Our family went to say goodbye to him on his second to last day at the office. We came bearing gifts and hugs and some tears. Dr. A has been so good to us over the years. When Joel was in his spica cast, Dr. A somehow got a hold of the head of the pediatric orthopedic department at Children's Hospital in Seattle. The man called me personally to allay my fears over another recast for Joel. Dr. A has welcomed each member of our family with as much happiness as we have. He will be sorely missed.
After our appointment, I dried my tears and we got organized to head North to visit my Uncle Keith and Aunt Leanna. Uncle Keith's birthday is on the 28th of December. Last year my aunt and uncle came here to wait for Isaac's birth. I tried to have that baby on Uncle Keith's birthday, but it didn't work out. We all spent the evening eating birthday cake and watching movies here at home instead of laboring in the hospital. I had Isaac the next day and Uncle Keith and Aunt Leanna took excellent care of all of the other kids while Matt and I were away.
So we thought it appropriate that we celebrate Isaac's first birthday with the two of them. My parents drove to Uncle Keith's to join the party too. We feasted and sang "Happy Birthday" to the two birthday boys. Then we watched a good movie and Uncle Keith and Elizabeth made blena batter for the next morning. The recipe is taped to the inside of a kitchen cabinet door so that it can be easily referenced.
In all the years Uncle Keith has made blena, he's always had batter left over. Not this time. The big bowl was scraped clean. He was impressed. I've already received requests from my kids to make blena this weekend for Elizabeth's birthday. I've tried my hand at it before, but wasn't very successful. Blena making is an acquired skill. I guess I'll have to get to acquiring it.
After our blena and German sausage breakfast, we headed out to the original homestead. The kids loved exploring the house (complete with old wood burning cook stove), the root cellar, the barn and the extra little house in which my Grandpa Paul and his brother used to sleep in. The main house still has a working rotary phone. My older girls were positively giddy when Uncle Keith said they could use it. Elizabeth starting pushing the numbers. Uncle Keith had to show her how to put her finger in the holes and turn the dial. Then she put the talking end of the receiver up to her ear. Needless to say, the four of us adults got a good laugh. All of the kids are convinced our family could live on that farm and be quite happy.
We then headed back into town to eat lunch at the drive-in, but not before we saw the hundreds of sheep that are currently grazing on some of Uncle Keith's farm land. We watched the Peruvian shepherd and his dogs work to get the sheep into the correct grazing area. It was like a well orchestrated dance between the shepherd, the dogs and the sheep. The dogs were especially fascinating to me. Each of the five dogs had their own job and they knew what that job was. They were so excited to do the work which the Good Lord made them to do.
We had planned to return home that day, but we were having so much fun, we decided to stay another night. We headed home as soon as we could get going the next day. Uncle Keith's parting thought was that he'd sure like us to come visit after his knee replacement surgery so as to fight off the doldrums. Our big bunch would surely fight off the doldrums, but I'm not sure that's what the doctor ordered. Now that surgery has taken place, I'd wager a guess that Uncle Keith is relishing every bit of peace and quiet (and non-physical therapy moments) that he can get.
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