Late Spring

We are at the lake again and are discovering that spring is arriving very late. Snow is still around, and there is so much ice on the main body of the lake, that some of the resorts have asked people not to come for the fishing opener this coming weekend.

However, we have had a great few days of very nice, sunny, warm weather. Working in the yard, getting the hot tub ready, and watching the birds return has been lots of fun. An eagle did a fly-by shortly after we arrived, and Kathie caught it with the camera.

The ice in front of our cabin is not very significant any more. In fact, as of last night, these floes (do they qualify as floes?) were no longer visible. Despite the late spring, it is really nice to be here!

TJ

Travis John was here for a couple days this past weekend to help me and his mom pack up and move things from his grandmother's apartment. He was a big help, but most of all we loved spending time with him. Among the more fun things we did were a lunch at Hilltop and the movie 42. On the agenda for maybe June is a trip to Colorado to play some rounds of golf and to find some other mischief to get into.

Remembering

Kathie's mother passed away peacefully on April 18, 2013. Though life has been good and fulfilling for her these last several years, struggling with various aches and pains had made her ready for this end. Whenever someone passes, I find myself looking through pictures and remembering. So, I thought I'd share a few of those memories here.

In 1989, after each of us had been alone for awhile, Kathie and I connected, fell in love and chose to spend the rest of our lives together. Here we are on the day of our marriage with her parents, Stan and Jane–Dad and Mom, and with sister Gail and her family as well as my new stepchildren, Travis and Jessica. They all, but especially Mom and Dad, welcomed me warmly into the family, beard and all. I learned much later, that Dad had at one time purchased an electric shaver to give me as a joke, but then never could follow through to give it to me. Years later, when the four of us took a Caribbean cruise together, I shaved the beard one morning on a whim. I recall Mom touching my bare cheeks with her hands and saying how nice she thought I looked.

In 2007, several years after Dad passed, we moved Mom back to Iowa from their home in Florida, where they had spent most of their 20 or so retirement years. We staged this picture to share with her friends back in Florida, telling them that we now expected her to keep our walks shoveled for us.

Being in Iowa permitted all of us to be together more often. So, for example, Mom was able to attend a party in honor of David and Vicki's high school graduation, as well as Kris's graduation from her dental technician's program.

Taken at our lake home, this is a four generation picture of Mom with Kathie, grandchildren Jessica and Travis, and great granddaughter Maia.

Her extended family added each of Will, Rob, and Betsy's families. Here we all are some years ago, prior to the additions of Penny and Frederick. Mom loved to needlepoint and made several Christmas stockings for these adopted great grandchildren.

A few days prior to Jessica and Mike's wedding, we hosted a party at our home, and Mom brought along her own wedding dress to model for us. She had been a young war bride as Dad went off to serve as a medic in the army in the European campaign.

When we went for various drives together, such as back and forth to the lake home, Mom would repeatedly comment about how long all the semi trucks were and how there were so few barns anymore. These running commentaries became funny to Kathie and me, so one Mother's Day, I took the two ladies for a brunch and a drive in the country on a beautiful, sunny, Sunday morning. We ended up, not without some planning, at a historic round barn near us, and I took a picture there as well.

If you know anything about Kathie's family, you know that they love to play games, especially cards, most especially a game called Hand and Foot. So, here is one of those many, many, too-numerous-to-count occasions when such a game was underway. She was always a shrewd player!

Mom used to tease me about all the baseball games I watched on TV (or football, for that matter), and she would often tell me that the rules were all wrong. For example, she thought pitchers should throw the ball so that hitters could have plenty of chances to hit the ball. In spite of trying to explain the game, she insisted more hitting would be better. So, one Christmas, I bought her a couple rule books as a joke and put them in her Christmas stocking. I doubt she was reading this book with any serious interest, but it was fun to see her laugh at receiving it.

She loved to spend summer months at the lake with us. Although she sometimes took a boat ride with us, more often she would wait for our return and "ask" about the size of our catch of fish with hand gestures like this.

After we added the hot tub, she seemed to enjoy spending time in it with Kathie, even being known to skinny dip with Kathie a time or two while I found a reason to be elsewhere.

Finally, it is impossible not to think of Mom and our dogs. She loved dogs more than anyone I ever met  and simply could not resist giving them treats or table scraps. Here she is with Tighe. I can't seem to find one of her with Josey, who she definitely loved best. She and Josey were like old souls together.

I have been fortunate to be included and to be loved by my in-laws, especially Mom and Dad. Having lost my own mother so very many years ago (34 now), it has been nice to have a surrogate all this time. Be at peace, Mom!

WDW Postscript

(Sidebar: I kept seeing "WDW" during our vacation, which, of course, stands for Walt Disney World. However, years ago, all of us were barraged with the initials WMD, and I kept thinking about how I could change WDW into something like WMD but with a happier meaning. I came up with Weapons of Disney Wackiness and Weapons of Disney Wait-in-a-line, but those are not quite what I'm looking for. Your suggestions are welcome.)

