Saturday Part 1

It’s going to be a good day when I take so many pictures that I have to split the day into 2 blog posts.  Autumn woke up this morning at 7:30 (so much for sleeping in after the late night she had) and wanted me to come help her get a dress down from the hanger in her closet.  It was this dress that Mary had made for Jessie.  Autumn’s never worn it before so I don’t know what made her want to wear it today but I obliged.  We went over to Mom & Dad’s to see what fun things were happening.  Dad & Andrew were out in the garden picking onions and Autumn wanted to help.

Autumn looks like a homeless pioneer child (that sang as she walked and walked and walked and walked), but that didn’t matter b/c the kids had fun spending time in the garden w/ Papa.

We went inside and had left over Texas shaped waffles that Dad had made for breakfast.  Then I saw Autumn disappear into the back room and knew she must be back there saying hi to Rufio.  Sure enough, I found them in the bathroom and Rufio was putting some “whip stick” on Autumn.

We all sat around and talked for a while and Dad took the kids on a walk over to Quigley’s to give Bro. Quigley a hat he got from him at the Masters.  But, Quigley’s weren’t home so they came back.  Dad & Autumn & Andrew & I all loaded into the truck (Dad was going to take them in the Corvette but since there’s only one seat and one booster chair that wasn’t going to work).  I held my camera up and just blindly shot and was impressed that I was able to get them both in the shot.  They had fun just talking to each other and laughing.

We went to WalMart to use the coin machine.  Dad gave away our big glass jar we used to put our spare change in and decided the kids could buy something fun for themselves w/ the change that was in there.  We put them in a shopping cart so they could reach the machine and put the sack of change in there.  We ended up with $10.60 in 28 dimes, 38 nickels and 705 pennies.  Dad and I went through and picked out what dimes & quarters we could see b/c the machine takes 9.8% of whatever you put in and Dad didn’t want the machine taking every 1 out of 10 dimes that we put in.

We got our money and Dad was going to take them to Toys-R-Us but I said the kids wouldn’t be able to get much with only $10.60.  So, we went over to the big WalMart so they could pick out their toys.  Dad had them both stand on the back of this shopping cart so he could push them.  Right after I took this picture, Andrew put his other foot up on the shopping cart and they tipped backwards b/c Dad wasn’t anticipating that extra weight.  Dad & I started laughing so hard and I pushed down on the front of the cart to keep it from tipping backwards again.

We went over to the toy aisle and couldn’t find anything for just $5 each.  So, Dad let Autumn get this mermaid Barbie and splurged on Andrew and let him get this Spiderman toy.  I’m glad, b/c Andrew doesn’t get to see Papa & Mimi as often as Autumn does and deserved to be spoiled a little.  Dad was showing off what he got…some new light bulbs to replace a burnt out one in the kitchen.  Woo hoo.

We stopped at the pharmacy and picked up some medication Mom had ordered a few days ago.  This is the bag they handed us and Autumn said, “I want some chips!”  Dad & I got such a kick out of that b/c it looks like the bags that Chipotle chips come in and she’s accustomed to getting Chipotle chips.  Can you say spoiled?

We got back to the house and everyone jumped in to help get ready for lunch.  We wiped off the table and chairs b/c they were so dirty from being outside all winter.  Even Rufio got in on the cleaning action.

We had a shrimp boil for lunch b/c we haven’t done in a while and wanted Rufio to experience a Johnson shrimp boil.

I know Rufio has her eyes closed, but this was the only group picture we got.  We all ate and ate until we couldn’t eat anymore.  We called Robert Monzingo & Curt and told them to come over and eat w/ us.  Curt was too far away but Robert came after a little while.

Papa had turned on the hot tub for the kids and as soon as they were done eating, they wanted to put on swimsuits and get in.  We made sure to keep a very careful eye on them.  I told Andrew to put his arm around Autumn & she made the sweetest little face.  They’re such cute cousins.

They kept telling Papa to go put on his swimsuit so he could get in w/ them.  I thought he was going to jump in the pool first like he usually does, but he decided to let the grandkids push him in.  Andrew wanted to help push Papa in, but he didn’t want to go in the cold pool himself so he would scream and run away when Dad would turn around and pretend to get the kids.

Chase was sniffing around in the bushes and started to dig at something.  Mom let out a yell b/c it was a tarantula.  Dad went over and looked at it and it was already dead and had been for a while.  He took a little garden spade and scooped it up and put it on this gargoyle’s head.  Gross!

Dad was finally able to get the kids into the pool little by little.  He took them on a ride around the pool on the floatie.  They never put their whole bodies or heads in the water but had fun being chauffeured back and forth from the Shamu shelf to the waterfall and back.  We kept laughing at Dad and making fun of his hat b/c Autumn snapped up the front part of it and he looked so silly.