Father's Day Sunday - Making and Recalling Memories

I got up before everybody else Sunday morning and went out to get a breakfast treat the three dads would enjoy. I got fresh donuts from downtown Livermore's historic Donut Wheel and bagels from Noah's since I could not make up my mind between the two. There was also a little bag of donut holes just right for little Autumn, though I think at least two of the three dads snitched a few for themselves. There was also fresh fruit so we were not totally decadent nutrition wise.

This photo is evidence that our highly nutritious breakfast included fresh fruit.
Note the raspberries, bananas, and blackberries between the Donut Wheel boxes and Noah's bag.

We ate, opened some Father's Day cards, and then went out to the driveway for the presentation of Frank's gift. It was a nail gun complete with air compressor. Surreptitiously, the wine tasting trip of Saturday had a hidden agenda - the gift purchase. Frank was very pleased since he is working on updating the master bedroom and wants to replace the baseboards with taller ones. He had been coveting Dan's tools after seeing them on our last visit south.

We snapped a few more family photos in our living room just before Dan, Carrie, Vivian, and Snoopy left. I was feeling a bit melancholy. Their stay with us had whizzed by so quickly. It is really neat to see your kids with their own kids.

Three generation relative count = One aunt, one nephew, one niece, and two grandnieces.

Cousins!

My kids with their kids! Priceless!

Dan and his family had left in the early afternoon so there was not much of the day left to do any ambitious formal activity with Robin and her family. They had to pack because they were flying out of San Francisco back to Oklahoma the next morning. We played Suspend and Bananagrams.

We claim that Jeremy "cheats" at Suspend.
When someone is intently concentrating on balancing his rod just so,
Jeremy lets out a loud "Ooh" or "Careful" to startle them at the critical moment of release!

Frank and Jeremy took Autumn to a local park for a while. They came back after about an hour and entered the family room through the door from the garage. I took one look at their sheepish faces and demanded "What happened?" Autumn's dirt-smudged face was a backup clue that something had gone awry. Apparently while on the "big girl's swing", not a toddler's bucket swing, Autumn had let go at the high point and done a backwards somersault in the air that ended in a spectacular face plant, fortunately in the soft rubber tire mulch under the swing set. She weathered it fine, did not cry much, according to the guys, and played a bit longer.

Here is Autumn happily swinging on her backyard play structure.
This photo was taken before the trip.
I suspect there will be a bucket seat and playground mulch installation
before Autumn is allowed to swing so high again.

We hung out at home and Autumn played with some toys I'd held over from Robin, Dan, and Alex. Autumn loved a Fischer Price set of musical instruments and we blew some bubbles. She actually took a bit of a nap during which Robin and I unpackaged a machine I'd bought quite a few years ago to convert LP records to digital music files. 

This is the machine that is to capture those vinyl LP memories and
convert them into the bits and bytes of musical digital files.

Robin had requested some songs from her childhood that were well remembered but lesser known and thus never made it to iTunes. A sample of one of such classics is

I'm a Galapagos.

I'm a Galapagos, I'm a Galapagos

I am a G.A.L.A.P.A.G.O.-opagos

And though I sound like some disease

I'm a tortoise if you please 

Least it's what they called my Mama and my Papagos

I'm a Galapagos, I'm a Galapagos

And a Galapagos I love to be

I'm so grateful God made a great big Galapagos me.

When you're big as a boulder

And you look even older

There are not many folks who want to be like you.

I used to be grumpy 'cause I look so very lumpy

'Til the day I learned to say...

Chorus repeats

Other LP albums she wanted converted besides the Animals and Other Things are Dynamic Dinosaurs and Yankee Doodle Mickey. 

We still have a lot of Joe Wise albums but they are available in iTunes and so do not need to be converted.

These are some of the Joe Wise albums the kids loved that are now available digitally on iTunes.

Just seeing the album covers brought back memories. There was that many-hour car trip to southern California in the 1980 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with a Joe Wise cassette tape playing over and over and over again the never-to-be-forgotten-no-matter-how-hard-you-try favorite Daddy Longlegs from the Joe Wise album Doodle Bee Doo. I tell you, that song gives It's a Small World strong competition! And, yes, my doodle-bee count is correct! I checked it.

