respublica

Happy Birthday Darren

Let everyone eat cake tonight.

What Christian learned in St. Louis...

was this.

Which led to the next logical step.

Use whatever is available.

You go guy, your great grampa would be proud.

Meeting Rand

So often in this computer age, people you get to know are actually people you've never met.  A case in point is Rand, a regular commenter to this blog.   Well, today I had the pleasure of meeting him in person while he was in the area on a visit and we spent the better part of the middle of the day just talking about all kinds of things.

It was great to finally have met you Rand.  Thanks

Mother's Day

We said our goodbyes to all the kids and pets today and flew back to St. Louis.  Lizzie is still in the hospital, getting stronger, but not really like she should be.

The two little boys came to the hospital with daddy after church to visit their mommy.

Nothing like the family to perk her up.  For a while at least.

Then Dale and I headed for Katie and Charlie's on our way to the airport.  We got to see them and their two pets, Riley and Sam.  Katie and I had a mother's day picture with the two furry buddies.

Did I say buddies?  haha  Sorry Kate, I know you'll hate this picture, but the animals are so funny.

Riley just will not leave Sam alone.

Charlie has hold of Riley to keep him from jumping on Sam.  That dog has some long arms.  What happened to Sam?

Actually Sam is a bit of a tease.

That's better.  Charlie is making him sit quietly.  heh  with his right hand holding Riley down.

Gardening

Is it an integral part of human nature for people, even young people, to take to the dirt, sun, and plants? 
Some innate happiness that comes from digging and getting dirty?   
Christian, Katie and I spent part of the afternoon digging holes and planting herbs, tomatoes and flowers.   Even at 2, Christian found pure joy in this job. 

Connor helped too.  Look at those big blue eyes.

Fun Day

Flying Elmo home

We brought a child sized Elmo with us on the plane to D.C. walked him through airport security, and sat him on the seat.  We got a lot of smiles and a few belly laughs.  Here he looks out the window as we begin to land.

Christian then took Elmo to bed.

He loves Elmo.  Elmo takes up the whole bed, but Christian is so happy to share his space.

Off

To Washington D.C. to see about our daughter in the hospital and spend time taking care of Christian and Connor.  More reporting from there later.

Happy Birthday Lizzie

We wish you weren't facing a hospital stay, but we hope your day turns out to be a good one.

                  

Boarding without assistance

More on this later, after our anger subsides.

Ok.  First from Peggy Noonan earlier this week.  Who knew her words would hit close to home so soon?  "America is in line at the airport. America has its shoes off, is carrying a rubberized bin, is going through a magnetometer. America is worried there is fungus on the floor after a million stockinged feet have walked on it. But America knows not to ask. America is guilty until proved innocent, and no one wants to draw undue attention."  "And, as always: Why do we do this when you know I am not a terrorist, and you know I know you know I am not a terrorist? Why this costly and harassing kabuki when we both know the facts, and would agree that all this harassment is the government's way of showing "fairness," of showing that it will equally humiliate anyone in order to show its high-mindedness and sense of justice? Our politicians congratulate themselves on this as we stand in line."

Let me say at the outset of what could be an undistinguished rant:  According to the TSA website on flying regulations:  "If you aren’t traveling and need to go through the security checkpoint to accompany someone such as a child or other traveler with medical conditions who is traveling, check with the airline for required documentation."

All of the above applied to our daughter today as she tried to fly home to Washington D.C., except "child" was plural.  The American Airlines ticket agents would hardly give us the time of day when we asked for permission to accompany her to the gate.  One turned out to be very kind and helpful, but the other shooed us away with the order to go back to the nice woman and have her call the "supervisor" Kevin.  No one could find Kevin and he wasn't answering his phones.  Finally, after 20 minutes we get sent back to the crabby ticket agent and she curtly told us Kevin said no.

So Lizzie had to struggle through the security line and the boarding gate with a two month old and a two year old plus their stuff.  The flight was delayed.  Surprise!  When they were finally allowed to board, two very nice TSA agents came along and helped her corral the two year old and the two month old and settled everyone in their seats.  She told them what had happened when we tried to get permission to go with her to the gate and they laughed.  It is just not true that we couldn't have come with her.  They told her that they would much rather screen an extra person then to have mayhem or problems.  And, they laughed when they heard who the "supervisor" was.  "Write a letter", they told her.

Oh, we will.  Believe it.  And I hope our daughter does too.  And, we got the name of the ticket agent who went out of her way to help our daughter, even changing her seats to the bulkhead and giving her an empty middle seat for the baby.  We'll write a letter about her too, but in a very good way.

I hope anyone reading this will have a better understanding of what you can do at the airport should you find yourself in a similar position some day.

Zoo time

Our cable internet was down most of the day so we went to the zoo.

The indoor penguin and puffin house is the best.  They swim by really fast and jump in the air and splash. 

Grady the African turtle was great too.

Petting goats was great.

But the best, just the best, was the penguins.  You just have to go there.

Oh, and Connor the little brother was there too.