Tales of the Ordinary Days

Airport selfie by the fab four aunt/niece/cousin combo We had a little girls weekend/mini family reunion in Denver this last weekend. Our foursome included my cousins, Angela and Angelina. And my aunt, Kathy. Who is also Angelina's mother. Kathy is always easy for me to explain. Most of my friends just see her as my friend. Which she is and is evident by our frequent excursions and togetherness over the years. I was fortunate enough to have Kathy live in Omaha again for a few years recently. My son, Ben, described Kathy as my 'go-to friend'. After asking Ben to join me for a play (I had an extra ticket that was going to go unused), he politely declined and then made a keen observation. "I bet you miss Aunt Kathy. She was your go-to friend for extra tickets and random events, wasn't she?" Yes, Ben, I do miss my go-to friend. Kathy now lives in Boise. Although our random adventure are fewer, we make up for it with our many smiles and laughs when we...

The infamous Kingman pool a few years after the incident noted below A friend once described an upset mother by saying "she's like a mama bear protecting her bear cubs". Yep, been there, done that. As much as I would like to say that I've always kept my cool and been the exception, my mother bear mode has kicked in on many occasions. One of these occasions occurred on what was to be a casual night of swimming in Arizona. In hindsight, I would label this incident 50% mother bear syndrome and 50% a turf battle with a lifeguard drill sergeant. The boys and I were visiting Mom & Dad in Kingman, Arizona. Their cousins from Las Vegas joined us for some relaxed family fun. In the heat of the Arizona summer, the decision was made to enjoy some evening swimming at the local public pool. In my mind, this should have been an everyday occurrence at the Kingman pool; visitors to their pool who weren't local residents with a pool pass. I quickly found that our ...

Wagner grandkids at the Kingman pool Guest blogger is my mom. Love her descriptive portrayal of life history... ______________________________________________________________________ July 21, 2008:  Kylynn, Josh, Brooke, Ben, Grant & Garrett visit Kingman's old downtown pool.  I drove them to & from the pool in installments....our car seats 5 and it was interesting...Even though it is only a 3 mile trip to the pool, I was worried sick something would happen to the kids at the pool or at our house while I transported. Garrett, the youngest, was 8; & Kylynn, the oldest, was a few weeks shy of 14.  Kylynn went with me on the 1st trip (so she could watch the little ones at the pool while I went back for the 2nd batch); Josh watched those left behind at the house.  Later, on the trip back to the house, I followed the same procedure but in reverse.  For what little time Grant & Garrett spent in the water, it was in the shallow...

Some of the Lane boy cousins enjoying lake time together Ben and Grant spent the night at their cousins' lake home on Friday. With two more cousins in town from Canada, the all-boy entourage took over the lake. When the idea came up over sushi to have all the cousins together, I jumped at the opportunity. Any time my kids can spend time with their cousins, I'm all for it. I have to admit that I'm quite partial to the relationship of cousins. It's like brothers and sisters, but not. A close tie, blood that's thicker than water, but without the sibling drama. We all got to part and go to our respective homes after a long weekend at Grandma's. Fights were few and fun was at an abundance. I always looked forward to our many family gatherings. My girl cousins were a perfect replacement for the sisters I never had. My cousin, Kelly (Kelly the Great), and I wrote our own secret language. Ben and Adam ran wild with my brothers those many summer on the farm. We b...