Mother's Newsletter Blog: July 2024

THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER: VOLUME 156 JULY 2024

Dear Readers,

Our Memorial Day Weekend Family Reunion began on Friday, May 24th with Bryn and Claudia’s arrival at the Logues. Unfortunately Marc failed to get off the ground at LAX when his flight to Phoenix, connecting to Des Moines was canceled. He was planning to meet up with the Remsbergs - who were visiting friends there - before driving down Interstate 35 with them to my home on Sunday. On learning of Marc’s plight I immediately suggested taking any airlines next direct flight to Kansas City - alerting him to an open seat on a Southwest flight but Marc seemed determined to stick with American Airlines and thus ended up on a redeye to Chicago where he spent almost 24 hours waiting for a seat on a plane to land him into his mothers waiting arms on Saturday afternoon at the Kansas City Airport.

On Saturday morning - when I was already stressing about Marc’s endless flight delays and

Bryn sporting his boot at the Logues

cancellations - I found out that my Bryn was in the Emergency Room at a hospital in Lees Summit with a torn achilles tendon! Instead of coming straight over to his mother’s house that morning ( where the only group activity might be opening the fridge door in hopes of finding something to eat within its expiration date) he was induced by the Logues to play Pickleball for the first time! I have since read that this is a common injury in males of his age who take up the game without proper preparation! Co-incidentally Lori also delayed her arrival playing pickleball in Fort Madison, Iowa with Lori and Roger Griswod! Thankfully they are all seasoned players so no injuries there!

Bryn was discharged from the hospital with strong pain killers and advised to stay off his foot, wear a surgical boot, use crutches and visit an orthopedic surgeon upon his return to Los Angele for an evaluation to determine if surgery would be advised. The pain medications made him nauseous and very sleepy so I did not see him for the first couple of days of his visit! Unfortunately this injury meant Bryn had to cancel his upcoming European trip with Gabby; to attend a friend’s wedding in Paris as he knew he would have very limited mobility for months to come. What a pickle he had got himself into!

Since Bryn was comfortably settled into the Logue’s master bedroom with no inclination to move over to my house as originally planned, I suggested to Marc that he might want to take the now available spare room at my house - the Remsbergs were using the other two bedrooms. Marc was not even tempted by my offer! He could hardly wait for me to drive him up the street to spend his nights at Sean and Sarah’s house with his three nephews and niece! He did take me out to dinner beforehand but he was not anxious to spend a moment longer in my company than necessary - preferring to be in the chaotic domain of his youngest brother!

Well I had already survived two crises on Saturday when a third befell that night. A raging storm with straight line winds blew down many large tree limbs in my yard, split a crabapple tree in half and my deck furniture, childrens playhouse and water tables were blown apart! This ruined my plans of course for making a stellar impression on my out of town family members who had not yet seen all my interior upgrades nor the ginormous bounce house and water feature I had purchased in hopes of totally eclipsing the Logues efforts last year.

On Sunday morning I texted some photos of the damage to my children before they arrived for lunch - thinking it might be better to let them know ahead of time that Mother’s English Country garden was in ruins! I definitely needed to lower everyone’s expectations! But as always everyone threw themselves into clean up mode and with the help of Seans chainsaws and all the guys and gals ( big and little) muscle power we soon had piles of branches and bags of debris on my curb awaiting storm damage city pickup. Jeremy also loaded up his truck with larger pieces of cut wood for outdoor fire pit burning.

Fortunately the only levelish patch of grass I have on which to set my impressive new kid’s fun in the sun, three in one inflatable, was relatively free of storm damage so I was able to set it up just off the garage driveway before everyone arrived. I had about twenty stacking chairs set up on the driveway that I had pulled out of storage from under the deck a few days previously - which had taken me hours to scrub and hose off - having no idea that if I was a last minute sort of person that the storm would have done the job for me! I even had time to put all the toys back together on the deck and set up all the furniture before anyone arrived! Perhaps I should not have sent out those pictures of all the storm damage that needed to be cleaned up - evey-one was probably hoping that another sibling would take care of it if they did not immediately rush over to my house!

