alice's weekend...LAST weekend!

we went on a road trip this weekend after the high long distance adventure of Kyla Jade's emersion into the world as we know it...Friday was exciting...we'd waited for SO LONG! we loaded up Tony ('member? the red wagon's name was TONY) who although he willingly took on the stroller, our lawn chairs, various piles of blankets, Pookamoo's (Syreeta) travel bag, Alice's travel bag, Biko's clothes (tossed in, not in a bag), My travel bag (by the way please let me interject here that this was a SMALL PINK bag instead of my usual "just in case" large suitcase), Mr. Man's travel bag (and another small digression - his bag was packed with DIRTY clothes because he hadn't had time to do the mundane laundry chore:-)). Daisy aka Fairy watched us pack with kind of a doubtful expression on her face but didn't say much except to try and help us pack "hey, can I grab this and bring it for you? do you know how much I love water? hey hey HEY are you listening? here, let me help you, I'll jump up and put my paws in your biz and you can CUSS at me K????? yeah, that's funny! did I tell ya the one about the ant and the spider? HAHAHAHAHAHA it's FUNNY here I'll jump up on you again...." and that WAS the manner of her helpfulness so let me tell you the air whilst packing was peppered with many colorful euphemisms!

Ahhhhh on our way with Mr. Man, Biko, me, Pookamoo (aka Syreeta), Skinny (aka Wesley, our nephew) and Alice - the Important Baby of Wisdom and Many Songs...all loaded up on Tony the Regal Red Wagon.


Perhaps I should have prefaced this little novella with the opening phrase "it was HOT THAT DAY" because truly, it was hellatiously hot - and I say that with all the awe and reverence due the heat of the sun that day!

We got a few miles from town...oh, maybe 60...Mr. Man and I had our fingers crossed already because we KNEW that Tony was a tired boy...Tony decided we'd pushed him just about far enough and right before an off-ramp to an underpass with YAY shade, he pooped out. We sat under the shade for a bit then tried the ramp back on to the freeway...nope...back down the hill - waited awhile longer and tried again...NOPE back down the hill - Skinny was wondering just what Uncle Mr Man was up to driving the car halfway up the hill and then backing down again but he didn't quite want to bring it up just yet.

Finally he just went and took the bull by the horns "uncle, are we still going to Portland? why are we doing THIS?" and everyone laughed.

We tried taking Tony in small increments and even babied him until finally we gave up on Tony and the machinations therein occurred (LAUGHING OUT LOUD - machinations therein means we called for HELP!!!!) Help arrived and took Biko, Pookamoo and Alice back home to go get Biko's car during which we all kind of tried to amuse ourselves and not be too antsy. Saw a really nice sunset though. Finally got Biko's car and off we went again on our happy trip to Portland although it has to be told that Mr. Man was a tiny bit cranky by now.
The Big City of Bright Lights finally showed itself in the distance - YAY! Jollifications for Mr. Man & Missy Ma'am - which turned out to be quite the occasion:-)

Saturday and its BBQ day for the whole tribe...preparations began and even though it was hot because certain people wanted to have MEATLOAF this was made - and frybread because really...what kind of Indian gathering is it without frybread? People began to gather and there was much laughter and lots of hugs! It's at this point that Alice decided to adopt a new Daddy...John - you'll see him pictured with her quite often and as the story is told, Alice adopted him but when she saw her mama - Pookamoo - being "butt hurt" about it, she took her mama back...although she kept the title of "Daddy John" to use at a later date.

finally after all the laughter and hugging and EATING was done several of us migrated to Lee's house where we all FINALLY MET KYLA JADE GAVIN!!!! YAY!!!!! She was adorable of course...she graciously invited us to have some water because she knew it was hot outside...she asked me, her grandma to please look at the AC unit her dad had installed because it didn't seem to be putting out cold air. Upon inspection it was decided that Lee must have made a mistake - which he tried to deny but couldn't:-) he had it on fan and not cool...