Children are God's way of saying life should go on.

Last week my side of the family had family members visiting from afar and several of us met in Sioux City to eat, drink and catch up on news. This little girl, Story Jane, has a sunny disposition despite being in a hip cast for 3 months and now in a brace for an indefinite period of time.

 

With mother, Amanda.

 

Jaxon with daddy, Todd.

 

 

Niece Anne, with Ben and Amelia. Ben was not happy and baby Amelia was patting his back, trying to make him feel better.

 

 

Brother in law, Max, cooking up a batch of chicken.

 

 

There were some paper in our parent's old safe that we hadn't seen so we went through them and what a bunch of laughs. We found birth certificates for some of the kids, our oldest brothers, David and Denny are twins. But according to the birth certificates, Mom was 19 when David was born and 27 when Denny was born, that should be in the Guinness Book of World records! I was the youngest girl, several years later Dan was born, several more for Robb. But Dan's birth certificate said Mom was 43 when he was born and Robb's said she was 41, another miracle! I don't think the person filling out the information was very attentive but maybe Mom wasn't that coherent at the time.

 

We heard a really funny story from our oldest sister, Sara, who had 3 children and was pregnant with her 4th when she went to get a drivers license at the age of 19. Since Sara was really underage the license examiner told her she had to have her mother sign for her! I would imagine her voice rose just a wee bit as she pointed to her husband, "I have 3 kids and pregnant with my 4th and you tell me I have to have my MOTHER sign???!" She got her license.

 

At the park, where I took these pictures, was a turtle dove family, mother, father and baby, who was completely feathered and on the ground. You could tell he was one of these kids who refuses to leave their parents basement. Every time one of the parents would come near, he would run over and grab their beak, "Feed Me, FEED ME!!" The birds would go round and round until they broke lose of his death grip and fly away. The baby would sit and wait for the other parent and go through the same ritual, "I'm SO Hungry!! I need FOOD!! Feed Me, FEED ME!!!!!"