A Great Weekend

I left Friday on the Edmonds Ferry to Kingston to go and visit my kids for the weekend. My son Matthew picked me up in Kingston as soon as he got off work. He had already grabbed something to eat on the way. I of course was very hungry by that time...it was 8:00 PM. when Matt picked me up. So we stopped in Poulsbo at the Dairy Queen drive through and he bought me a hamburger, fries, & soda. He insisted he pay for it so I did not protest. What a sweetie.

When we arrived at my son Pat's apartment in Port Orchard, his two boys (Jayce and Christian) and my oldest son Mike were waiting for us. Granddaughter Sierra (Pat's oldest child) was spending the weekend with her mother in Belfair. I did get to talk to her on the phone, however.

I no sooner had my jacket off and seated at the dining room table amongst them; when my youngest grandchild Christian (who is nine years old) asked if I would play checkers with him!

Of course Grandma played checkers with him. Thus began the night of checker playing.

I refuse ever to give in and let any young one win on purpose the game of checkers. I have always firmly believed that they cannot learn anything by letting them win.

After a couple of times of getting beat by Grandma it was the older grandson Jayce's turn. Jayce is eleven years old. Jayce played a couple of games with Grandma, but I don't think he took to being beaten as well as the younger brother.

The evening went on with one checker game after the other. Grandma winning everyone of them until they tired of it all.

Then awhile later my oldest son Mike who is fourty four years old (and still single by the way), asked if I wanted to play checkers with him.

Now mind you he and I had not played checkers in years.

He did,however, remember something that I had forgotten: He had never been able to beat me at checkers!

So, it came to me as quite a surprise, when I had his last three moves cornered on the checker board and he could not move. He then took the checker board and flipped it and the checkers up into the air and over!

I burst out laughing out loud. He looked at me and announced:

"You always win! Never once have I ever beaten you!" and "You always win and when you do you always laugh!"

Ha ha. Then he looked at me and grinned from ear to ear.

I had not kept score! It was something I had never remembered. It just had never made an impression on me until now.

Mike gave me a big hug goodbye then left for home around 11:00 o'clock that night. In spite of the checker games the boys and I had a great visit on Friday night.

Saturday the grandsons were carted off to spend the rest of the weekend with their Mom. Pat and I went to eat lunch out and do some shopping at the mall. Then off to Walmart to pick up some specific items that Jayce needed for his school camping trip on Monday. These things I bought for him. Dad bought him his sleeping bag.

My daughter was able to pop in on her dinner break from Lowes Hardware. We had a nice visit then she had to get back to work. She would not get off that night until eleven o'clock because of the extra added hour with daylight savings. She said it was Lowe's policy to add the extra hour before closing time.

Later my son Matt picked me up for an evening at Hollywood Video in the game room watching my grandson Kory(ten years old)compete in the video tournaments they were holding there. I got to see my grandson Kody(fourteen years old) there also. Their sister Karly(twelve years old) was spending the evening at a friends house so I missed seeing her.

I didn't get the chance to see all of my grandchildren during this visit, but it was still a grand time for grandma.

I was, however, ready to leave for Kingston and the ferry trip back to Edmonds. Then from there the two hour drive back home on Sunday morning.

When I arrived home there was a sweet message on my answering machine from Jayce thanking me for all the camping gear.







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