Saturday saw an Arizona relative gathering at Aunt Jackie and Uncle Jack's house in Chandler. This gathering gathered in one place all the fun Jones relatives currently in Arizona, plus some friends of Theo and Ruby's who had moved from Tacoma to Maricopa.
A few hours into the gathering Miss Daisy directed us to go to the nearby park, rolling down the street with a Macklemore Downtown soundtrack, with Ruby leading the way., which is what you see above.
But, before that happened there was a water balloon street battle, which eventually moved to the backyard where the unexpected happened, photo documented in the next two photos.
The five kids were at pool's edge, David, Theo, Ruby and the two kids from Maricopa, whose names I have already forgotten due to age related memory limitations. Theo asked the Maricopa kid's mom if they could get in the pool. She indicated she had no problem with this but that the other parents needed to approve.
I then said I was the designated parent of Theo and Ruby and it was okay with me. I said Uncle Jake was the designated parent of David and asked if it was okay with him. Jake gave his go ahead, and almost instantly Theo jumped in the pool, followed by a loud shriek of horror from the actual parental units who were looking out from inside the house.
Soon all kids were in the pool, deemed way too cool by all the adults in attendance, but one. Aunt Jackie came out and asked why I was not jumping in. I said I did not bring my swimsuit.
No problem, said Aunt Jackie.
Soon I was in a new swimming suit, still with its price tag attached.
And here we see me lifting David out of the pool. In the photo above that photo that splash you see in the pool is the result of Theo pushing brother David into the pool. David was the last to participate before I joined in.
The Arizona weather babies seemed not to understand that the unheated pool was my Texas norm, and that just a few days prior I had been shivering at 3 degrees below zero.
After an hour, give or take a minute or two, we all got out of the pool and hot tub for the BBQ part of the day.
The BBQ was followed by that walk to the park we saw at the top.
Here we see Aunt Jackie being Miss Daisy's driver, in the park, whilst Miss Daisy holds her new best friend, whose name I have already forgotten, again due to that age relative memory problem. Miss Daisy's new best friend lives with nephew Christoper (aka CJ) and semi-niece in-law, Carrisa.
At some point during the park visit Aunt Jackie arrived on her bike. I soon found myself helping Theo try to ride the bike. But lowering the seat to its lowest turned out not to be low enough. I tried pushing Theo on the bike, but that soon turn out to be too aerobically stimulating.
Years ago when Aunt Jackie was a wee little thing I used to give her bike rides whilst she balanced on my handlebars. Theo was onboard for trying this. Soon Theo mastered balancing on the handlebars. And soon after that I found myself giving handlebar bike rides to all the kids, including Ruby, who was the easiest, due to being the lightest.
While the bike rides were happening Cousin Jeremy (aka JR) showed up on his skateboard. Theo soon was asking if we could return to homebase to get a skateboard. We used the ride on the bike's handlebars method to ride to get the skateboard. We then left the bike in the garage and drove Miss Daisy's vehicle back to the park.
Well.
Actually Theo did most of the driving. His first time behind the wheel. Theo did a good job of driving. But, when Theo told brother David that he got to drive, David did not believe him.
And so, when playing at the park was over and everyone headed back to home base, Theo drove back, with me doing video documenting, which you can see below.
In the video you will see Theo drive by all his favorite Arizona relatives, including Miss Daisy...
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