It has been a while since our last posting. Life has been flying by. This past week Ellie was in Fresno with Doc & Gram, while Mika, Nisa & Maile went down to Coos Bay for a boat ride on the Rogue River.
Before that we had a great two weeks in California. We had some good times at the Boardwalk with Mia and the Martel Beach Cousins and plenty of good beach days. Roger & Mika snuck away for a weekend to stay at a B&B in downtown Palo Alto and go sailing the next day with some friends.
Now for some good Nisa stories…
- Doc was in the upstairs bathroom shaving when Nisa walked in with her pants around her ankles to go potty and said, “Doc, can I have some privacy?”
- Nisa was hanging out on the boardwalk with Doc and commented, “Doc, look at my big pockets. Aren’t these great? I could all of the ride tickets for you.”
- One beach day Nisa decided to bury our gray whiffle ball bat in the sand. Nisa told Doc and Roger, "It's OK because I marked the spot with my handprint in the sand." Doc and Roger were doubtful, but sure enough as we left the beach we stumbled across Nisa’s handprint. We said, “Wow Nisa, we actually found your handprint in the sand.” To which Nisa replied, “Great! This is the first clue. Now we need to start looking somewhere over there.” At that point we gave up on the bat. :-)
- As we walked up to the car after the bat episode Nisa started talking to Doc,
Nisa: “Doc, I know you are angry at me about the bat.”
Doc: “I’m not angry, just disappointed.”
Nisa: “What does disappointed mean?”
Doc: “Just that I don’t think you used good judgment in burying the bat.”
Nisa: “Great, so now you are angry AND disappointed.” - While Roger was carrying Nisa on his shoulders, Nisa pretended to be a backpack. When Roger asked what was in his 'backpack" Nisa responded, "There is nothing in me except for bones and chewed up meat."
- One last Nisa story… Nisa walks into the living room and asks Roger, “Is that a lollipop in my pants?” Sure enough, she did have a lollipop in her pants. .
Some other big events worth mentioning are that we sold the Audi and purchased a new Toyota Highlander Hybrid. Much more roomy for our family of five. We signed up for a seven-year car loan and realized that by the time we pay off this car, Ellie will be old enough for her learner’s permit.
On our trip to California, Mika and Ellie were driving around our friends Mary Ruth and Theo. Theo was memorized by the hybrid's fuel efficiency dashboard, so Ellie dismissively asked, "Why are you so interested in that?" To which Theo responded, " Why wouldn’t you be interested in saving the planet???"
Ellie and Nisa had their big end of year performances. Ellie’s ballet schools put on a “Sleeping Beauty” ballet performance, which was much more entertaining than her other ballet recitals. Nisa’s gymnastics were great, but we had a bit of controversy when Nisa was given a trophy and Ellie realized that in all of her ballet performances that she had never received a trophy. Ellie got over it and later on Nisa philosophized that “families are much more important than trophies, because they’re more complicated.”
One other big change since our last blog posting is Maile. Since her tonsils were removed, Maile has had a bit of a growth spurt size-wise and development-wise. Not only is she sleeping better, but she is also eating better. Overall the change has been pretty dramatic and we are very glad we had the tonsils removed. Today, for example, she had two bowls of oatmeal for breakfast and two bowls of mac & cheese for lunch. She calls herself the “Mac&Cheese Monster... Roarrrr!!!!”
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