Daddy Longlegs

Oh daddy long legs and mama short arms 

Lived in a wee house upon a bug farm

And every morning at quarter past eight
He walks the hippo, she oils the back gate

And every morning at quarter past nine
He walks the rhino, she gets a shoe shine
And every morning at quarter past ten
He walks the giraffe, she stuffs a fat hen
Oh daddy long legs and mama short arms 
They strolled around the farm, they walked it leg in arm 

And all the doodle bugs and all the bumble bees 

As they walked along they sang this song

Doodle-bee Doodle-bee Doodle-bee Doodle-bee Doodle-bee Doodle-bee 
Doo-dle

Doodle-bee Doodle-bee Doodle-bee Doodle-bee 
Doo

Doodle-bee Doodle-bee Doodle-bee Doodle-bee Doodle-bee Doodle-bee

Doodle-bee Doodle-bee Doodle-bee Doodle-bee Doodle-bee Doodle-bee 
Doo... dle

Well, we assembled the machine, read the instructions, and reminisced about the songs but never quite made it as far as getting any of them converted. Autumn's nap ended and so did our efforts. But, "Once begun is halfway done," and it is progress that the machine is out of the box. Frank now has hooked it up to his PC and has struggled for two days with the sound quality. I will give my Mac a shot at it. Then I will be really motivated to find a service in the yellow pages that I can pay to do it for me. By the way, after Frank's several hour effort to convert the album Best of Peter, Paul, and Mary Ten Years Together, he found the LP available on e-bay for 59 cents. It had not sold.

Available on e-bay for 59 cents!
You'd better hurry up and bid if you want it.

Robin went through some books from childhood and singled out some for Autumn. She packed what she could to take back to Oklahoma and Frank mailed the rest the next day.  Robin also reviewed several milk crates worth of books that have been populating our garage shelf for decades, concurred she no longer wanted them, and granted our request to donate them. I am having a little heart burn over the Saddle Club books. Robin had been so into horses. I maintain that they are to Robin what Frank's Hardy Boy books are to him. Frank is bemoaning that he has been able to get the kids to let go but not yet me.

Robin wanted for Autumn some of the baby books she had. Maybe she just does not yet realize
she will also want these horse books from her adolescent years, too, for when Autumn is older?

I am trying very hard to follow the advice of Elsa in the Disney film Frozen.

Easier said than done where memories and your children are involved.

Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here

The Saturday before Father's Day, June 14th, was the one day when everybody would be here at the same time. The original plan was to have a communal breakfast before all heading out to watch the Rodeo Parade starting in downtown Livermore at 10:00 am.  Afterwards we would have a photo session. That was the plan.

Frank went early and picked Alex up from St. Denis. I cooked up a ton of sausages and made pancakes, wolfing some down before dashing out to pick up Maxine from her 10:00 am flight that had been rebooked from the one with a post-parade 2:00 pm arrival. Vivian shifted her schedule, waking up and nursing later so she and Carrie did not make an appearance until after most of us had eaten. They opted out of the parade.

We ate in shifts. However do they get those family bonding photos they post in all the outdoor living magazines with extended families happily gathered round the table simultaneously, photographed in scenic back yards in places like Cape Cod, Dallas, San Diego, etc.?

Sausages anyone? I made a double batch of pancakes and kept 'em comin' off the griddle.

Alex is wearing his M&M shirt sent to him by Robin from her business trip in Las Vegas.
The babies did not seem to phase him. He took Vivian and Autumn in stride.

Autumn is wearing a bib I cross-stiched for her mom Robin back in 1980.
It is pretty stain free for having been used by three kids and being 34 years old.
A good housewife and mother is knowledgable in stain management even if it isn't the 50's!

At least the men folk managed to sit down to breakfast all at once.

Jeremy, Robin, Autumn, Frank, and Alex all headed out to the parade. The weather was warm but thankfully not god-awful hot and they found a seat in the shade. Alex, in particular, enjoyed the crowds and the general hub-bub. Someone walked along the parade route handing out a lollipop to each child. Alex somehow helped himself to several out of her hands. Then he proceeded to eat them, all at the same time. Jeremy was a good sport in sitting next to Alex but he did give Alex the nickname Mr. Sticky. Jeremy took a shower and changed clothes when he got back to our house. Too many body parts were sugar coated to just rinse each one off individually.

They found a shady curbside spot to watch the parade.

Alex was excited about something!

Notice the trifecta of lollipop consumption perfected by Mr. Sticky.
Tootsie Roll should consider him a candidate for their advertising campaign.
Betcha Can't Eat Just One! Oh, wait. Lays Potato Chips already has that slogan.

Sunglasses in hand and binky in mouth, Autumn is enjoying the parade on Grandpa's shoulders.

