Flavor #21 "Chocolate Mousse Royale"

Spending a couple of weeks in Illinois on your own was a family tradition by the time you went.  First flight all by yourself.  Such a grown up.  And the relatives there had ways of keeping you busy.  Like Medieval times.

Not sure if you enjoyed more the chicken dinner you ate with your hands, the jousting show with knights on amazing steeds, or the torture room.

Ok, I'm betting it was the room with all those tantalizing devices of torment and anguish on display.  Terrifying and bizarre.  Thank goodness we live in a time where we only have to deal with nuclear weapons...

...and chicken with hormones.

Flavor #20 "Dirt 'n Worms"

Through Scouting and other activities, you got to explore and experience some of the great outdoors.  Whether getting sand between your toes at the beach or dirt in your food when camping out, nothing like all that sunshine to keep a fella breathing in all that fresh air.

   

Flavor #19 "Super Soldier Swirl"

Your Dad was drafted into the Army shortly after we got married, and it's not like we had any illusions about the military or any aspirations for you along those lines, so I'd be hard pressed to explain this picture, except that boys will be boys...with guns.  It's just a guy thing.

And for the record, I breathed a little easier when they got rid of the draft system anyway.  But who can resist a man in uniform?

Flavor #18 "Love Potion #31"

NIBBLES & BITS 1986

For you, it was always about animals.  In Encinitas we tried bunnies several times, but they didn't last long.  I think they passed away from too much attention.

SOME BUNNY LOVES YOU*

 *Another actual Baskin Robbins ice cream flavor, by the way....

MY TURN, MY TURN!

On Rose Drive in Vista, we adopted a tiny stray kitten who a few weeks later amazed us by giving birth to a litter!  You got all the cuddling, and I got flea and latrine duty, till they were old enough to be farmed out, so we may have had slightly different reactions about their moving on.  

BABIES WITH THEIR BABIES

You just always have had a rapport with animals, from snakes to hedgehogs and everything in between.  Even tried your hand at raising chickens until the racoons cut that short.  Think maybe we should have encouraged you to become a vet.

Flavor #17 "Campfire S'mores"

THE TRAMPOLINE---SANTA'S BIGGEST HIT EVER

Our neighborhood in Vista left a little to be desired.  Ok, a lot.  So did the house.  It was not our glory period to be sure.  But we made due and still managed to eek out some good times.  Hard to beat a campfire, no?

SUMMER     CAMPING IN THE BACKYARD

Kind of going with Charles Dickens on this one:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way...."

Flavor #16 "Made With Snickers"

PILE UP!

So a big plus of living in sunny California was visitors.  And the Dudeks were the best!  Every year without fail they would come and spend Thanksgiving weekend with us.  So we got a chance to really get to know these cousins.  We explored San Diego with them and did corny things, like those embarrassing Thanksgiving and Christmas videos every year.

OCEANSIDE PIER

The worst time was the year they brought their dog Snickers down.  She was so old and could barely walk. Truly, it hurt to watch her try. They arrived with her about noon and we were ready to eat, so we put her in the backyard and shut the gate.  Miraculously she entered the side door to the garage and exited to the real world through the open garage door with no one the wiser.  But while we began to set the food out, someone did notice and the panic that ensued was epic.  

We abandoned the house and with so many of us, we fanned out in every direction.  No Snickers!  It was like losing a baby.  We made Lost Dog signs and slapped them up on lightposts for blocks.  We had heavy hearts and tummies that were more sickened than empty, when finally Dad decided to start going downhill.  Not emotionally as we had been, but literally.  Deliberately at every corner.  He just figured to follow the path of least resistance and finally traced her down many, many blocks away.  THANK GOODNESS!  We ate cold turkey, with an extra dose of gratitude,  but not until we were sure all doors were tightly shut.

The best time was the year when the power went out all day, beginning at 9 in the morning.  The turkey was half done so we just left it in the tepid oven the rest of the day to finish while we played hide and seek and goofed off in the semi dark, cold house.  All disasters should be so fun!

MATT  &  JORDAN AT LA JOLLA CLIFFS

Flavor #15 "Olympecan"

SO ALL AMERICAN BOY

You had all that boy energy so we thought we'd put it to good use and help out assorted athletic teams in California.  Think you missed football and hockey and swimming, but went the softball, basketball and soccer route.  

It was all experience, and even though you were pretty athletic, you left team sports behind eventually and finally think it was snowboarding that captured your attention as a teen.  Maybe you just didn't like those uniforms.

FIRST SOCCER TEAM---"HAWKS",  ENCINITAS

Flavor #14 "Reese's Peanut Butter Cup"

First Day of School-Encinitas

Crest Elementary School.  That's where you got your official start.  Well before that you did a year of preschool in Rancho Santa Fe, but when it was time to hit the big leagues, you joined some of your siblings at the school in an older part of Encinitas.

Almost before you had a chance to decide if you even liked it or not, we moved north, to Vista, right after Thanksgiving.  I convinced Dad to keep driving you kids to school, hoping you could finish out the year with the friends and routine you had come to know.  But he gave up with that plan after a couple of months, and you were transferred to Olive Elementary in Vista. Probably not the best school in the world, probably not the worst.  But you adapted and we stayed there 6 years.

BIG BOYS IN VISTA

What kept you going that long is probably all those peanut butter sandwiches your devoted, if impoverished and unimaginative mom, sent you to school with everyday.  Maybe tuna fish once in a blue moon.  Bet you're allergic to peanut butter by now....  And how 'bout that mac & cheese?

