Chapter 351

Happy Birthday to both Grama's. I'm not sure of the exact date of either but it's the thought that counts.

So some of our produce makes our garden look like Chernobyl is just down the street. I can guarantee that there is no nuclears in the garden compost, but I cannot guarantee my skill as a gardener. Apparently I have a thing or two to learn about growing carrots. #1: I had no idea carrots blew up and #2: I see why the package says to thin the carrots to one per hole. Now if I can only remember this lesson next year. There's no guarantees there!

Apparently I need to learn more about growing corn as well. The internet makes this all sound so simple. There are a few gardening secrets that are not being divulged in the basic gardening instructions. Maybe the seeds I bought were harvested next door to Chernobyl.

Bear is a fan of my carrots no matter how ugly they are. Carrots are Bear's favorite food and Bob made the deadly mistake of pulling one up for Bear's snack. Now that he knows where they come from, he's pulling them up and helping himself to a snack. He finally ate them all then he stands at the garden and stares at the dirt willing more carrots to sprout.

We bought Reagan an electric Razor scooter at a garage sale and Bob decided he should ride it around the garage and, since his deductible isn't fulfilled, try for a trip to the emergency room.

He made it through the doorway without incident...

...and back.

Wednesday was a beautiful day and so after work I headed out to give the birds fresh water. Since it was so nice out, I pulled the lounge chair out of storage and set myself out in the watery fall sunlight for a quick sun bask. Oh, it felt so good. I love the clear blue sky, bright green tree, and all the cute little pine cones you probably cannot see in this photo.

When Bob got home, we went to score us another cache in Auburn. This one had a high difficulty factor and although it wasn't tough to get to, it was an evil hide on the part of the owner. The description was "a 10-inch piece of PVC pipe". We looked for about half an hour for a painted pipe, a hidden pipe, a pipe in the tree, a pipe under the boardwalk, a pipe camouflaged as a post, a pipe under the handrail, a pipe overhead, before we found it tucked snugly into a 2 x 4 that flipped up on the back side of the boardwalk railing. This was a tough but fun find. It was fun because we found it. It wouldn't have been as much fun if we didn't find it in it's little wooden nest.

Reagan and fam were on a plane heading to Maine to visit family, tour though the fall leaves, and attend Chris' grandfather's memorial. Although it was a juggling act to keep Reagan up and get her on the plane for an 11 p.m. red-eye, she was super-amped about getting on a in her special airplane jammies. She loves to point out planes up in the sky. I always tell her it's full of people going to see their Grama and Grampas.

And, as rarely happens with well-laid parental plans, everything went off without a hitch... 

...Except for the singing. Reagan loves to sing and so she serenaded her fellow passengers with some pre-school songs during the landing. I'm so glad it went well. I hope they appreciate that she could have been crying and singing is definitely better. Traveling is tough with a toddler. Traveling through the night could be a real-life nightmare. That's a very fine line to walk with a toddler.

The happy Walker clan made it to Maine and Reagan poses for the second time in her two-year life for a picture on the L.L. Bean boot.

Chris' parents and Carissa and Chris took Reagan to a children's museum somewhere around Auburn, Maine where Chris' parents live. Although Reagan can play our piano any time she is at our house, she chose to play the piano at the children's museum instead of playing with all the other cool toys they had to offer. Just like here at the house, Reagan has to have her "friends" on the keyboard to listen to her play.

Speaking of travelling, here's Payton and Carter in the very same kind of car seat that Reagan has. Carter is sporting his new glasses. If kids were ever made to look good in glasses, it's these two!

We had a beautiful harvest moon Friday and it was rising before it got dark. 

It was even cooler after it got dark. Very spooky and Halloween-y.

The next day we went over to Kyanne and Ryan's new (to them) house so Bob could remove an old metal (circa 1950-ish)  shower and move the  shower head to the tub that was right next to it.

I laid on the sofa and entertained Sally, or I should say, she entertained/glared at me.

Bob opened the wall to find old scaffolding, used by the builders of the house, abandoned in the wall. Since they had been built into the original house, there wasn't enough room to get them out so he had to duck and dodge the new pipe around them to install the shower. Bob's standing in what was the shower and the shower head he's installing needs to go through the wall in front of him to the tub on the other side.

"Ok", Sally says "I'm so done with my having to watch you for the day."

Bob wrestles pipe and water to create a new shower for Kyanne. You can see the old white paint-covered scaffolding giving Bob a run for Kyanne's money.

Meanwhile, Kyanne is installing her new toilet seat...

So. D.O.N.E.!

Sally took a break from glaring at me to look through the hole in the shower floor to watch Kyanne and Bob  floor terminating the drain down in the basement. 

So D.O.N.E.