Travolta at the Table

In Oregon Spring Break arrived the beginning of last week. A few weeks before that Linda mentioned we should plan on taking a trip, “Maybe go and see our families in Utah,” she said. This was in the evening after the kids had gone to bed and while we lounged around I mulled the idea over in my head. And then she added, “Just so you know, there’s no way I’m spending an entire rainy week with the girls home from school and nothing to do.”

We spent Spring Break in Utah with our families.

While we were there at one point the subject of this blog came up and my brother Graham suggested, “You need to post to that thing every day if you ever want to go big.”

“I just don’t always have the time,” I responded. “And besides it’s not always that easy coming up with a subject to write about.”

“I’m just saying,” he said and then the subject took a turn followed by another and the topic of blogs was dropped. The idea, though stuck, and for the rest of the week I mulled it over in my head while spending my evenings observing my brother Graham.

It turns out he’s a gold mine when it comes to blog topics. Just in the short few days we were in town he taught me a hand signal when noticing his two-year old appeared constipated. He thought out loud that he’d like to, “Go for the full fifty next time,” then followed this up with a demonstration on a knife sharpener he’d brought home from work. It wasn’t so much the things he did that I noticed rather the way he does them coupled with his constant commentary.

Take our last night at dinner for example. My sisters, brothers-in-law, mother and Linda and I sat around a crowded table in a busy restaurant. Graham made quick work of his meal then patiently fed our sister Stephanie’s baby pinto beans with a plastic fork. Her name is Reagan and I think she’s nearly two and has chubby hands and a permanent smile on her face. I’ve never seen such a cheerful baby and while Graham stuffed beans into her face she giggled and waved her hands. At one point her hand caught the plate in front of her tipping its contents into Graham’s lap. Unfazed he picked up what he could then stood, baby in hand, and did a little hip thrust projecting the remaining food back onto the plate. “See,” he said, “That move has more than one use,” then walked across the dining room for a refill on his drink.

I wish, for the sake of this blog, I could have a few more weeks with my family.