last day of vacation (saturday, august 21)

in an attempt to recover from depression over our early morning goodbyes, we picked up jordan, and drove back into sacramento one last time, to do something I’ve been wanting to do for YEARS! in connection with the california state railroad museum, which we visited on tuesday, you can take a short, scenic train ride, pulled by a working steam locomotive!

supposedly…

so I tried not to make too big of a stink, and enjoyed the fact that it was still a train ride, even if it was pulled by a diesel. anyone want to see the governator? there’s the capitol!yes, that is a real conductor, punching my ticket!

the replacement locomotive:when you get to the ‘end of the line’ in baths, the engine unhooks, switches tracks, pulls past the waiting train, switches tracks again, and then couples to the other end of the train to pull it back to the station.

and I had to take a picture of the really ugly gold bridge that is a landmark in sacramento. seriously. it’s metallic!

this was our train:after the train ride, we stopped through the old schoolhouse to explore.shane, jordan and layla, doing some writing on slates.dave, attempting to get suspended…shane, ringing the school bell: and then there’s the “rules for teachers”. this is a hoot!

after that, it was laundry, packing, one last swim, one last in-n-out burger,and then hitting the road. we drove all night again, and got home around 10:30 the next morning. it was a long trip, but totally worth it! we miss everyone so much.

thanks, gramma and papa, for putting up with all of us and helping us have such a great time! so many great memories! we love you and can’t wait to see you again!

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project life–week 3

nothing too exciting here: and yes, that is a picture of project life! I find myself taking pictures of things I would have found very weird a few months ago, but when you have the ‘daily life’ thing in mind, and stuff your grandchildren might enjoy seeing, it puts a different perspective on things. the latter half of the week: I LOVE wednesday’s picture… layla walking home from the bus. we do this EVERY day, and this is what it looks like now. I’ll have to remember to take one in the spring, and again next fall. I also have one of the pull-out double size journaling cards, which I used to tell the story of layla’s new bedding, which used to be mine. and that’s week 3.

tag!

so this is mostly aimed at mary, but anyone can feel free to participate because i think it's kinda funny. i got 'tagged' by innocently reading a friend's blog, so now i feel compelled to comply. Find the closest 123-page or longer book to you and turn to page 123. (No cheating!) Find the first five sentences, then post the next three sentences. okay, so the closest book would be the soundtransit 'ready to ride transit guide', but i'll spare you that... what's next... from 'child honoring: how to turn this world around', raffi cavoukian, sharna olfman; editors: to illustrate this, here is one afrikan story. once upon a time there was an old man who wanted to have a monopoly of knowledge. he collected all the valuable knowledge, skills, and wisdom in the village, put them in a calabash (gourd), and tightly corked it. well, that was a bit random, but i think that's the point. have fun!

and today i...

...found two cereal containers (tupperware knock-off type) and their lids which have been floating around the garage for a year now. i brought them in and they are currently in the dishwasher so we can actually use them for our endless supply of life and cheerios. 2 more things out of the garage... (or 4 if you want to count the lids!) woo hoo!

vacation–day 6 (saturday, august 14)

saturday afternoon, we were invaded by LOTS of dapelos! uncle bear, mimi and lots of ‘kids’ showed up for a yummy bbq, some swimming, and street baseball. but first some of the kids had to pose in their ‘matchie’ shirts that gramma and papa brought back from australia. being ‘matchie’ was a VERY big deal. uncle david got to practice his very favorite hobby: sleeping with babies. we ate wonderful food outside in the ‘new’ backyard. everyone ate big marshmallows for dessert! (after the big kids made fools of themselves trying to throw them into each other’s mouths across the yard. and then there was more swimming… and then, the long-awaited street baseball! after some confusion about appropriately-sized plastic bats, the big kids and little kids hit whiffle balls all over the neighborhood! a lot of the balls didn’t survive, but all of ted’s sprinklers did!

2017–week 6

sunday: so it begins… that fun evening game where you’re keeping one eye out the window at the falling snow, and the other eye on your phone, bouncing back and forth between the forecast and the news source for school closures that may have been already announced. i may or may not have yelped in glee and thrown my phone in the air when i refreshed it for the millionth time and saw BELLEVUE listed as closed! no work for me! monday: most of these will go into a separate “snow day” insert in the book. school was cancelled for pretty much the entire western half of the state, so much fun was had, playing in the snow. i took a picture of shane taking a picture of his measurements of snow on the fence. lol. a “new and improved” way to do dog sledding… i think they’re both confused. layla seemed to think this was the best way to get micah across the ditch full of frigid water… somehow, he made it, and then they decided it would be a good idea to jump it. i’m pleased to report that no one...

rachel's continued ramblings

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