5th Grade Camp---What years of education does for guys

Hey, you made it anyway.  Must be a survivor!

Flavor #13 "Fat Free Vanilla Frozen Yogurt with Live & Active Cultures"

Man on the go when you got wheels.  Think you were just trying to keep up with the big kids.  A guy on the move.  Sometimes you just have to keep out of the way, you know?

A good thing you were able to be mobile in your hot rod, because somehow once we moved to California you were no longer able to walk.  I don't mean you regressed to crawling or that we had to start packing you around again, but you simply wouldn't walk any more.  You jumped!  Everywhere.  Just bouncing up and down wherever you went.  And it would tire us out to watch you.  We nicknamed you "Tigger".  And eventually such locomotion must have tired you out as well. 

TIGGER & POOH

Flavor #12 "Old Fashioned Butter Pecan"

WEAVING A WEB OF CONTENTMENT

We moved the next summer.  Just a few blocks away.  To a neighborhood even more tightly knit and focused on kids.

Family oriented, a little out of the fifties "Leave It To Beaver" feel maybe.  So it was pretty fun, and you got lots of attention because you were the youngest kid around, at least until Torrey was born.

4TH OF JULY PARADE (JORDAN=SPANISH BULLFIGHTER---DON'T ASK)

SWING JORDAN, YOU CAN DO IT!

 And the big payoff, the supreme bonus was that the coastal life helped lure some of our favorite people to come visit!

GRANDPA ERNIE & GRANDMA MUDGIE

The Illinois grandparents came every year, the Idaho contingent twice in the first fifteen years we first lived there.  We were grateful for any extra attention you guys got.  Hindsight  being 20/20, it would have been best to have lived in the Midwest all along and taken California vacations here and there.  But who knew that then?

GRANDPA & GRANDMA SLEIGHT'S VISIT

Hey, no complaints for a young man in Southern California in the wild 80s, eh?

YOU ROCK, ENCINITAS!
(WILLOW & JORDAN)

Flavor #11 "Rainbow Sherbet"

So there we were in the land at the very end of the rainbow.  Warm sunny days and ocean breezes.

YOU ALWAYS LOVED FEEDING THE  DOLPHINS

And then there was all the places to go, attractions to see, things to do in San Diego.  Kind of ameliorated the Seattle, Denver homesickness bugs.  Like you and Afton taking your first elephant ride together at Wild Animal Park.

And a mere 90 minutes from home was the wonderland of Disney.  That was pretty distracting.

POOH & YOU

It wasn't hard to keep you busy.  From shuffling from the beach to dozens of school and church and athletic activities, and all the extras in between.

For instance a brief flirtation with horsebackriding lessons.  You and Tree on Shetland ponies.  Awww....

Then there were the shenanigans under your own roof with the brothers and sisters who were willing to be silly and lead you astray.

STYLE SETTER

Celebrate, celebrate, dance to the music! Just seemed like vacation 24/7 all year long, didn't it?  Well maybe for you.  You didn't have to do all that laundry.

Flavor #10 "Splish Splash Sherbet"

CALLE PLUMERIAS

We moved to California, the beach town of Encinitas.  We not only had the ocean as our backyard, being only a couple of miles from Moonlight Beach, but it was pretty cool right out that back door.  No grass, but instead Japanese style bridges between several small pools flanked by palms and plants.  Rather unique.  Couldn't play ball there, but it was phenomenal for exploring.  And the side yard was all lap pool and oversized jacuzzi. Never worried about you drowning with all those hazards somehow, and we lucked out.  Guardian angel or that 7/11 luck again?

GRANDMA MUDGIE RUNS HERD

MY TURN!

Flavor #9 "Jolly Green Mint"

THE FERRY ON PUGET SOUND

We lived in the middle of a lush 12 acre forest outside of Seattle.  Green, green, green.  Technicolor green.  And Kodachrome blue.  Beautiful in every way.  And we were so excited to be there and share our love of the Northwest with you kids.  It was the first place we had lived when we got married.  So before we even finished unpacking, we headed for the Ferry.  

GRANDMA & DAD WARMING KIDS UP

We became intimate with the Bothell Slough, we rafted there and in the mountain rivers. 

From Puget Sound to the Pacific, from Mt. Rainier to the Rain Forest on the Peninsula and on to British Columbia, it was a year of discovery. 

EXPLORING POUSLBO

 And even though the destinations were cool, the journey was what it was all about, especially if it was by ferry.  To any of the islands.

 

Bremmerton Island had military overtones where you could explore future options.

Even at home it was all play with your brothers and sisters.  And all those monster slugs!  We had a grand old time. 

And then came summer around mid July when it was almost time to move on.  We were walking up the quarter mile long winding driveway through all the tall pines, the blackberry thickets, and then the meadow to get to our mailbox on the street.  Just moseying along, enjoying the sights on our usual stroll. 

Then suddenly you saw it!  The shadow, your shadow.  You cried in terror and ran.  You had never seen it before.  And no way could you get away.  But of course, we hadn't seen the sun shine the whole rainy winter, and abracadbra, there it magically was.  The hidden shadow would hide no more. 

JORDAN SEES HIS SHADOW!

Ever since, I often have wondered what is more difficult for me, for you, for anyone...the steady rain?  Or the brilliance of the sunshine that reveals our shadows?  Maybe it takes a little fear and then a little bravery to learn to face our giant selves.  To embrace even the shadow.  And to learn to walk with it on our journey.

You have always had a big enough heart to make room for the sunshine AND the rain.