More camping...

Our little goth girl, Vivian...


And now for Sabine's next act...


Sabine and mama entertain the masses.


Daddy and his girls in the pool on Sunday afternoon. Clean at last!

Sabine's Writing

I was checking email the other day, and Vivian and Sabine were watching PBS (or so I thought...) in the room behind me. Sabine says to me, "Mom, what are some short words I know?". I turned around and Sabine was working with a permanent marker on a piece of paper and had written TV, DVD and CD. I said, "AND is short," to which she said (and wrote), "No, ZOO". She then asked me how to spell DAD and MOM. She asked for more short words, but I must not have come up with any she liked, because she said, "I'm done with this" and went back to PBS.

Weekly War Protest

So there was an article in the Wednesday paper saying that there was going to be a weekly war protest on the town square from 6:30-7 every Thursday night. The girls were a little pooped from a day of swimming, so I went alone and Bret stayed home with them.

Sabine and Birch helped decorate the sign I made. I rode my bike to the town square with the sign in the adapted "Burley" bike carrier. As I was riding to the square I heard the sounds of the Town Square Shoot Out ("a lively reenactment of frontier justice on the Jackson Town Square, in what is the longest, continuously running shootout in the country!" Oh my.).

I arrived at the southwest corner of the square (in front of the new elk antler arch) just before 6:30 and saw...no protesters, but LOTS of tourists...hmmm...Feeling rather conspicuous with my big sign (it's roughly 3'x3' and mounted on cardboard), ARMY T-Shirt (go brother Timon) and "Bush Lied Troops Died" pin (thanks, Granny Jean), I was pleased to see my friend Jim (who happens to be a Vietnam Vet). He wasn't there for the protest -- he just comes to the town square to people watch during the summer, but he was kind enough to hang out with me until another protester arrived. Gotta love these small towns -- it was Estella, who I used to work with at the Ski Corp (now JH Mountain Resort). She and I were standing by the elk antler arch chatting about the war and her grand kids, when another woman, Melanie, showed up. The next to show up was Tat, the organizer (who had been doing some cooking with her kids and lost track of time!). So the 4 of us stood, talked, and...protested.

We got a thank you from a Navy doctor and his father -- the doctor had just returned from deployment in Okinawa -- where he was not eligible to go to Iraq, but felt that he would probably be going to Iraq in a year or so. We wished him safety.

We also got lots of looks from tourists...like how dare we remind them of such...ugliness...when they were trying to enjoy their vacations. Sorry to be the buzz kill...but over 3,000 US soldiers will never have another vacation (not to mention the anguish their families suffer) and the thousands upon thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths and displacements. Yeah, I guess that would be a bummer to realize on your vacation.

BTW, I am a librarian, so I have to give credit for my sign idea, as well as my statistics. I found the Pro-Life idea (and many other good ones) here (it originally said "And you thought he was pro-life!" but I didn't have enough room for that...I now realize it might have been confusing to some, like I was saying I was Pro-Life, but oh well...it got people's attention). My stats for casualties came from here (US) and here (Iraqi).

A snack for Sabine

I remember Diana talking at LIFE is Good about getting a request from Hayden late one night for a PB & J sandwich. I don't remember all of the story, but I think it had been a tough day, and she had to make a conscious decision to make the snack with love, not resentment. She said something like, "...no one wants to eat a PB & J that was made by a resentful, angry person..." and likened it to having your food spit in... (ewwwww!).

So last night (it wasn't even late, but it had been a long day) Sabine asks for a snack, "...with a piece of gum, either wrapped or unwrapped, in the center." I'd been running around and was looking forward to just sitting down for a few minutes...breathe...I go downstairs, and unwrap a piece of gum and put it in the center of a plate...then look for things to go with it. Ended up with raspberries (her current favorite fruit), edamame, and multi-colored goldfish. It took all of 2 minutes (if that).

I take it upstairs to her, she looks at it and her face just LIGHTS UP! "Thank you, Mommy!" she says...Ahhhh....LIFE is Good.

Best buddies

Sabine and Birch.

Two of the many faces of Vivian

Not much to say about these...just pretty darn cute!

I LOVE my morning latte...

...in fact I look forward to it every night when I go to bed! And I love my new Browser mug -- the early bird cracks me up. Makes me less cranky when woken up at the crack of dawn by a sweet little monkey.

Clouds in the morning...

...for the first time in a while. It's been HOT (for here) for a few weeks, so the sky this morning is a welcome sight. This is the view outside our upstairs North facing window, taken around 7:30.

More Sabine activities

Mary Mary quite contrary...


How does your MAGIC GARDEN grow? (I love $1 finds at Browse N Buy -- even if the tray was missing from this crystal garden, it gave us well over $1 in entertainment!)


Sabine tells a story with felt pieces.

More 'Stream, Boopy and Granny's visit

Like the door of the Jimmy? Our neighbor accidently whacked into it backing out of his driveway. It sort of adds to the charm of pulling a 1972 trailer.


Vivian was putting hats on everyone...


...including Boopy.


Granny Jean and Vivian share a book.

Sabine's summer crafts

These are colored "hail" Sabine made with Daddy.


What happens to the hail in an hour or so...


Sabine had been dressed up in her Clifford the Big Red Dog costume and decided she wanted to make her own Clifford. Straight pins are holding it together.


This started as wet paper/dry chalk (wet the paper in the bucket then draw on it with chalk) but ended up as wet chalk/dry paper.

The new 'Stream, and its Maiden Voyage to Grand Teton National Park

Here's the "new" Airstream -- a 1972 21' Globe Trotter! It needs a name...suggestions, anyone?


Carolyn checking out the pancake mix, with Sabine and friend Kate helping.


Bret holding Vivian and Sabine playing in the water.


How the 'Stream looks at night (in our neighbor's driveway -- while Carolyn's parents were here in their RV in the Winkler driveway).