Our original plan may have gone a bit awry in that all could not be spectators of the parade, but the good news is that all were present, fed, and happy for the post-parade photo session in our back yard. We were not foolish enough to attempt a photography session in a formal studio. We asked our good friend Alan who has marvelous undersea photography experience from years scuba diving to take some pictures. What great job he did! Not just in taking the photos, but in down-selecting a bunch with which he demonstrated a skill I never knew he had in cropping, color enhancing, contrast correcting, etc. We thought we were getting an extra pairs of hands so we could all be in the photos at once and we got a bonafide expert in the field! Here are several different combinations of people in photographs.

The Chambers' and the Oxenfords
Diane, Alex, Frank, Dan, Vivian (2 months), Carrie, Jeremy, Autumn (20 months), Robin

The ladies Carrie, Diane, Robin and
the little ladies Vivian (2 months) and Autumn (20 months)

The ladies seem to be having a lot of fun without the menfolk.
Top -  Maxine     Second row - Carrie, Diane, Robin
Left - Vivian     Upside down - Autumn

Frank holds the very photogenic granddaughter Vivian (2 months).
I hold the very wiggly granddaughter Autumn (20 months).

Saturday after the photo session Robin and I went to a meeting of my local quilt guild at which nationally renowned quilter Alex Anderson gave a presentation on the design of quilt studios. We came away with some good ideas, especially for Robin who has just moved into a large house with a room to be dedicated for her sewing and quilting. Frank took Alex back to St. Denis. Dan, Carrie, and Jeremy went wine tasting, taking Vivian and Autumn with them. Robin caught up to them when she and I returned from the quilt guild meeting.

Wine tasting Saturday afternoon. I think Jeremy is taking the photo but where is Autumn?

Saturday night was to be date night for the two couples where they would leave Autumn and Vivian with us and go out for some adult time with each other. Frank and I are out of practice, especially with two kids under two at the same time. Autumn was initially unhappy at Mommy and Daddy leaving her but I put her in our big bath tub in our master suite and splashing away soon made her forget all her cares about being "abandoned". She talked away a mile a minute to me telling me "cup", "water", "splash", and my two favorites because of her sing-song intonation, "Uh, oh..." and "Oh, no!". After Frank and I coaxed her out of the tub and managed to keep her in one spot long enough to dry her off and put pajamas on her, I sat on the edge of the bed, held her in my arms in the darkened room, and rocked her a bit. She drifted right off to sleep. I even was able to set her down in the crib without waking her and leave - something that Robin and Jeremy sometimes find quite challenging.

Technically this picture was from Wednesday night but it was so cute and
I didn't get to take one of Autumn Saturday night so I included it in this post anyway.

We were glad that Maxine's flight had gotten in early and that our friend Vickie came over so we had extra hands. They sat with Vivian and talked to her in her bouncy chair while Frank and I were with Autumn. Vivian smiled away at them. Apparently at one point Maxine and Vickie started talking to each other instead of to Vivian. When they heard "Hey!" from Vivian in a rather indignant tone they each jerked their head around in surprise. Had they not reacted simultaneously at the sound you would  have thought it had been imagined. But it was real. They both heard it. Vivian had spoken!

Great Aunt Maxine enjoys Vivian while her parents were out to dinner.

Vivian was not wailing but she fussed a bit until her mom and dad came home. We found that laying her on the changing table where she could look up at the lights and kick freely soothed her more than holding her. This changing table position also had to be accompanied by singing to her. She especially liked Swing Low Sweet Chariot because Dan sings it to her but we discovered her tastes also extend to other Negro spirituals such as I Saw the Light and Amazing Grace. Although a different genre, It's a Small World, was a winner too. Maxine and I sang to her in harmony. Vivian was an appreciative audience.

The two young couples came home a bit refreshed from their brief time kid free but also a bit tuckered out from the day. Bedtime for the adults came soon after. Saturday had been a very busy day. You will notice there were very few photos taken during the time when the older generation was home with the babies. We were too busy bathing, feeding, changing, dressing, rocking, and singing to snap many pictures! 

The babies started out in their own beds but who knows if they stayed there?

Fitness, Food, Fire, Flitting, Fun, and Flights for Fathers' Day Visit

Thursday June 12th and Friday June 13th were busy days. Jeremy, Robin, and Autumn went out to breakfast and a play date with some local friends on Thursday. Frank and I got to dote on Vivian briefly between feedings while Carrie took advantage of a couple exercise opportunities. Friday early afternoon both families strolled to downtown Livermore and later dropped by to visit other Livermore families they each knew.

Fitness: Carrie went for a mid-day run Thursday while Frank and I watched Vivian. She was able to find a pilates class on Friday. I applaud her post-preganancy dedication. I was never so disciplined.

