Travis and Morgan, August 2008

Most of you know that Travis (11) and Morgan (8) are my beloved grandchildren. I was fortunate to have five days with them when we were in the States in August. These kids have so much, and there is no way that I can compete with that so I prefer to spend time with them, creating memories and events with which they can identify me. And we usually have a lot of fun, too.

The day I arrived, we walked downtown and had sushi for lunch. On the way back, we stopped into a make-your-own-art and the two of them created art pieces. Then we stopped for decaf mocha frappachinos for the kids; Travis was amazed that there are no Starbucks in Panama. This kid needs to get out of California!

Later that week, Travis decided to have a lemonade stand. San Carlos has a farmers market every Thursday in August; he reckoned that lots of people going to the market would have to walk by the house. We ran around, collecting supplies and decorations; Travis and Morgan made signs which were pasted on the street corners and the big sign on the front of the shop window. We opened promptly at 4, and had customers right away. People in cars stopped when they saw the big sign, parked and came over to buy the lemonade. The kids worked straight through til 8, when the market ended. They made over $25!, all at 50 cents a glass! And no fighting at all...another wonder!

On Friday, we went up to the Tahoe house, primarily because Chris and Kerry wanted to continue re-roofing the house. The kids and I were sent to the creek with a picnic lunch, but before we got to eating, Travis decided we needed to building a raft. So, with Travis as engineer and project director, we build the raft, and re-built the raft, and re-built the raft...five times worth. We used materials we found in the creek: old planks, a log, and weeds which we tied together to make string. Five re-builds and five hours later, we had a raft which floated with a kid on it! What a riot! We had so much fun, we didn't realize that it had gotten so late until Kerry came to fetch us. It was great!