Where's Jackson?

We have this picture of Jackson on the desktop of our laptop computer & Emily loves to talk to him and the other pictures on the slideshow. She recognizes most of the pictures of him,

but only sees herself as "baby." Today when we were at Wal-Mart we went by the ATM machine with the big computer screen. Emily looked at it, frowned and said, "Oh no! Where's Jackson?"

She was relieved to get home and find him.

I Can Explore

Today Emily ventured off by herself and explored Nana Jo & Grampa's house. The first thing she discovered was the car seat from her Daddy's car that we brought home with us so they wouldn't have to take it with them to Dallas. She thought it was strange to have a car seat in her bedroom.
I didn't know she could open the dresser drawers in her room until she came walking out with the Santa hat. She wore it for a long time and even helped do the laundry while wearing it.

Fun with "Nano-Papa"

We brought Emily home with us from Lubbock yesterday, and will have her until her Mama and Daddy come back from Dallas on August 9. She is a good traveler (although she doesn't sleep much) and has fun playing with "Nano-Papa." Even though she calls her Grampa "papa" right now and calls me "Nano" (for Nana Jo), most of the time we are a single entity: Nano-Papa.

She came loaded with toys, but really enjoys watching our laptop computer with the "babies" slideshow. She has managed to say "Jackson" and doesn't call him a baby anymore.

We came home with a bushel of black-eyed peas to shell and can, so Grampa shelled on the deck while Emily and Nana Jo splashed in the fishy pool.

Then Emily "helped" shell peas.

Here she is learning to walk downhill on the deck ramp as she was finding the birdies. She must be a movie buff like her Mama and Daddy because she kept saying, "Bye Bye, Birdie." (For the younguns, that was a 60's movie with Elvis.)

The Road to Scrabble Healing

Mother, Gail, and I played online Scrabble, sometimes making several plays in one day; we also played on the traditional board whenever we were together in Lubbock. After Mother died, I could not play Scrabble again even though I had several friends who still play online. Today Gail and I decided we could play using Mother's Scrabble set, especially since it was at my house and not quite the same as online or at Mother's kitchen table. We had a good time and decided we could probably try the online version again soon. It was nice for us to realize that things would get easier for us as time goes by. Here we are playing Scrabble--aren't we having fun? By the way, I won big time, but we did mention that Mother would have said, "That's ok. Gail just doesn't get to play as much as you do."

Old Family Pictures

Gail planned her vacation to come to Capitan so she and I could make scrapbooks of some of the old Kelly/Hawkins pictures that Mother kept. Unfortunately, Gail got shingles and was not feeling well at all, but we still managed to scrapbook for 2 days. She picked out pictures, trimmed captions, and things she could do with her leg propped up on a cushion while I scanned and printed pictures and compiled the actual scrapbook which she is taking home tomorrow. I saved the pictures and will make myself one later. All in all, it was a fun stroll down memory lane. Here is just a sampling of some of the pictures:

The Kelly family: front--Grandpa, Otis, Grandma, Lonnie

back--Mother (probably 17 yrs. old), Jack, Vivienne with Sherrill, Nona

Mother & Daddy's wedding picture

Mother with JoBeth, Gail, and Vince.

The Last Lecture

This summer when I was at my AP (Advanced Placement) class in Albuquerque, I picked up this book and really enjoyed it, especially knowing that it was a true story. If you haven't read it, I recommend it, so here is a quick little synopsis:

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."—Randy Pausch
A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?
When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave—"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"—wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have…and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

Note: Professor Pausch died today at age 47, leaving his wife and 3 young children.

Interactive Mall Floor

Last night we all met Jo's brother Vince and his wife Jan and son Grant for dinner at Papasito's Mexican Restaurant. Since Michael works until 7 pm, and because the restaurant was crowded, it was late before we ate and got back home. Jackson was a real trooper and did great. He is just like our girls were when they were little, however--went to bed late, so woke up early. We decided to go to another mall to walk, play, and get ready for a good afternoon nap.

Jackson's idea of walking around the mall is to push his own stroller. He especially likes to do wheelies (learned from his daddy, of course).

This mall had a little section of interactive floor that Jackson discovered. Here he is

trying to kick a soccer ball.

After playing in the play area of the mall, Jackson said he needed lunch, so we headed to Steak and Shake (Cindy F. swears by this place). It was ok, but I think we are missing those childhood memories that make Cindy love the place. Jackson, however, did love the strawberry shake (and the grapes and the apples and the french fries)

Water Balloons in the Pool

After playing at the park, Jackson cooled off in his froggy pool, complete with

Nana Jo and water balloons!

