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IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

We have been busy all week celebrating birthdays and Independence Day. Lara and her family arrived Saturday evening and Monday was Greg's and my birthdays. We enjoyed dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Rockaway (Dos Rocas) and a birthday cake made especially by my grandchildren. It was a great day as I celebrated my 70th birthday and Greg his 55th.

We spent most of Monday and Tuesday getting the Captain Bell steamboat ready for the annual Manzanita 4th of July parade. Together we washed and cleaned everything and then polished up the brass to make her look great for the parade. With everybody's help we got it done and afterwards we spend time playing on the beach.

We woke up to beautiful weather for the 4th of July parade. I think summer has come at last. After a big breakfast, we loaded up the Suburban with boat stuff, hitched up the boat and headed for the parade. We didn't throw candy out this year because of the scare last year where we almost ran over a kid trying to get candy from under the trailer wheels. It is hard to stop very fast with a heavy load like a steamboat so we decided from now on, no more candy throwing. Some of the kids watching the parade threw candy at us instead. So instead of throwing candy, we waved flags and watched the girl's grandfather toot the whistle at everyone. He really enjoys the reaction he gets from parade-goers each time blows the whistle. It certainly is a crowd favorite. Dave's sister Leanna joined us again this year, but that was about it. In the past we've had as many as 16 riders, but this time there were only 7 of us since Greg had to drive the car.

After the parade, we came back home for picnic of hamburgers and stayed up until after dark to watch the fireworks across the bay in Manzanita. We can see them perfectly from our deck. Jadyn managed to stay up for the whole show, but Jaysa and Jordyn were too sleepy to care.

Greg had to go back in town for a job on Friday and he left Lara and the girls here for a couple more days. They helped me by taking all the recycle stuff over to Cart'M one day. Of course, after we got there we found out that we picked the busiest day of the year to do that and it was really crowded. The girls enjoyed "dumpster diving" for school coupons that they found on various discarded boxes. They save them for their school to get equipment and they sometimes get prizes for bringing the most coupons in.

The girls have also helped their grandfather by making new boat seats for the smaller boat that they use for crabbing. The old seats needed to be reupholstered and so we got a cute fish patterned vinyl to use for them. They enjoyed watching and helping while Granddad did that little project.

We found out that Lara's surgery has now been rescheduled for July 19th instead of the 13th as planned. She was upset when she found out - not so much because of the rescheduling, as bad as that was - she found out when she called to find out why she didn't have a pre-op appointment yet. It was only then that she found out that the doctor has a conflict and had changed the date of the surgery. It seems everyone knew about it EXCEPT the patient! The reaction of the person she talked to (probably the one who was supposed to be responsible for keeping Lara up to date) was something like, "Oh, you mean we didn't tell you about changing the date?" Of course there is nothing we can do about it now. She had scheduled the girls for summer camps (they're locked in and they weren't cheap) during her surgery and recuperation time, and now she has to do it all over again to accommodate her new schedule. I am sure glad we are flexible but Lara was upset as she had made all those arrangements for having the girls in various activities. You really can't get too angry with the surgeon; after all, the doctor is the one with the scapula in hand. Her second surgery is still scheduled for August 3rd, so this now means that there will be even less time between the operations.

I forgot and let an anniversary go by last month. I've been writing this journal for eight years now. It really doesn't seem like it's been that long since we moved to Wheeler and I started documenting our daily activities here at the coast.