this morning and totally forgot! ack!! will have to send it to her.

they left too early this morning. we'd have loved to have kept them here, but they are on their way to wyoming for some backpacking adventures.

on another note.....my oldest is starting FIRST GRADE tomorrow!!! that's just crazy talk. really and truly, just that! crazy insane in the brain talk! she's very excited about it. rhys is very worried about it.

4 comments:

Deb R said...

Omigawd. I could've sworn you just said that Irene is starting FIRST GRADE. TOMORROW! Gaaahh!!

Obviously that can't be right. I must be hallucinating. Time to go to bed.

Lydia Netzer said...

COOL. I loved the first grade pictures you sent. She looks so fantastic. Hairdo = delightful. And I liked the pictures of her in her new classroom -- she looked completely at ease.

MsT said...

OMG - school starts so early! We used to wait until after Labor Day in CT. Now, this must be a typo about first grade.....

Kristen said...

crazy, isn't it? both the fact that irene started FIRST grade AND that it started in july. she's at a new school and they are a modified single track year round school. she'll get november and 1/2 march and 1/2 april off. school gets out june 15.

her old school was year round w/4 tracks. her track starts in august.

we always started after labor day as well. a few times we started right around my b-day (9/12).