Preemptive Nostalgia

I'm glad that all my kids like the occasional cheap Greek food meal.  The girls won't eat Thai and Sal always acts like he doesn't like Mexican (even though he always eats it).  So Greek is one thing we can all agree on.

Veep took the night off on Friday and we hit up Santorini's.  Their hummus and gyros are in league with D'Lish's double cheese burgers and Linnie's Massamun curry.

And even though they don't ride their bikes much, I'm glad my kids are still sort of willing to humor us and go on a few family rides a year.

Even in overwhelming heat.

This was last weekend on our yearly tour of the "Route of the Hiawatha."  The girls were better about riding through the tunnels this time.  Veep was there too--she was the one taking all the pictures.  I love my powerful Tri-Newt light in the tunnels--you can actually see the walls.

I've got to admit that over the past few months I've developed a midlife crisis of sorts.  No, there's no new sports car or hair plugs, just the realization that my kids are growing and time is passing.  I came across this picture of our two girls the other day.  It was buried at the end of a powerpoint presentation I was re-using at work, which I had made about 8 years ago--a nice reprieve at the end of a boring lecture.

It kind of snuck up and slapped me in the face.  This is how they looked when we moved to Spokane.  At that age their world consisted almost entirely of fairies and playgrounds.  And they interacted with us all the time--too much if you had asked me back then.  Now they have their friends, books, and computers and they only need us to provide food and shelter--at least it seems that way in relative terms.  They require more than that, but it is so much less than before that it feels like too little.  I guess I'm just realizing that I should enjoy them now because who knows what will happen in a couple years when they're teenagers.  I'm pretty sure they'll be just fine, but I still wonder.  Still, if I could "Benjamin Button" them back to the above photo I would.

It's good to know that they can still be tempted by balloons.  This was at a Mexican restaurant in McCall, ID in July (Sal lost the fight for where to eat).  I didn't think they'd take our waiter up on his offer of balloons, but they did without hesitation.

Then they sucked the helium out of one and let the other free on the lake.

I suppose that's better than being too old for balloons entirely.