Vivian was content with Frank while her mom Carrie went for a run.

I, too, enjoyed some happy time with Vivian.

Food: Thursday afternoon Carrie, Vivian, and I took a ride up to Black Hawk Plaza and visited Draeger's Market. It is about a half hour drive northwest of Livermore and the route meanders through some scenic hills.

The drive to the upscale Blackhawk Plaza with its renowned culinary store Draeger's
was as enjoyable as the stroll around the outdoor mall area

Ducks, water features, and expansive landscaping are
signatures of the ambience of Blackhawk Plaza in Danville.

Carrie is a great cook and is into watching cooking shows and so I thought the gourmet market was a low key outing that might interest her. As an example, here is their extensive assortment of olive oils.

The olive oil selection is vast at Draeger's Market.

It is ironic, but after looking at all that food and those gourmet morsels, I was too lazy to cook Thursday. We ordered some party pans from Strizzi's, Wood Grilled Chicken and Rigatoni Bolognese.  Vivian was quite pleased with herself during dinner, perched in her table side bouncy chair that had been assembled for her the night before.

Hey! This is fun!

Fire: After dinner on Thursday Frank and I took a brief walk of the scorched area from the fires that had begun  at ~7:50 pm the previous night. We learned that about four acres had burned and that over sixty trees needed to be cut down because the glowing embers within could not be extinguished. You could hear the incessant sound of the chain saws and see the omnipresent fire trucks passing by.

I found it fascinating how a narrow walking path could serve as a fire break.
Even more incredulous was how a dry twiggy bush could remain unscathed
amid a surrounding sea of charred black.

Throughout the next day fire trucks patrolled.
Firemen cleared debris and watched for other flareups.

Flitting: Charred grass outside our fence line did not get in the way of Autumn enjoying some outside time in our backyard. She flitted about just about as fast as the humming bird Jeremy caught in motion sipping at our agapanthus flowers.

Autumn was fascinated with the arched bridge we have in our backyard. She raced back and forth,
back and forth, forth and back, over it many, many times.

Jeremy caught this great photo of a nearby hummingbird. Can you spot it in the very center of the photo?
The blur of its wings reminded me of the blur of Autumn's feet!

Our front entry looked like stroller central as both families set out for a downtown walk.

Ready for a walk!

Vivian is dressed to the nines.
Anybody remember that song by the children's group Parachute Express?
Polka dots, checks, and stripes are in fashion... polka dots, checks, and stripes. Yipes!

Outside time was also followed by reading and bath time.

On Frank's last visit to Oklahoma, Autumn would not sit in his lap and was very wary of him.
This trip she thinks Grandpa is a really OK guy!

Playing in water in a bath tub or in large containers out on our back deck
– Autumn is one happy camper.

Fun: Late evening all of us (except Dan and Maxine who had yet to arrive) perched on the king size bed in the master bedroom to talk and visit toward the end of the day. Trying to get all folks looking good at the same time is quite impossible. I'd bought a new camera and we snapped many photos in a futile attempt to get everyone looking forward and smiling simultaneously. Then we accidentally took a video. This image is actually a frame capture that minimized the number of faces wearing distracted, unflattering, albeit funny, expressions. The entire  scene reminded me of the John Denver song, Grandma's Feather Bed.

Grandma's Feather Bed
It was nine feet high and six feet wide and soft as a downy chick.
It was made from the feathers of forty 'leven geese, took a whole bolt of cloth for the tick.
It could hold eight kids and four hound dogs and a piggy we stole from the shed.
We didn't get much sleep but we had a lot  of fun on grandma's feather bed.

Flights: Dan flew up from Orange County late Friday night. His one and a half hour flight had been delayed several times (longer that its total duration) but he made it finally and Frank and I went together to pick him up from Oakland airport. On our drive home from Oakland airport with Dan, sometime after 10:00 pm, my sister forwards me a text message she received from Southwest Airlines. My sister had been scheduled to arrive at 2:00 pm Saturday. Due to "weather" or circumstances beyond their control, Southwest had cancelled her flight out of Chicago. Strangely enough, the weather into Chicago must have been under their control because the first leg of her flight had not been cancelled.  

Had she already gone to bed, Maxine would not have known about her flight cancellation
in time to rebook and arrive before Vivian and Autumn had already returned home.

