Chocolate Castles as wel

We just returned from Flagstaff where we spend several days with some of our kids and grandkids. They invited us along to join in the fun of Fall Break. We aren’t sure if they invited us so we would possibly bring a Handicap Parking sticker with us so that they could park close to all the places they intended to visit, or if they really desired us to be a part of making new memories. When we showed up and reminded them that we did not have a Handicap Parking tag, they let us know that we did indeed need to get one before next years trip, as we were getting old and would be needing one. They are just so caring and thoughtful.

We checked into our room and took a quick little nap, knowing that we would need the extra energy for going to Bearzonia the next morning. That first evening, we enjoyed going to eat at a local eatery, where we enjoyed a meal with the kids, before heading back to their room. Thinking that this would be such a fun night of sitting and playing cards as a family, we were quickly brought back to reality of looking around the room, seeing the kids, each in their own corners with iPads, iPhones or books, when our daughter begins to tell the kids, “get over here and put away the devices. We are going to play cards with Nana and Pawpaw. We don’t know how long they will live and this might be the last time you get to enjoy a vacation with them before they have to go to a nursing home.”

We felt so loved. But play cards we did. I like to think that I’m still pretty alert and have most of my mind, but when the score was added up at the end of the evening, we all just looked at each other after the scores were read aloud. Our 8 year old grandson, Caleb, had beat all of us playing 5 Crown. Now, feeling not only old and defeated, we left to go back to our room. Randy and I talked that evening about Caleb winning. That was his first time to play the game. We play it all the time. What had happened? Maybe we weren’t as alert and smart as we like to think.

Both Randy and I told each other that the next day at Bearzonia, we would show them just how spiffy we still are. We will NOT complain about being tired or how much our feet hurt after walking around for hours. We would not fall behind walking through the petting zoo. We would not complain of heat or cold. We would be the perfect Bearzonia companions. All those resolutions disappeared after about 4 hours. I never made it through the petting zoo. I told them to just take pictures of them petting all those little darling lambs so we could look at them, as i was soaking my feet later that night. After having an owl soar so close to my head that my hair-sprayed stiff hair stuck to one of his wings at the birds of prey show, Randy and I decided that we would just sit at the front gate and snack on the $6 mini bag of popcorn while the rest of the family went off to find the jaguar to take a picture.

As I am sitting here posting about our trip, the news is on. One of the news stories is about a man that was shot and killed in the Walmart parking lot in Flagstaff. We were just there on Wednesday. We had taken Noah to let him pick out some Halloween things to keep him busy while the others were experiencing Flagstaff Extreme Adventure, aka, zip lining and obstacle courses. Do we know how to entertain kids or what?
Looking back over the week, we came home after having made some really good memories. We loved our evening of just sitting with all of us laughing so hard at Family Feud. Watching Caleb beat all of us at cards, was a great reminder of how smart this new generation is and that still, the best times are spent with family. We just hope that we have a few years left to remember all the new memories before we loose our mind. Think we will be getting a handicap permit, if I can remember to apply for one. Maybe that will assure us an invitation to tag along next year.