All Things Anne

Early in the morning, the boys went golfing. Ben was his own caddy, Eric caddied for Paul (the golfing expert in the family), John took his own too, and Joe was photographer.

Ben on the left, Eric with Paul’s bag in the middle, and Paul on the right

Ben, with the club he used through the whole thing. An exercise on how not to play golf is as follows:

Stay stiff
Swing like you are playing baseball.

Dance!
Paul’s feet. Note the dirt from a scuff? That’s where Ben whacked.

And then, Paul, showing us how to do it the right way!

Beautiful form
No dancing!
Joe’s self-portrait

Later that day, we went to Grammoo’s and Papa’s, after the boys got home. It was Papa’s birthday, so we had a cake for him, and he opened his presents. Uncle David, Aunt Fran, and Cody came, too.

Joe pogo’ing, Ben in black watching, Jay’s the short one, also watching
Cody, testing out his pogo stick skills…Joe and Ben watching

Papa with the shirt Uncle David’s family gave him, and the chocolates we gave him

On Tuesday we hung out at Grammoo and Papa’s, then in the late afternoon, we went to the Manor, picked up John Wayne, and went to Panda Buffet (Grammoo and Papa followed us). John Wayne was so funny; on Sunday he said us girls would have to wear elastic-waisted skirts, because he expected us to eat a lot! He said we all had to have at least three plates, to get his money’s worth.

On the way there, we saw some cool cars…

I like that blue one best
The black one is cool
I like this black one next though

…and welcome to Portland and all its traffic! Ew. ‘Busy’ on our road is more than four non-neighbor cars in a day! Rush hour is like 20 cars in a line. This was just awful! Stop and go lights on the freeway? Bizarre! Ok, so we sound like country hicks. Really, guys, there IS a life outside the city! (Not to mention, the air is better and there’s less strange people! But then again, strange people are interesting to observe!)

John Wayne is also a follower of Jesus Christ, which was pleasant to find out!
He was very interesting. One of his plates was a plate of fried shrimp. He ate the shrimp and left the bready stuff; he said the bready stuff filled him up too much and the shrimp was the expensive part! At one point, after we’d all finished and were stuffed, the cooks brought in a new dish, and he insisted we all had to try it, and it had to be all gone or the cooks would be upset! So we had some, and it WAS good! (What’s the superlative of “stuffed”? Whatever it was, we were it!) Then we took some pictures!

All of us, John Wayne, and Papa
John Wayne (on the left) and Dad

Grammoo, Papa, and John Wayne

Monday afternoon around 1, we went to Uncle David’s. We were there for a while, then Grammoo and Papa came, and Steven’s girlfriend Samantha, and we all went to a restaurant for lunch, where we met some friends of ours that we hadn’t seen since the September trip a couple years ago. It was yummy!

Grammoo
Steven and his girlfriend Samantha, who was not on drugs. Promise!

Then we went back to Uncle David’s. The boys played on the pogo stick for a bit.

Joe
Steven

Uncle David, Dad, and Papa. See any family resemblance?

Uncle David
Dad

Papa

¿Yo quiero Taco Bell?

Gizmo, one of Uncle David’s chihuahuas
Dobby, the other of Uncle David’s chihuahua’s, Dad and I liked this one better.

Steven’s friend Alex, a Kempo expert, came over and the boys wrestled with him. He beat Steven, Uncle David, and Joe, and drawed with Eric. Ben didn’t wrestle, but he arm-wrestled and won. Alex wasn’t very big, but he sure was flexible! He moved like a cat and had legs like snakes. While Alex was there we had really yummy dessert (chocolate lava cupcakes and strawberries over pound cake and angelfood cake), then he left and the boys wrestled with Steven.

Alex (in black) and Joe
Steven (left) and Joe

Steven and Joe again…
Joe liked this one…Steven kicked and Joe grabbed his foot!

Then we went to Grandpa’s and went to bed. And that was the end of the fourth day.

Sunday morning, we went to Grandpa’s church. There was a man with an upright bass, and he let me try that; it was cool! Then in the afternoon, went to the Manor, which is a retirement home. It was a very nice place! We gave a concert there, and it was a lot better than the one the previous day! We didn’t use ear monitors, too. Someone at Grandpa’s church had printed papers with little bios about each of us on it, and there were leftovers, so we handed them out to the folks at the Manor. There was this one Chinese man, and I watched him a little; he sat there with the biography paper and memorized all our names! So afterwards, he came up to Dad and shook his hand and called him by name, and the boys! His name was Wen Han, but “Wen” sounds more like “Wayne” with his accent, and he was calling himself John Wayne! He was a funny old guy, and he invited us to go out to Panda Buffet with him on Tuesday!

Unfortunately, we didn’t get any performing pictures from the Manor, but here are a few other ones!

A bunch of us toured the Manor with Mrs. Ethel (the elderly lady on the far left…she’s 92, believe it or not!), and one of the boys took a picture of us on the bridge
Another bridge shot

If you wanted to know what the backs of the outfits look like, I’m on the left, and Mom in her modified one is on the right. Hers was a modified men’s vest pattern.

Then we went back to Grandpa’s. It was Paul’s 17th birthday, so we had lemon meringue pie for his cake, and we had dinner, then went to bed!

Paul and his pie…no, he didn’t turn 1!