You have to know that Nana Jo is extremely nervous of balloons, so this tells you

what lengths she will go to for a grandchild!

She will fill them, but she won't throw them (good thing because Jackson covers his face if he thinks one is going to be tossed to him)
Here is a video of the fun in the pool. Watch (and listen to) what happens when Grampa decides to throw a balloon at Nana Jo.

Wednesday Morning at the Park

Today we decided to walk down the street to the neighborhood park. Jackson took his bike with him (but didn't want to ride it, of course).

He had fun sliding and running across all the bridges.

"I see you, Nana Jo."Even though it rained a little yesterday afternoon, it was still very warm, so Jackson had a juice break and we had a shade tree break.Jackson saw several squirrels as we walked home. He almost caught up with this one until it found a nearby bush to jump into. I think the squirrel thought his time was up!

What a First Day with Jackson!

Meaghan left for camp this morning at 7:00, Michael went to work, and Grampa and Nana Jo stayed home with Jackson.

8:45 a.m. Jackson--1; Grampa--0

Nana Jo and Jackson playing trains. They had lots of track left over...hmmm

Jackson: "I can hear you, Grampa."

"I can smell you, Grampa."

Jackson is so full of energy. In the following video, Grampa sees if Jackson can be still until he counts to 5 and then wiggle! He just can't quite make it until Jackson decides to skip all the other numbers and just get right to 5!

My Birthday Surprise!

We flew to Dallas this afternoon to spend the week with Jackson. After they picked us up from the airport we went to eat dinner, and when Jackson got out of his car seat I noticed his "new shirt." Look at it closely in this picture I took in his bedroom:

Yep, on or around February 11 Jackson will be a big brother. Yea!!! Jackson has already talked our ears off, so we'll keep you posted on the rest of this week (if we have any energy left at the end of the day!)

Stay Tuned...More to Come

No pictures today...just wanted to tell our viewers to stay tuned because tomorrow we fly to Dallas to spend the week with Jackson while Meaghan takes special needs kids to camp for the week. We will definitely have some cute pictures to post while we are there.

Then Jo's sister Gail will be at our house all week following that, so there might possibly be some pictures then too (although we adults are not nearly so photogenic as our grandkids).

After she goes home the following Saturday we go to Lubbock for a Central Baptist Church reunion on the 26th and will return on Sunday the 27th with Emily for 2 weeks, so more cute pictures will come from that.

See y'all back here soon.

Culinary Experiences on July 4th

Today was our last day in the area, but we did some really special things. Sunday when we strolled through Napa, we took a quick look through the Copia Center begun by Robert Mondavi as a tribute to the culinary inspirations of the Napa Valley. While we were there we bought tickets for their Friday culinary demonstration lunch which they have every Friday. It was an incredible experience and wasn't just the tasting we expected--we had a complete 3-course meal that was morer than we could have anticipated. Here are a few pictures:

Ed and Mamaw check out the menus which also included the complete recipes: Roasted Corn Soup with Pesto, Spice Rubbed Kobe Beef Tri-Tip with Guacamole Vinaigrette, Copia Garden Vegetables and Butterscotch Calypso Beans, and Ginger Mascarpone Icebox Cake,

all paired with an appropriate wine.

The chef gave a demonstraton of how to cook all the dishes as we ate them. The food we ate was actually prepared at Julia's Restaurant (the only one in the world that she allowed

her name to be associated with).

This is the wine expert who explained the individual wines to us before each course.

Even though this luncheon was very elegant, there was a casual atmosphere so that people could ask questions. After the luncheon, Ed went to the chef's counter to ask her a question about the cut of meat, so here they are conferring.

Since our luncheon did not begin until 1:00, we spent the morning driving around Napa to see some of the sights we hadn't stopped at before. As we were driving to St. Helena (north of Napa) we passed an interesting-looking building which turned out to be The Culinary Institute of America so we went inside. It was so interesting. The building was actually the original sight of Christian Brothers Winery.

We knew this would be a fun place to look around when we walked in and saw this vintage stove at the entrance to the "campus store." Students actually live on the 3rd floor of the building and take classes and work in the Culinary Institute's 3-year program.

This is the demonstration lab. Across from the counter is tiered seating for all the aspiring chefs and guests. Below is a picture of Ed behind the counter at his "dream grill."