This timing was meticulously planned so that she would get to meet both of her grandnieces in one trip to northern California instead of one trip to southern CA and a second trip to Oklahoma. As soon as we got home from the airport I jumped online and researched her other options. In order to fit her "meet the grandnieces window", one last flight remained, but she would need to leave for the airport within the next couple of hours and not go to bed at all. Trooper that she is, she woke her husband Bob and that is what she did. Though technically not a red-eye flight, she did not go to bed at all Friday, since she had to get to the airport by 4:00 am and it was already 2:00 am in North Carolina by the time we sorted it all out and booked her a different flight.

In looking Southwest Airlines up on Wikipedia I found this amusing history of their slogans. A few previous slogans have been "You're Now Free To Move About The Country", "THE Low Fair Airline", and "Just Plane Smart".

I like this alternative to a lawsuit. The money goes to a good cause and not to lawyers!

SWA's current slogan is "If It Matters to You, It Matters to Us". Not the way we planned it but Maxine did get here in time to see every one, six hours earlier on Saturday, 10:00 am instead of 2:00 pm. Her bags flew free, and there were no additional charges for her fare.

Fathers' Day Visit: Day One Was a Real Scorcher

Jeremy, Robin, and twenty-month-old Autumn were the first to arrive. Frank picked them up at San Francisco's airport mid-morning on Wednesday June 11th and drove them back to Livermore while I waited at home. The front door swung open and the first thing I heard was the "thud-thud-thud" of little feet; forget that "pitter-patter" nonsense. Autumn immediately spotted my welcome display of Thing 1 and Thing 2 on the red wing chair and charged over to snatch them up and show them to me. I was in Oklahoma just twelve weeks ago (see post for March 29, 2014) and what a change! Autumn is no longer a "stranger-danger" hesitant baby. She made clear at her entrance that this robust, chatty toddler was in charge here. I have no picture of her arrival to post because they all turned out blurry!

Thing One and Thing Two from Dr. Seuss' classic book The Cat in the Hat was the theme of
this weekend's double granddaughter Autumn and Vivian visit.

The first order of business after they arrived was lunch. With the two hour time difference between OK and CA they were starving. We sat down in the breakfast nook and as I gazed out the window I saw a thin plume of smoke and then... fire! We are experiencing a drought here and the grass open land beyond our backyard fence is very dry tinder. Our lunchtime entertainment was watching a small grass fire. We settled in Wednesday afternoon and watched Autumn explore her new domain. Frank and Jeremy went off together for "model train night" at a local railroader's garage here in Livermore. We had sausage and beef lasagna for dinner. Autumn, who is at a stage where she "doesn't eat meat", practically inhaled it. We awaited for Carrie's arrival from her drive up from Southern California with two-month-old Vivian and Snoopy.

When Carrie arrived at about 7:30 pm she let Snoopy out into our backyard, hurried into the house setting Vivian in her car seat down at the first available spot, and rushed to the bathroom. It seems in her 7.5 hour driving adventure she would not leave either Vivian or Snoopy alone in the car so she could go pee. Carrie selflessly waited til she got here. She admitted that the 32 ouncer she bought at a Starbuck's drive-through was not an extremely wise decision. Vivian flashed me the biggest smile while her mom was "occupied" and was a very happy baby as I extracted her from her car seat. My set of the real Thing 1 and Thing 2 was now complete!

As we sat down in the kitchen nook and gazed out window what did we see but ... FIRE! Again! This time it was nearer our house but luckily across on the other side of the creek. This grass was bigger, involving bushes and trees, and ran into the evening. I took some photos from the upstairs window.

Snoopy is on guard, even against the fire in the not-too-far distance of this photo.

I took this photo with the frame of the guest bedroom window showing
to give a sense of scale and distance for the fire.

Zooming in shows the fire was quite extensive but
we did have the natural firebreak of the bike path between it and us.

Just before nightfall, Jeremy and Frank took a walk over to the action area and Jeremy took some photos. We three women folk stayed home with the two babies. The smoke smell was quite strong and the fallout from the ashes fairly heavy so we stayed indoors with the windows shut.

Fireman battling flames.

The fire truck on the bike path is visible.

I think that is water being sprayed off toward the left.

Our cul de sac of five homes had a constant stream of traffic from lookie-loos trying to gawk at the flames and smoke through the space between our house and the neighbor's. We were to learn the next day just how far reaching the fire had been.

Our usually quiet street became like a high traffic flow rotary in Boston or Washington, DC.

Thus began our stretch of company with two arriving granddaughters and two fires on the very first day. Fire photos dominated granddaughter photos on this day when sleeping arrangements were being set up and folks were decompressing from traveling. My son Dan and my sister Maxine had yet to arrive. Here was the schedule for the upcoming days.

From Friday night 6/13/14 until Sunday afternoon 6/14/14 we had our peak guest count of seven.