Family Visit

My pictures are a bit of a disappointment because I was playing with my new camera and trying out the 'sports' setting on the camera. I thought it would help with a moving target but I must not have done something right. The near collision between Marissa, our oldest granddaughter, and her younger sister Kara would have been a great picture if it had been in focus. I did get the sense of movement in the picture of Marissa roller blading and of course Kara posed for me on her trike.

Yesterday was much more peaceful around the Braun household. I attended the campground's afternoon water aerobics session of easy stretches and moves and it felt good. I asked if I could bring one of my water aerobics tapes for a change of pace and the instructor was thrilled because she's just filling in and is not really comfortable leading the class. I don't know how well I'll be able to lead today with the gimpy knee but we'll see how it goes. Once I had finally gotten back to the rig (it's a long walk to the pool) we called Steve (our oldest son) to see if he would be willing to help Denny install the new tailgate after we picked it up at Camping World. As a bribe, we offered to buy pizza and wings for the family. He works cheap. That arranged, we drove the 40 miles or so back down to Hamburg to pick up the tailgate, then back up north to N. Tonawanda where Steve and Angela live. Much fuss was made over us by the grandkids (that's a great feeling!) and we had to watch roller blade jumping and tricycle riding and look at boo-boos amid hugs to the older Brauns. The tailgate was installed while Angela and I caught up with the news and ordered dinner to be delivered.

It's amazing how much children can grow in 8 months. Zach will be 14 in October, Marissa will be 10 in September and Kara will be 4 in October and like the song says, I don't remember growing older-when did they? This weekend they'll come to the campground to play in the pond and the swimming pool and to ride their bikes on the grounds without worrying about road traffic. Zach will look for turtles to take to the neighbors, Marissa will sit quietly drawing and Kara will be bouncing off the walls with energy unless we tire her out at the pool. It will be a noisy weekend for us and the cat, who will probably have to find herself a good hiding place in the rig until the kids have gone.

How about that? A blog entry this week without gloom and doom. What a change. Heh.