On the eve of our 39th Wedding Anniversary here in the Admiral with my man we are taking off to Anacortes Washington for 4 days.
The trees here are ablaze with color chroma enhanced by the approaching dusk.
We took off from our Monroe home at around 1:30 PM and did some last minute fill ups of gasoline (not the drinking kind) and propane for the rig.
This has been a crazy year with Covid 19 hitting. February brought lockdowns and mask mandates and a lot of home time with all the kids being paranoid if we got Covid, we would die. We complied...mostly. Dog walks happened, outdoor time happened, and our friends were very careful.
October we went to Blaine, WA to meet with some other musicians so Bob could Jam and I could just hang out. It was all friends over 60 who had been really careful. A young lady and family showed up (the third day of the jam she acknowledged that she was not feeling well) anyway, she ended up testing positive and gave the virus to most of the 18 musicians there. Bob and I and all our friends who were infected, suffered the flu without anyone being hospitalized for covid. Our experience was that it was a nasty flu but not the worst we have suffered, and that it had some odd symptoms. Bob lost taste and smell, and I did not. He had a cough and I did not, but a couple weeks and we did great. Food was an issue, we weren't hungry, but the kids help and encouragement went a long way. We feel great now.
Food must be an integral part of the family, today there was a long text message among the boys...sure keep the mom out of it. It was about eggs in the hole, and then turned to long discussions of what were familiar breakfasts among them, especially when mom was gone or working.
Some famous offerings were,
Eggs in a hole
Oh Boy Waffles
Saturday French Toast or German Pancakes
And a lengthly discussion of white sauce and its many presentations with tuna, peas, rice, ground beef, sausage, etc. etc. The outcome of the repartee was that if peas were added it was a dinner dish.
Family discussions are always fun and funny. It is remarkable what makes an impression in a kids mind. The Mr. Pancake Song is a good example. Ask Jett!
Tonight as a special treat for my love I made Masamum Curry and Jasmine rice with homemade molasses ginger cookies for dessert. It was so good, unfortunately Bob still can't taste or smell. It filled him up at least.
We are planning a ride on our ebikes in a little while since the sun is out and the winds that are supposed to be approaching from the North with gale force are not here yet. We are all cozy in the admiral for the duration.
Phebe is such a good traveler now. She loves the interactions with other RV guests and their dogs. She even runs well along side the ebike on her leash. She has learned not to pull or run for something on the side and tip me over. Good Phebe! Some things you have to do by yourself. This year because of Covid we had pickle day beetween the two of us alone. We did 52 quarts of dill pickles. This tells you who did the lions share (I just cleaned cukes and stuffed jars)
Our oldest son Timothy has been going through some great changes and accomplishments in spite to all situations in the country. This guy has the greatest work ethic and loves fishing and the outdoors which he shares with his nephews and neices. Their families got one girl off to college in person and online. She found and a career and the folks bought and remodeled a whole condo for her. One daughter returned home to live from the big apple and is working, and the youngest daughter is learning to do online school and juggle all her friendships in the middle of a pandemic. She is a planner extroardinary and planned for a whole year for her big 13! Wow, what an event.
Joel and Catie and the five little Hekkers are doing so well. It helps to have Momma Catie be one of the best teachers around. Four boys and a girl, along with some of the neighborhood kids are doing school. She did the coolest thing for the elections, the kids took their stuffed animals and wrote a 'platform' and had a campaign for them to be president. The put up at poll and elected one of the animals. I tried to rig the campaign so it would look real, like the Democrats did. When we visit it like going to see their school. Full play area in the backyard complete with soccer goals, slack line, and trampoline.
Judah married Teresa in a private alopement. It was lovely. They had their wedding scheduled for early summer and Covid messed everything up. They finally decided that being married was the most important thing and had a parents and children only invited wedding. Just two friends for witnesses stood for them. We will have a big celebration when things are all opened up again. Their kids were the ring bearer and flower girl.
Zach has been working hard on his career. His wife Stephanie also works at home with him on hers. They juggle covid, parenthood, schooling, Their daughter is learning in the best way she can, with the circumstances. She is so smart and fun and active and is excited for her new sister to come.
Our daughter-in-laws are the best. They are a spark to the guys, and a balance. Each of them have great abilities at planning and working with the dynamics of family. The men love adventure and play and hard, hard, work to make those things happen. They are all so smart and really like eachother. They speak to eachother more than the guys I think. Style, child rearing, the world and politics are all topics they work through being open with their ideas and ideals.
Now for football....what a year. We were planning to go back east to Johnny's away games, and Covid hit. We thought it would be gone by season, so in May we ordered our new Jerseys.
They showed up yesterday. We are still excited but there have been so many occasions we wanted to wear them. Today it was funny, we both got dressed for the trip and ended up each wearing our St. Louis Rams Gateway to Victory t-shirts from 2012.. It has been the most amazing ride. Johnny has been in the league a long time and is starting his 9th season. He has been doing well and has many accolades and records. One came last week with NFL NFC Special Teams player of the Week, and then for the Month of October. He made the 2010-2020 NFL All Decade team as the NFC Punter. They choose one player for each position on each of the Conferences, AFC and NFC. That makes 52 players chosen out of the 32 teams of the NFL. Aaron Donald and Johnny Hekker were two players chosen for the Rams.
He has a beautiful wife and just added the second child to his quiver. They live in two states and have two distinct lifestyles going in-season and out-of-season. It is a lot to shuffle.
I will not belabor family dynamics any more other than to say I am so excited for each year we make it through!
