Summer Fun

All of you who are parents – or who are children – are well aware that parents are willing to do almost anything for their children. When your kids become adults, and especially if they don't live close to you, those opportunities don't come around too often. But we have the opportunity of helping out one of the kids in a couple of weeks in a unique situation.

Older daughter and her family are going on a vacation cruise for about ten days. This year they are taking the kids, so we won't get to take care of them. And the cat is being boarded while they are gone. But they have asked it we would house sit for them. Oh, yes, and Mr. Turtle will be in the basement and will need to be fed.

Mr. Turtle won't be loud, he won't cause problems (or cough up fur balls). I just hope I don't forget about his being down in Grandson's room!! I'm not quite sure what “turtle sitting” entails, but I've asked for Grandson to leave me instructions. We laugh about our job of turtle sitting, but we are looking forward to some time in the Big City.

Hubby and I had already been talking about the possibility of some day trips to KC to check out the local sights. Now we can do that with only one trip up. We've been checking out places to see in KC. We definitely want to check out the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. We toured the Truman Library a few years ago, but there are other Truman sites to visit in Independence. The Kansas City Zoo has been mentioned, as well as the minor league T-Bones baseball team. There's The Plaza, the new shopping area by the Kansas Speedway, parks and fountains, and Crown Center. So many options.

We've also realized that the time we're there will cover Father's Day, the 8-year-old granddaughter's 9^th birthday, son and daughter-in-law's wedding anniversary, and the 8/9-year-old's dance recital. Older daughter didn't realize how perfect her timing would be!

We did laundry this morning – Thursday morning seems to be a good time for us to find the washers and dryers available. I haven't heard any jack hammering going on today in preparation for the new laundry room on first floor........but I don't think the new washers and dryers have arrived yet anyway. One of the two washers on this floor sounds like it's ready to go into orbit when it kicks into its spin cycle. We all have our fingers crossed that the new laundry room gets set up and working before this washer bites the dust.

Anyway, we're looking forward to a kind of busy, exciting summer. Not only do we get ten days in Kansas City with free lodging, but we're also heading to southern Oregon in August for a family celebration of my mother-in-law's 90^th birthday (and the folks' 65^th wedding anniversary on the same day). We're hoping that the majority of hubby's family will be there – we haven't seen any of them since his stepdad's 90^th birthday celebration three summers ago. And after all the time spent with my brood, hubby will get to meet his granddaughters for the first time. The excitement is mounting.

It's a little hard for me to stay in the “here and now”, with the planning being done for our two adventures. At this point we're pretty good with the August trip – plane tickets have been purchased, hotel had been reserved, and rental car will be available when we get off the plane. I guess I'll wait to start planning the packing logistics for that trip once we get back home in June. Plan one trip at a time!