Helpful News Indeed

My Mom's condition continues to be foremost on my mind.  My sister, Connie, and I talk at least twice a week, and when she visits my Mom at the care center, she calls me so I can talk with Mom.  My mother is not herself and it's been very difficult to speak with her.  I had been under the impression that she was, well, basically losing her mind as she was totally confused and speaking nonsense.  Since then, I have been told it is mostly the medication she is on that is making her so loony.  With that hope in mind, it was so wonderful to talk to her yesterday.  She was pretty much herself again, oriented to time and place, talking and asking about my kids, a lot like normal.  What a relief that was!  Apparently, it was nearly time for her pain medication which is the main culprit for her confusion.  I was fortunate to catch her at the right time.  She is also making progress as far as walking some and sitting up more often.  Her pain is also less.  I know there will be good and bad days ahead but every good day will definitely give us hope for her complete recovery.  And thank you for the kind comments, my friends!

We spent last Friday at the annual kite festival in Long Beach, Washington.  We look forward to it every year, especially when it happens to be warm and not too windy, like it was Friday (not our usual beach weather, for sure!)  The beach is full of colorful kites with competitions for stunt kite flying and things like that.  We took some photos (see below).  After walking the boardwalk, we went through the small town, visiting a local coin dealer (a hobby of ours) and ending up at a place to ride go-carts.  Chad took a spin around the track and looked quite pleased with himself.  We have attended this festival every year since we moved here, except when Chad was just 3 weeks old (I wasn't up to it!) and it has always been a fun family time.  Except for that one year when Alec was just a toddler.  We were out in the sand, among the kites, with Alec a few feet ahead of me.  Suddenly, a kite bigger than Alec came crashing down a few feet ahead of him!  It stuck into the sand like a huge sword.  I grabbed Alec lightening-quick - everyone around was so startled and glad he wasn't hurt.  I think I spent the rest of the day thanking God for sparing my small son.  Since then, we mostly stick to the boardwalk, sometimes flying our own kites along the edge.  But never again will I venture out where the big kites are - we learned our lesson that day.

It may be the longest beach in world (that's what the sign says) and it's awesome to see it covered in kites.  This is just a slice of beach.  It was voted America's Best Boardwalk more than once.

I loved these rows of frogs, can you see the blue crab in the lower right corner?  We also saw caterpillar balloons the size of diesel trucks.

Carmen and I swam with an orca ...

Alec shows just how much he's grown this summer.  Carmen didn't like the sun in her face.  The orcas were good about posing for us, though.

Chad, taking the lead.  Didn't crash once (unlike his mom when she was a kid!)