We are all home again but with lots of great memories. After collecting additional photographs from Kathie, Will and Sandy, I decided to add a few postscript images for your reading pleasure.

Kathie took this one of three generations of us as we watched a TV program while waiting for the 3D Muppets experience. It seems we were all having a good time!

Anders was given an opportunity to take official Jedi knight training near the Star Wars attractions in Hollywood Studios. This involved taking a pledge to use the force only for good! Here he is with his practice light saber waiting his turn with a Jedi master. Later, his parents bought him a light saber of his own.

In this short little movie, Anders practices his light saber techniques.

You probably saw the earlier pictures of Anders the pirate. Here is a better shot of that pirate on the carousel.

When in the Animal Kingdom, we all did this white water rafting experience. We were warned in advance that, "You will get wet, possibly soaked."

Kathie and I avoided most of the big splashes and came out relatively dry. These three were not so lucky.

Finally, just to be ornery, here is a video from inside It's A Small World. If you play it, I will not be responsible for your having that song stuck in your head for days on end!

Wrapping Up and Celebration

On this, our last full day at Disney World, we finally ran into some of the rain that had been threatening all week. Will and Sandy arranged for Anders to experience some Jedi training at Hollywood Studios. Perhaps I can report more on that later. Suffice it for now to say that Anders has a cool new light saber and all kinds of moves to go with it.

Kathie and I decided on a slower start to the day and began with a little more time in Epcot.

Kathie insisted on taking this photo because she said I had not appeared in many. (It's my camera!)

Here is another of those topiary displays, I guess of Cinderella and Prince Charming. No! Wait! I think that's Elvis.

The two of us eventually rendezvoused with Will, Sandy and Anders at the Magic Kingdom so that we could get to some of the rides we had missed a couple days ago. Of course, lunch comes first.

Then it was onto the rides, including It's A Small World, a Winnie the Pooh adventure, and this classic teacup ride.

As the three of them flew past me on each rotation of the ride, I laughed at how Anders worked to spin the cup while his mom tried to get a photo and Will just grinned or laughed.

After we got back to our hotel, we cleaned up and then went out for dinner to celebrate Will's 45th birthday.

Anders talked his dad into one last swim in the pool, and while they were away, the cake and ice cream I ordered for Will was delivered to our room.

Anders helped with the wish and blowing out the candles, after which we all participated in what I hope will be our last over-indulgence in food for awhile.

Tomorrow we head back home. Hope the weather is starting to warm there! We've gotten used to mostly warm days and sunshine!

Hollywood Studios

Minnie greeted us again this morning during breakfast, and Anders was no less pleased than before. He said Minnie kissed him with her nose.

There are lots of 3D movie adventures in the theme parks. At Hollywood Studios we enjoyed one featuring the Muppets. There are usually added special effects, like puffs of air, mild pokes around your seats, and sprinkles of water that enhance the images zooming at you from the screen. We loved it!

3D glasses are required!

Anders was very much into the Star Wars features and show too. He wanted to pose on this thing, whatever it is called (I'm not up on the Star Wars machine names).

Taking a little break with Nana.

Meeting Disney characters is always a big part of being here. Anders loves the Cars characters, especially these two–Towmater and Lightning McQueen.

Anders loved the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground.

He's in there somewhere, I promise!

Later, we watched an exciting movie stunt car show featuring lots of racing around, noise, shooting, actors falling from buildings, explosions, and other effects. Lightning McQueen even made an appearance and defeated a bad guy car!

Some weariness sets in at the end of each day.

Animal Kingdom

Continuing our Walt Disney World adventure, we spent a day at the Animal Kingdom.

This park has areas devoted to wildlife themes and conservation in Asia, Africa and other parts of the world. On Discovery Island, we visited the tree of life and saw a 3D adventure called A Bug's Life. This included lots of related special effects, including a stink bug spraying us with a nasty aroma, things darting out at us from the screen, and various pokes and bumps from our seats as bugs supposedly stung or ran by our feet. It was probably a good thing that Anders was sitting on his mom's lap! Lots of laughs, including the way we looked with our special 3D bug glasses.

Anders, Sandy and Will all played one of the arcade games, where you shoot water into a target. We hoped that one of the three would win so that Anders could get a prize. It worked! Here is Sharkey, the new florescent lime green shark toy.

We did lots of rides this day, including a safari where we saw lots of African animals in a wild setting (elephants, lions, rhinos, ...), a wild white-water rapids ride (we got wet), and a couple of roller coasters. Anders and I did not want to do the Himalayan roller coaster, so I entertained him while the others did that. You should never leave your grandchild alone with his or her grandfather, because almost anything could happen, including allowing the grandchild to get his face painted as a cheetah.

Mom and Dad were OK with the results though. They thought it was a nice choice with his black and gold Hawkeye shirt.

Anders played the drums for us too.

As I said, we saw lots of fun animals and birds, and these big guys were amazing.

In an Indian exhibit, I decided the coincidence of this wall art was just too good to pass up.

We ended the day with a chance to see Mickey in his ranger outfit.