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.