The Brookston Family Blog
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The other day at Costco we tried out a new feature they’ve instituted where you order your food in line and pay for it there and just present it at the food counter thereby saving you time at the window. It did seem to work and we got Porter’s pizza much more quickly which is great since he’s generally very impatient.

Porter happily devouring his pizza at Costco.

Alice, on the other hand, has developed a taste for their berry smoothies.

This week since it’s both graduation time and the quarter-finals of the World Cup, these two group photos seemed appropriate.

At the first ever MLS game in San Jose on April 6, 1996, when the Earthquakes were still known as the Clash for some unknown reason. San Jose defeated DC United 1-0. Sadly they relocated to Houston in 2005. Top row, from left: SCOTT, Katherine, Sheldon, Chris, Zenobia, John S., Mike S. and me. Bottom row, from left: Dave, the famous soccer guy Krazy George, Sarah and Nikki.

At Sarah’s graduation from law school. Top row, from left: Tucker, Andy and Dave. Middle row, from left: Mike S., Nikki, Karen, Michelle, Don, Margaret, Emily and Dan. Front row, from left: Lyman, Sarah and RuthAnne. And that’s me, of course, kneeling down in front.

Porter’s grandparents picked up a water toy thingee for him — I’m not exactly sure what to call it — but Porter had a great time playing with it.

Porter and the water park.

Porter did more laddering drills at O.T. last Wednesday.

Up and coming.

Almost there.

Ta da!

PART

For most of the time I’ve known Chris, Katherine was in the picture. I first met her when she and Chris worked together at Banana Republic.

Chris and Katherine at a Pisces Party at Michelle and Joleen’s place in Sunnyvale.

At a New Year’s Eve party we threw.

I’m not sure what party this was taken at.

I didn’t know George Washington went for Scarlet Ho types.

Today is our friend Chris’ birthday. I think we know Chris through mutual friends who met attending DeAnza College after high school. Chris is married to Katherine and has a son, Colin, who’s about a year younger than Porter.

A perfect bullseye.

Playing around with a fisheye lens at a party. That’s Chris on the right, with Shmare behind him. Nikki’s on the other side but I’m not sure who the guy is.

Dave and Chris at the old Smith House.

The other weekend when were at Sarah’s folks’ place, Alice managed to sneak up on Sabbath, the black cat that roams the yard.

“Hello, Sabbath. Can I pet you?”

“Can I press down on you with all my weight, pining you to the grass?”

“What about your spleen? Can I remove your spleen?”

Sarah’s parents have a pint-sized pile of gravel out in their back yard at the end of the side driveway. I don’t really know why. But Alice, who reminds us sometimes of the Peanuts character Pig Pen, loves to get herself dirty and imagined the possibilities upon seeing the gravel.

So naturally she flung herself and rolled around on the gravel.

“I love gravel!”

Then Porter got into the act and began shoveling the gravel.

He brought over a dump truck.

And started loading it up with gravel.

The other morning, Porter decided to rope his pet giraffe, Melman.

Putting the harness on Melman.

With the harness in place, Porter makes sure it’s on properly.

Then tries to coax Melman out of his pen by tugging gently on his lead.

I spent most of the day driving to San Jose and Oakland to pick up copies of our marriage certificate and Porter’s birth certificate, which we needed for the insurance at Sarah’s new job by this Friday. I had considered trying to get back in time to take Porter to summer school at eleven, but that idea quickly faded when I didn’t get out of the Santa Clara Recorder’s Office until ten. So instead of rushing from that point on I took it easy. We went to visit a friend pf mine in San Jose, my old boss Greg who was only a few blocks away. He’d never actually met Alice and had seen Porter only once before. So I called him up and happily he was free for a time and we met up near his office.

Alice and Greg at his office in downtown San Jose.

Where Alice was quickly put to work answering phones.

Greg and Porter got on quite well. Here Porter’s holding his hand as we walk back to our car.

In fact both Porter and Alice had a great time seeing my old buddy and colleague Greg.

While Porter rode his trike around outside, Alice was inside drawing on the table.

“Purple, it should be purple.”

“No, I think need green.”

This is our twelfth wacky acronym or name that’s computer generated using some theme. This one determines your Mormon Name. You type in your first and last name, and voilà, it tells what your Mormon name is. Let us know what yours is.

Here are our Mormon names:

Jay = Jayden Brockston

Porter = Arther Brockston

Sarah = D’Shara Houston

Alice = Albine Brookanna

I snapped this the other day of Porter riding a tricycle around at his grandparents.

What do you think, does he need a haircut? Sheesh, look at that mop.

Yesterday at Montessori the art project they all did was to make mardi gras masks.

Porter in the mask he made.

Just some random pictures from Porter’s Occupational Therapy that I liked.

In the hole.

Smiling before sliding.