The Brookston Family Blog
• • • • •

The other day the kids were goofing around on our bed, jumping and wrestling together.

Porter and his fake smile.

Starting his cartwheel.

Porter doing a cartwheel.

Landing on a pillow after his gymnastics.

Wrestling with Alice.

Alice escaping her brother’s clutches.

But laughing all the way.

Alice on the bed in high spirits.

Yesterday was our tenth wedding anniversary so this was the obvious group photo to run today.

Almost everybody, with a few notable absences. This was taken out behind the Tied House brewpub in downtown San Jose, California on July 13, 1996.

In the mass of Pixar’s Cars merchandising, one stands out. The Cars’ slot car set is so much better than his old set that I’ve chucked the old one.

Porter is thrilled with his race cars.

He likes to race both of them at the same time.

He gets very excited about the races.

On Thursday after I came down from taking my shower, both Porter and Alice had mysterious bits of a white substance all over their faces but concentrated around their mouths. When I asked Porter what it was he replied. “Cake!” “Cake?” I said. “Where did you get cake?” “In the kitchen.” came the reply. “How did you eat it?” Porter then demonstrated his method by showing me how he scooped up the cake icing with his finger and licked it clean. But I was unprepared for just how much cake the two of them had eaten when I lifted the lid to reveal the damage they’d done to it. Sheesh, they’ll be on a sugar high for days.

Alice with the tell-tale white cake signs smusched around her mouth. Porter wiped his off before I could take his picture.

And here’s what the cake looked like. Before I went upstairs the cake had a full top of icing. It was smooth. That’s a lot of missing icing.

When I returned from putting Porter on the school bus, I discovered Alice had gone back for more. I caught her in the act. Is that a sugar crazed face, or what?

This morning, as you’re reading this, we’re on our way to Hawaii. We’re going to Kauai, our favorite island. We went there about five years ago and loved it, so we thought we’d go back for our tenth wedding anniversary. The kids will be staying with their grandparents so this will be our first big trip together without them since they were born.

A map of kauai. We’re staying on the beach on the east side of the island, not too far from the airport. We also rented a Jeep to get around. Thanks Nikki.

Wailua River.

Spouting Horn.

Waimea Canyon.

Cliffs along the Na Pali Coast.