Second Tree Blog

It’s really too early to be pinning down a specific career track, but Alana has been showing potential in a variety of areas.

Soap Box Derby Racer

Baseball/Softball Player

Wrestler

Plumber

Elwyn headed to that great big rocky-bottomed river in the sky last night. He had been heading downhill for a while and just got to the point last night where his quality of life had hit the point of extreme on-going discomfort.

He had a good run for fourteen years and will be missed.

My parents just returned from their 5-week Alaskan odyssey.

They reported that, between the two of them, they saw 199 species of birds (they each saw 198, and each saw one that the other did not see). Apparently, there are “as many as 450 species of birds” in Alaska, which means they saw 44% of the species that inhabit the state.

I guess they’ll have to go back to finish the job.

The preliminary report of their trip did not include any data as to how many of these birds were new to their life list, but I’m sure that information will be provided in a subsequent report (or at least as a comment on this post).

In a lot of ways, we have three hams as kids.

There’s Obi-Wan Alana:

There’s Carson as The Hulk:

Racing down the Whites’ driveway on a John Deere (still photos really don’t do justice to the speed involved here):

And…Benton doing the same thing on a tiny tricycle (this photo just seconds before he had to put his feet down and drag them to keep from flying off the end of the driveway into the yard):

Julie commented 75% of the way through our trip to Austin that, despite the long days (all three kids were collapsing into bed at the end of each day), there were shockingly few full-blown meltdowns. More surprisingly, the kids all had extended bouts of cooperatively playing with each other.

One example is this picture of Carson…or is it Alana…or…it’s both!

They got into wrestling with blankets and pillowcases over their heads and had a ball:

They even cooperated in the hot tub!

And posed for a future Then and Now picture:

The kids had lots of kids to play with during our trip to Austin last week. Some were friends they remembered and explicitly looked forward to seeing, some were friends they remembered after they’d gotten to see them, and some…Alana might not necessarily have remembered, but whom she quickly settled in with happily.

Angela gave Alana a spin at Central Market:

Carson and Grace chatted about the progress on Uncle Ron’s new dental office:

Carson took charge — leading the way for Grace and Andrew through the office:

Carson, Alana, Grace, Benton, Andrew:

Grace tells Alana how to spell her name:

Benton, Ariston, and Carson at the pool:

Alana and Natalia at the pool:

Alana and Natalia show off the books they made:

I realize now that I left out a key detail in the story of Alana’s Build-A-Bear: the bear, although definitely a girl, is named “Charlie.” Alana has been on something of a Charlie kick, actually. Last month, when the Columbus Zoo conducted a contest to name their new baby elephant, Alana had Julie submit the name…”Charlie” (Beco — pronounced BEE-ko — won).

Neither one of us was clear on where the Charlie fascination was coming from. Benton, in hindsight, claims that we could have simply asked him, as he knew all along. It turns out that Charlie is one of Alana’s favorite musicians: Charlie Robison. Singer/songwriter, originally from Bandera, Texas, who has an alternative/edgy/indy country-type style (rockabilly, maybe?). Younger brother of Bruce Robison (husband of Kelly Willis). Ex-husband of Dixie Chick Emily (Erwin) Robison.

Of the dozen or so CDs that Julie keeps in a case in the visor of her van, one of them is Robison’s Step Right Up. Alana is a fan of a couple of the songs in particular — “Preacher” and “John O’Reilly” — and it’s not uncommon for her to make a request to “put on Charlie Robison!”

And…that’s where the “Charlie” obsession came from.

Mother Luck decided to gaze as fondly on Alana as her father does during our trip to Austin last week. Who was slated to play on Saturday night at The Nutty Brown Cafe? Charlie Robison! $12/person and kids under 12 got in free. Nutty Brown is a great venue — less than 5 miles from my parents’ house, has good food (they do a variety of “chicken fried” dishes well, they used to have a Friday night fajita buffet that was great food at a great price, and…they let the Carport Casanovas play once a month on their smaller stage). I was, very briefly, a member of the Carport Casanovas, but, by that point, my “best friend since the second/seventh (accounts differ as to which) grade” had gotten so used to kicking me out of his bands that I didn’t last until the first gig. But I’m not bitter. Really! I’m not!

I digress.