I had baked some sweet rolls for breakfast, and had set up a sandwich/salad bar for lunch because everyone was arriving at different times! The Rembergs arrived just before lunch and Richard and Alex arrived ahead of Kay who was flying in later that afternoon after attending a friend’s wedding on the East Coast and Ming-Jon was flying in from Washington . Fortunately their flights landed within an hour of each other so Richard was able to pick them up together and head back to my house for supper!

Claudia and Coryn

Grandma and Claudia

Liam was a very willing worker - probably because he never gets to set foot on this part of my property with 8 lane of traffic speeding by!

Liam worked tirelessly

Jeremy who did a stellar job!

Craig and Jeremy hauling a big branch

Look at all those logs cut from storm damaged branches!

For supper that night Sean had volunteered to man the grill for me : I had bought out the entire selection of gourmet pre- formed hamburgers with various cheeses and spices at the Hen House meat counter, dozens of bratwursts and hot dogs! It takes a lot of food to feed our large family - although we were missing Blake, who as a newbie at SpaceX has limited vacation time and had a trip to Japan planned for what little time he could take off. Josh was unable to join us as he was in Bolivia volunteering at the rescue park with the big cats - something he has committed to for many years now.

Fortunately the weather held up for the day, everyone seemed to approve of all the new paint colors and flooring in my home but of course being together was the highlight. Ray and Callie thoroughly enjoyed running around the house and yard with all the stairs: living in a ranch style home in Florida stairs are a novelty! The cousins soon became fast friends again and played well together - especially when they managed to sneak away from adult supervision!

Craig, Ray, Sean and Marc

Lesee-Ann, Craig, Claudia and Marc

Liam and Lochlan enjoying lunch

Ava Clair and Emy Lou on her beloved red bike

Alex, Lochlan and Owen

Owen giving Alex a helping hand up the climbing wall

Liam slidding into the pool

Leslee-Ann, Claudis with Callie, me, Graig and Marc

EmmyLou, Ray, Callie and Owen! Cousin time!

Marc, Lori and Coryn

Memorial day itself was celebrated at the Logues and once again I felt my efforts would not be overshadowed but they most certainly were! A theme park seemed to have sprung up overnight! Their front lawn contained a huge stand alone bounce house , the water feature that had caused me to up my game last year, a slip and slide, a badminton court, a giant sized Tic Tac Toe and Corn Hole. But the crown jewel of this setup was all the motorized cars, scooters and bikes that Coryn had borrowed from neighbors and friends to turn the cul- de- sac into a children's grand prix raceway! My pedal car and bikes were no match for this competition!

Gtting ready to race!

Owen needs to move! Liam is coming up fast!

Callie and Lochlan are not far behind!

He may be in PJ's but it doesn't look as if Liam is ready for bed!

Ray takes the bend with ease!

Sarah and Claudia keeping a watchful eye on the traffic!

I took my deflaego into the house to finally hug my Bryn and check on the status of his injury. He was still in pain but feeling better than he had the previous day. He was wearing the boot and using the walker that Kevin and Jenny from nextdoor had lent him and was able to join us outside where he won the title of best uncle ever when a Kona truck pulled into the cul-d-sac and Bryn declared slushies for twenty-eight on him and handed his credit card to Ava Claire! I am sure that must have been the most sales from one house ever for that business! .

Lochlan is happy too!

Emmy Lou is loving her slushy

Kona truck got a ot of business!

Bryn, the coolest uncle that day!

Once again Jenny and Kevin had contributed so much to our family gathering: from canopies, chairs, games and even a chocolate fountain which was of course a huge messy hit with all the kids especially! I suggested to them that they should become professional party throwers as they would not need to buy or rent anything! They seem to have everything one could possibly need stored in their basement!

Liam and the chcolate fountain

Emmy Lou dipping a strawbery

Craig, Leslle-Ann and Richard

Ava Claire -the messiest?

In mid June Coryn and I took Ava CLaire and Owen with us on a road trip to Indianapolis to visit Lori and see all the updates she had been making to her house recently. I volunteered to drive my car as we all know mother enjoys being in the drivers’ seat! As usual I made sure my passenger’s knew that I do not believe in a leisurely drive with lots of stops enroute.. My objective is always to get to where I am going in the shortest and fastest way possible. I need to make only two stops on the eight hour drive, one of which will be for a combined gas, meal and potty stop.