We also stopped off at the Beringer Winery for a quick wine tasting. They were setting up on the promenade for a hot dog cookout for the 4th of July holiday.

"Old Faithful" and a Castle

Yesterday we went to San Francisco, primarily to have clam chowder and sourdough bread. It was very cloudy, cold, and windy, but we looked around awhile and Mamaw and I bought some spiral earrings that were patented by the designer I discovered when I was here about 15 years ago. When it started to get really crowded, we headed back over to Oakland to our hotel.

Today we headed back up to the Russian River area and then back down through Sonoma again but stopped in different towns. In Calistoga we discovered a geyser that is one of only 3 in the world designated as "Old Faithful" because it erupts on a regular time schedule. We arrived there about 2 minutes before it erupted so felt very fortunate. It went about 60 ft. in the air and lasted for almost 5 minutes...very impressive. Here's a couple of pictures:

There were also goats here, so I took a few pictures of them just for Cindy.

As we were leaving Calistoga we saw what looked like a castle up on the hillside, so Ed turned around to check it out. It was a winery in a really cool-looking old castle. We did the wine tasting, and it was some of the best wine we had ever tasted--totally smooth with absolutely no bitter or sharp tastes at all. Being a small winery, they only sell from the winery or on-line, no retail outlets. Here are a few "castle" pictures, some of which I plan to use when I teach Macbeth and Hamlet just to show the kids what the different parts of a castle look like.

The castle even had a moat that we crossed.

After we left Calistoga we went to St. Helena which is the town where the wine train turned around the other night during our dinner trip. It was a really cute little town and the sight of the original Taylor's Automatic Refresher Diner, so we stopped by there for lunch. It was 3:00 and the line was all the way out to the street. The diner was surrounded by picnic areas under trees, so it was a very pleasant place to stop. The following picture is of Mamaw waiting at a table while we stood in line to order. She never had any trouble finding someone to talk to--it only took her about 30 seconds to be in the middle of a conversation with someone!Everywhere was getting really crowded with tourists pouring in for July 4th tomorrow, so we finally headed back to the bay area--took forever! As we got nearer to San Francisco/Oakland, we were glad we were going south because all those folks heading north out of the cities were really backed up--looked like a 3-lane parking lot most of the time. Lots of the cars were stacked up with cooler,bicycles, etc., ready for a weekend of "leisure."

1000 Ft. High in a Wicker Basket!!

Today we took our hot air balloon ride, and was it ever incredible! Napa Valley was fogged in, so they transported us to the next valley which was primarily agricultural (rather than just grapes), and it was a perfect sunny day for flying around in a wicker basket. I've included a few still pictures, followed by some videos you don't want to miss. Bon voyage!

Ed and Mamaw check out the balloon inflating before our ride.

Our pilot keeps the balloon inflated as we all board. There were 12 of us on this particular flight, but I couldn't take any person shots of us since we were too close to one another. They did take professional shots of us before we took off, so we have copies of those that I can scan in

and post once we get home.

There were several balloons in the area this morning, but, of course, ours was the best!

Here we are flying over Allendale, low enough to see things, but we cruised a lot of the time at 1,000 feet. It was amazing that we never really felt movement. If the wind changed, we felt a little breeze, but only until the balloon's speed became matched to the windspeed.

Look closely and you will see the reflection of our balloon in this irrigation canal. I wasn't sure I got it, but I did. Our pilot said this was a Kodak moment, except for the Japanese tourists and fo them it was a Fiji moment.

Here are a few videos and then there are still shots of the balloon landing.This 1st video is just as we took off and I wasn't too sure what I was doing, but if you'll keep watching, you'll see in the balloon and the flame

This video will give you a good feel of flying gently over the valley.

The next video is us just skimming over a walnut grove. We could actually see the individual leaves and green walnuts. Now you know just what a bird would see.

As we went down, the pilot opened the top of the balloon to let some of the hot air out.

Our pilot kept in constant contact with the chase crew which you see here collapsing the balloon envelope as soon as we landed. Landing was easy--just a hop or two and we were there.Mamaw is disembarking (or getting disembarked) and thoroughly enjoyed her flight.Back on terra firma. From here we went back to Napa for a warm brunch with champagne which is a tradition in ballooning. After that we headed into the Russian River Valley for a day of sightseeing, including a tour of the Korbel Champagne Winery. Today it's across the bay to San Francisco.