Family ties

Megan reads to Olive

Megan in blue on left, Josh the redhead right middle

Lucy and Jamie play Spot It

    Roses' son Jacob was in Sequim last week from Massachusetts, so I drove up to see him and his family.  It takes about 4 and a half hours to get from our house to Sequim, driving along Hood Canal and through the Olympic National Forest.  The Washington State Department of Transportation has a web site that shows the surface temperature of the road over Mount Walker, so I could check it and  feel confident that I probably wouldn't encounter ice.

   I arrived at Rose's and was greeted by Jacob's daughter Lucy, age 5, and by her cousins Megan and Jamie.  Megan was basking in her local celebrity.  She and her brother Josh had walked into the icy Puget Sound for a Polar Bear Plunge on New Year's Day.  Their  photo was on the front page of the Peninsula Daily News.

Spiral puzzle

     Lucy had received a hand-me-down camera for Christmas, and had learned to take videos.  Her first production was a ten-minute feature showing the screen of Josh's video game.  For a while Lucy was riveted to her camera, and wanted us all to watch her feature film.  Then the business of crafts took over.  Lucy and Jamie made pillows out of tissue paper and tape, and wrapped lots of containers.  Rose and Megan worked on a diabolical spiral puzzle.   Megan and Jamie read to Lucy.  Jacob did interesting things with kale and sweet potatoes.  His wife Bridget nursed a cold.

Greta

Megan on zip line, Great and Jamie waiting

    The next day the girls played with their second cousins Olive and Greta, granddaughters of John's brother Chas and our longtime friend Kris.  The girls played on the zip line that had been their parents' favorite.  Greta was shy at first, clinging to her grandmother, but then ventured onto the slide.
    Megan got a fever, and Jamie hurried to give her one of the paper  pillows she and Lucy had made.  Then Jamie got the doctor kit to check Megan out and help her get better.

Finest medical care

     Meanwhile, in New Jersey, my Uncle Flurry struggles through his last weeks. When I talked to him on the phone, his cousin's daughters and son  had just been to the hospital to see him. His son Pat and grandsons were visiting at the same time.  Uncle Flurry  told me how pleased he was that his grandsons could be connected to these second cousins.