this gem

now look at this picture carefully. click on it make it bigger take it all in. oh yes. the family is inching its way forward. almost to the end. maybe the end had already come and emily was off to the side of this shot being tended to by our second mommy, april.

• luke and i essentially have the same hat. little different but the same. although i remember dad bringing them back from a san fran trip i don't think that we were ever as competitive as april and i. copy catness seemed to run rampant at times.
  
• could this be one of those great roadys down the coast. one of those ones where we would all have our assigned spots to sleep as dad would keep on trucking through to our destination. curses to the unlucky one who got the boiler room. you know where. back row bottom. yeah no need for a blanket or to share one with your bunk mate up above you on the seat getting fresh air. no you were down in the dregs of old blue. you and the super heater. toasty warm.
• claire slinging some weird gang signs or maybe she is just trying to untangle her nubby fingers from a made up game that we would come up with to pass the time as we putted along at 55, downhill.
• lol got to be the recipient of one of moms craft nights down at the ward. i don't think that was the first or the last. somewhere in the photos has to be something with some puffy paint.
• i believe this is the only broken limb. i could be wrong.
• emily, or that big headed adopted kid that we used for the photo is probably wearing someone elses socks. lets just say hand-me-down. those it looks like are doubled down so they resemble socks. on sundays folded out to full length to go under her dress. sorry emily i don't think that any of you little girls got new clothes.
• it was probably emily too who got to ride center. not in the center bench but in what would be considered an isle seat. her car seat would be wedged between the two captain chairs in the front. i wonder if there was an airbag to stop her in case of an accident. no just some german metal and a VW emblem.
• one word elastic waist-bands.
• one of my favorite experiences in this baby blue tinder box was when we were going to california and we were in southern oregon or northen california on the 5. we came around the bend and there it was on that hot summer day. another VW bus. that was not the catch as back in the 80's, oregon, there were tons of tree huggers sporting them. this one was different. it was on fire. burning down like it was an old christmas tree taken out back and torched. black smoke, flames, the displaced tenants on the sidelines wondering how they were going to continue their journey.