We snagged tickets as soon as we realized Robison would be playing. We met up with our former neighbors, the Schaafs, early so we could get a good table for dinner and the show. Judy and Alana caught up on things:

Jerry and Benton did the same:

And Julie and Jerry…were just photogenic:

The opening act was Zane Lewis. Julie and Alana danced near our table a bit:

And, then, finally, The Man Himself came on:

Alana. Was. Enthralled! She waved at him (no reciprocation…but she didn’t seem to mind):

She spent quite a while on my shoulders at most 30 feet from The Man Himself, and, apparently, was swaying to the music…but my one-handed photo really didn’t do that justice:

After every song, I pulled her down and asked if she wanted to go back to our table…and she did not.

Eventually, I coaxed her away.

The next morning, she was still talking about the experience: “He’s a really good singer!”

Our plan for the vacation was pretty straightforward: Julie would drive to Dallas with Carson and Alana, arriving on Saturday morning; Benton and I would stay in Dublin for his three baseball games and then fly down to Dallas on Saturday night; we’d spend Sunday and Monday morning visiting friends and family, and then drive to Austin for the remainder of the week.

The best laid plans…

Everything proceeded nicely through Sunday, except my stomach was bothering me — it seemed tight and achy. Self-diagnosed as travel-related constipation, and I’ll steer clear of TMI for the remainder of this post. Sunday night, I did not sleep well at all. Monday morning, Julie headed out and got some…stuff…on the more extreme self-treatment front, which I tried. Things were marginally better, but I still didn’t feel all that well, and I had a couple of bouts of up-chucking, which seemed odd. So, I stayed at the Bones house while Julie took the kids to Unc and Gigi’s (my great-aunt and great-uncle) for a visit. I felt bad about not getting to see them, but figured I was doing everyone a favor by not exposing them to whatever bug I had.

Within an hour of Julie leaving, I was feeling decidedly worse — to the point that I called Julie and asked her if she could cut the visit short and get me to the ER. Within a couple of hours, I had a diagnosis of appendicitis, which is what I suspected. I had my appendix removed late Monday afternoon and was almost released that evening. But, due to what I’m pretty sure was a faulty thermometer read in the recovery area, I got put up for the night:

The casualties of the hiccup in our plans:

• I didn’t get to see Unc and Gigi at all, and the rest of the family’s visit was cut short
• Benton and I did not get to attend Game 3 of the Texas-TCU super regional in person (Texas won and is headed to the College World Series)
• I missed a lunch with one of my former bosses in Austin on Tuesday

Julie, as she is prone to do, took the lemon and made a vat of lemonade with it:

• Bonus visiting time with the Bones (as they hosted the Wilsons for an extra night)
• A trip to Pump-It-Up with the kids (while I was awaiting surgery):

• A trip to Gattitown (while I was waiting to get checked out of the hospital):

I finally got released from the hospital late Monday afternoon (spent all day just waiting for the surgeon to come by and spend 60 seconds saying, “You’re good to go.” He also passed on that the appendix was seriously inflamed and burst as soon as he had it out.) and we headed to Austin after that. And, we’re back on track!

Alana’s birthday is not for another week-and-a-half, but she has started celebrating early. First, she got to have a fancy luncheon with Julie and Grandma Marilyn. Then, during our visit with the Bones in Dallas, she got a Build-A-Bear as an early birthday present from Bruce and Cheryl.

Alana, Julie, and Aunt Cheryl headed out on Sunday afternoon so Alana could build her bear. She picked out a pink one (shocker!) and got to help fill it with stuffing:

Then, she needed to “bathe” it (with air):

And then, of course, accessorize! With Aunt Cheryl’s assistance:

Then, it’s a matter of striking poses with her bear in its carrying case:

And, finally, posing with the gifter before loading up and heading out:

We started off our weeklong return to Texas with a visit to Bruce and Cheryl Bone’s house in Mckinney. High on Julie’s list was taking the kids back to a water exhibit in Richardson right outside the Renaissance Hotel there. Jets of water shoot out from a bunch of holes in the ground in a variety of patterns. The kids had a blast. Carson was the first in and he got wet in no time:

Benton was a bit more tentative initially — just seeing if he could deflect the water with his foot:

Why, the boys even almost played cooperatively with each other some!

Alana took a little coaxing/handholding from Julie before she would check them out:

But she eventually got in:

Even Julie and Aunt Cheryl got into the fountains…although in a way where they could remain relatively dry (and continue their conversation):