The Funeral

Hello friends and family,

I may take down the picture of Easton, depending on whether Kendra thinks it could be incriminating evidence to his disadvantage when he seeks college admission. He was deep in thought about how he can get his diesel truck out of the package. I told him he could open it when he "uses the potty" so he's been begging to go sit on it. Unfortunately he hasn't made good on his end of the deal so the diesel remains in the package where he stares longingly into the packaging.


Better luck tomorrow, Big Time.

I'm a half-hearted fan of the $1 store. I'm starting to dislike it because every time we go there I see all of the cool stuff that looks like a great bargain. Then I get it home and realize it wasn't even worth the dollar I paid. For example, the blow up chair:


The chairs looked awesome on the packaging, but when we blew them up we were sorely disappointed with the size and cheap air hole stopper. It wasn't even worth the $1. The chairs were so small Easton and Layla thought they were booster seats and put them on the couch!


Easton's chair lasted two days compared to Layla's which lasted only one. She chewed a hole in hers like a puppy dog. :)

And now for the intended purpose of our trip to NorCal... Uncle Jeff's funeral. Certainly not a party atmosphere, but turned out to be a very positive experience. It was a family reunion of sorts because so many relatives came into town including Logan. I finally got a picture of him with Casey!


and Logan's girlfriend Bree made the trip for moral support in the same way I did for Kendra's sake. What a great girlfriend.


I wasn't able to attend the actual funeral because Uno and Dos needed looking after. After it was over we showed up for the reception and the twins shined a little light in the otherwise (appropriately) somber atmosphere.


The twins took advantage of the brief gathering to enjoy some much desired cousin time. Here are their cousins, Abbey and Rowan giving Layla some love.


I took Easton and Layla for the full day and part of our adventures led us through a playground next to a swamp area. I introduced them to cattails.


The slight breeze made shredding the cattails exceptionally fun. Easton wiggled his back and forth just enough to cause a constant trickle of falling fluffy seeds to float through the air. Layla ravaged hers threw massive wads of seeds against the wind resulting in the appearance of being tarred and feathered.


See that boy in the middle? His name is Fisher. I know this because Easton and Layla both introduced themselves to him at the park and asked, "what's your name?" He shyly said, "Fisher". Layla replied, "Nice to meet you, Fisher! You wanna play chase?" He replied, "Let's roll down the hill!"


Easton and Layla looked at each other and Easton said, "I don't know that". I encouraged them and told Fisher to go demonstrate. He rolled like a log all the way down the hill tracking freshly mowed grass bits all over his clothes. The twins looked up at me for approval. I shrugged my shoulders and said, "why not? Go for it!"


Easton turned one revolution over like a log and then stood up. He asked to go swing instead. I had to wait until Layla finished two full trips down the hill and off we went for another round of swinging.

That evening we kicked our costume making into high gear to prepare for the halloween events on Sunday. Part of Kendra's costume called for blue satin ribbon. As soon as Layla saw it she knew exactly what to do with it. Tie up her hair! So Kendra obliged with a tie up to match her princess dress. I can't remember why she was hugging on Easton, but any time one of them gets a "boo boo", the other is quick to give comforting words of, "I'm so sorry" and a hug.


It's times like this we know our consistency and purposeful displays of affection are making progress in how they are growing up.

Halloween was close to a perfect evening because of how well it went from the beginning all the way the sugar-induced jittery end. I can't wait to share the stories...