I packed carefully for this road trip, preparing for every possible scenario that might befall us. Due to the excessive heat warnings I had extra water ( for emergency consumption only) snacks and umbrellas to shade us if we should break down on the interstate miles from a tow truck .I also had a portable tire inflator, a medical emergency kit, bags to contain everything from pee to puke and a tote bag to bring our four Ipads , and three phones into the restaurants when we ate so that our devices wouldn't fry in the car! The Logues seemed to think I was slightly crazy but the big winner that declared Grandmother the Queen of Road trips came when I pulled out my three feet long, one inch thick gummy snakes! I told the kids to chew half the snake on the way there and the other half on the way back in lieu of drinking liquids. Owen had eaten his half before we even crossed a stateline. We set out from Coryn’s house about three o’clock on Sunday June 16th as Coryn thought it would be easier on the children ( and therefore us) to drive for about five hours that day and spend the night at the Country Inn Suites in Effingham, Illinois. right off the Interstate…… convenient but extremely noisy with the heavy traffic on I70 coupled with the air conditioning that sounded like a freight train barrelling down on us all night meaning we were all sleep deprived the next day!

Ava Claire and Owen were excited to spend the night in a hotel until we checked in. They seemed most disappointed in everything: the decor, the admittedly rather cloudy pool water, and the gym which they said had a nasty smell ! Coryn and I were aghast, remembering how all of you loved staying in hotels as children and loved everything - good or bad. I have to admit the breakfast provided was subpar but our suite was fine albeit not the best for getting a good night's sleep. At least we had less than a three hour drive ahead of us! On Monday morning we pulled into Lori’s driveway just in time for lunch!

Lori has definitely updated and lightened up her home.New wooden floors in the living room and master bedroom that blend in seamlessly with the existing hardwoods; new lightning in some rooms is definitely more suited to the mid century modern period in which the house was built;, a new molded ceiling in the family room to replace the old acoustic tile and more natural light is streaming in through the windows with updated. remote controlled, custom shades replacing the previous drapery. And the yard was looking very well manicured too! I felt no urge to pull weeds at all on this visit!

Despite the energy zapping heat and humidity we did make the short drive to one of Ming Lee’s favorite places to hike, Fort Harrison State Park and walked for a mile or so thinking how happy Ming Lee would be! Lori treated us all to ice cream afterwards to reward us for our endurance and to cool us down!

Once home , Lori decided that we should sit around the fire pit that Ming had built and eat s’mores! Owen charred all his marshmallows but ate them anyway! Ugh! This was something Ming Lee always initiated when the family visited!i

The following morning Lori drove us to the Indianapolis Children's Museum , billed as the biggest and best in the world. - with five floors to explore we got quite a few steps in, enjoyed lunch and the children rode on the 107 year old carousel horses. Lori and Coryn took Ava and Owen to the movies that night while I elected to stay on the sofa, reading my book, playing Words with Friends and snacking on cheese. I find the excessive volume and extreme air conditioning in today’s movie theaters too much for my aging ears and body!

On Wednesday morning we drove home with no overnight stops, only three stops for gas, lunch, and restrooms but a lot of slow downs due to construction work and heavier traffic that we had been spared on Sunday. I have to say that the kids were both excellent passengers on this trip, especially when glued to their Ipads! I even suggested that I might take them to Fort Madison with me sometime!

Josh will be arriving in Orlando soon to spend some time with the Remsbugs before he heads back to Kansas City. The Logues are currently in San Diego with Bryn and Marc Next month Sarah and Sean will be celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary with an adults only vacation! The Kansas City family and Sarah’s parents will all be helping to take care of Emmy-Lou, Liam, Lochlan, and Cillian! We might all need a vacation after that!

Love Mother - who is so relieved that Joe Biden( who so obviously has some form of dementia) is stepping down! Hopefully we have a shot - a better one than Trump recently survived - at defeating the truly demented Republican candidate in the November Elections.

Here are some random photo's from our family reunion! We have Lori to thank for being so diligent in documenting our famiyl togethernes by taking most of these photos!You may need to scroll down a bit to see tem as I am having technical issues!