On Tuesdays in the summer Issaquah hosts concerts in the park. The
kids bring their sleds or cardboard boxes and slide down the hill
during the concert. There were about 5 of Monti's friends at the
concert. She had no time to slide because she was too busy catching
up on 1st grade gossip. "Sliding down the hill is so 2007."
Dahlia called me over to help her figure out the Sudoku puzzle on the
iMac. She is usually pretty good with the simple small board but this
one was giving her problems. I am not very familiar with the game so I
spent a while looking at this board just feeling stupid. The picture
shows the set numbers in the puzzle. Where did the 2 or the 9 come
from? This is just wrong, isn't it?
The house next door sold while we were gone. We were glad to see it sell relatively quickly for the current real estate market. I think it was on the market for under 3 months. Today our new neighbors moved in. They are from Denmark. They have 2 girls age 10 and 13 (according to Monti). I look forward to meeting them.
Right next to Hair Masters was a Games Workshop. It is one of those stores filled with teenage boys playing games with little miniature figures. We stopped in to just check things out. They sucked us in and had the girls painting figures from the Lord of the Rings within 15 minutes. The guy helping Monti paint her elf was incredibly patient and helpful. I talked to some of the young boys who told me they usually spend 5 hours at a time at the shop. A twelve year old boy explained to me that “the demon I was looking at was from a dimension of thought rather than a dimension of material”.
We had Monti's hair cut after getting back home from Florida. She seems
to really like it. She told me last night that " she looks like a
regular girl with it". I'm not sure how she pictured herself before.
The only problem is she wants me to blow dry it straight everyday.
Dahlia was reminded of her dog walks with Grandpa in Elmhurst. Of
course she heads right to the Dalmatian. She must miss Lesa's dog
Glacier.
Before heading to the airport we stopped by Downtown Disney. The store
is just filled with eye candy for little eyes. The girls were very
good not to beg for anything. The Bibbidi-Bobbodi Boutique is a beauty
salon that transforms girls into princesses for $190. The price
includes nails, hair, makeup, and full costume. The "Cool Dudes"
package for boys includes colored gel and confetti for only $7.50.
Before taking off for Seattle from Denver (our first stop) the girl's
reviewed the rules of flight. Dahlia is always disturbed by the water
landing pictures. Monti felt the need to notify the flight attendant
that Dahlia just had a birthday. Monti completely loves that kind of
attention but when the flight attendant made an announcement regarding
D's birthday Dahlia wouldn't even raise her hand to be recognized.
Monti had to raise it for her. I'm sure she was disgusted at Dahlia
for messing up a perfect opportunity to get lots of attention. We made
it to Seattle fine that night but Joe ended up stuck in Dallas for the
night. Luckily Joe had given me the keys to his car so I could make it
home from the airport easily. The girls are really great travelers.
The three of us slept almost the entire plane ride to Seattle.
The kids asked if they could take a rose from the large bouquet of
flowers. After they took their flowers Monti started to pass out
flowers to everyone there at the cemetery. Jack preferred the little
orange flag used to mark underground lines over any of those pretty
flowers.
They buried GG with a trailer full of Tennessee red dirt under a big pine tree next to her husband John. I just loved the look of that red dirt. I found that many singers have referenced that same red dirt found throughout Tennessee and Alabama in their songs including Emmy Lou Harris in “Red Dirt Girl.” Here’s another one I came across: