On the final night of Kalib and Jobe's final Memorial Day weekend visit with us, Jacob and Lavina came out to sleep at our house. On Memorial Day morning, we went to breakfast at Denali Family Restaurant. I fear that I am shifting my loyalties from the old Mat-Su Family Restaurant to Denali. It is the hash browns, that is why.
Hash browns have always been a gamble at Mat-Su. You just never know - they can come fried to a crisp, reduced to mush, or cooked just right. So far, they have been cooked just right at Denali every time - and it sure seems that they are fresh cut and not taken from a package. They are as good as any hash browns I have ever eaten, anywhere.
Denali Family Restaurant hash browns are superb!
Mat-Su Family has long been a place of morning refuge for me and I feel kind of bad about shifting over, but that's what excellent hash browns will do.
I will still go to Mat-Su, sometimes - if for no other reason than old times sake.
Later, in the early afternoon, Margie and Lavina went to the store to do some shopping. After awhile, I went out to see what the three boys were doing. Jimmy came with me. We found two of the three boys watching a butterfly pass overhead.
I am not certain what the other one was into.
Then Kalib turned on the faucet. He began to fling water around.
Soon, both boys were getting a bit wet and muddy. Jobe was most interested in the process.
;)
Kalib got the idea that it might be fun to spash his brother, so he did.
After taking the blast of cold water, Jobe turned and momentarily fled.
In just seconds, he fully recovered, and began to laugh. He laughed so hard he blew the snot right out his nose.
Dad joined in the fight, allying himself with Jobe.
Oh, it was a battle insane!
Jobe was most amused.
Kalib checks his ammo as Jobe strategizes.
Jacob knew that he had to get the boys dried off and cleaned up before Mom and Grandma came home.
Jobe didn't stay clean very long.
As all this had been going on, Jim had found a patch of dirt to roll around in. Only his face remained undusted.
Jim then trotted off into the woods. I cannot let him go there alone, so I followed.
So did the other three.
;)
Then the ladies came home. We guys mentioned nothing at all about the battle that had taken place. The ladies can find out when they read this blog. Jake will be in big trouble then.
The boys and their dad lay down to nap. I took off to ride my bike. I found a broken scooter on the Seldon Road bike trail, just lying there, abandoned.
I wondered what the story behind that was?
If I had the time, I would write a novel based on this mysterious scooter. It would be a best seller. I don't have the time. If you do, feel free to steal my idea - go ahead, write a novel based on this image.
When I reached the corner of Church and Schrock Roads, I was reminded that although Memorial Day was established at the end of the Civil War as a holiday to honor and mourn our military dead, it has also become a time that people take to honor all their dead, to bring flowers to graves and memorials.
This is not a grave, but is the place where where three people were killed in 1999 in a collision caused by a drunk driver - a woman, a teenaged girl and an unborn child.
For years afterward, loved ones kept memorial crosses atop this pile of stones, but vandals repeatedly tore down the memorials until the loved ones gave up and settled for just the pile of stones.
On Memorial Day, someone had brought these wreathes and placed them here.
Let us hope that respect and compassion can now replace ignorance and cruelty in the hearts of the vandals.
I stopped on the bridge over the Little Susistna River. These two came by as part of a carvan of four-wheelers.
I have crossed the bridge a number of times since I began biking again, but I had not gone down to the river itself. Today, I did - and symbolically put my front wheel in the water.
I do not know what this symbolizes, but it must symbolize something.
On the bank and in the shallows, people frolicked.
When I returned home, I found Margie and Lavina repairing the picnic table.
;)
Inside, I found the boys napping. I then went off to buy some iced drinks and to fill the tank with expensive gas. When I returned, the boys had not moved at all.
Lavina began the cooking by roasting bread on the barbecue.
If one studies all the faces in this picture and then gives some thought to it... it is just incredible to think about, to ponder the history, the sorrows, the changes, distances covered, the links from then until now.
Lavina kept the grill going.
And then we ate - but Kalib was napping and Caleb was sleeping in prep for his night shift.
And then, somewhere between nine and ten PM, it came time to say goodbye.
Margie and I had enjoyed the rapidly enlarging little ones for three days, but now they were going.
Caleb missed everything. He slept through breakfast. He slept through the water battle. He slept through dinner. But he awoke in time to say goodbye.
And then off they went, the people in the car and Muzzy running alongside, all the way back to Anchorage.
Well, I exaggerate a little. Muzzy would only run to the stop sign, about 200 yards away. Then he would trade places with Jacob and drive the family home while Jacob ran alongside the car - all the way to Anchorage.
Don't worry. It's okay that the dog drove. Muzzy has a license.
I then found Margie in the back yard, cleaning up.
"It's too quiet now," she said.