going to Red River

We may take a little trip to Red River this weekend in New Mexico Papa's Class B RV and stay at a so-called RV Resort. We are meeting Ron & Janey there and the boys may get some good fishing while we are there. I had other ideas in mind for a camping trip, but I definitely got out-voted. Jackson loves RVing, and Cyndi, too, and Ry has already packed. Leave maybe Friday afternoon.

There's a moment every day that I think, have I mentioned this or that about Ry or Jack? And, of course, the moment passes and I forget. Jack's been working on designs and ideas for a web site he calls Cool Club or Cool Camp. He drew some kind of creature and he's even getting Lauren and Ry to submit design ideas. It's all very elaborate, and it's related to Club Penguin. He's been at me to get a flash player on his site, which I think means something like this. Oh my. Meanwhile, the laptop he and Cyndi use is burning up again and the family is back on the PC in the kitchen, where the boys play Club Penguin or watch Youtube episdoes of Phineas and Ferb or bakugans. The latter is a big deal, has insipid scripts and vocabulary that's otherwise useless, spawns endless debates on a hugely trivial points, and provokes shouts of "Ability Activate!" and brawls in the living room with lots of kicking and jumping on furniture. Reminds me of Star Wars, with lots of minutiae and fantasy roleplaying. The little spherical bakugans themselves are clever and fun to play with, without all the other stuff and marketing backstories. The boys love it and share that with their cousin Nicholas. Phineas and Ferb, on the other hand, is a kick. It's an animated cartoon they find on Youtube, the Disney Channel,and Disney dot com.

Rylee meanwhile is coming into his own as a young boy. He is very meticulous, folds his clothes, picks out his clothes and dresses himself, lines up his toys so he can find them the next day. He loves plays on words. The other day, I had my first chess game with him without Jack. He knows the board layout and the moves. I constantly have to advise him about protecting pieces and recognizing dangers. What's fun is that he doesn't get upset when he eventually loses a piece. In fact, he gets excited and laughs at himself: "Oh, I didn't see that. Now I get it!" He plays all the games that way, and the three of us have been playing more recently.

Got a nice note from California Papa about our recent Durango trip, using his RV if we were out there,and some news about Uncle Al's and other's trips to Alaska, etc. Mom & Dad are probably beaming about a great grandchild coming soon.