Scattered Thoughts . . .

Lukey had a burning desire to learn how to start a fire so Liza arranged for a small gathering of people for some hot dogs and s'mores around a fire in Nan and Pop's backyard.  Pop and Lukey had already gathered a huge pile of kindling when Gee and I arrived. Actually, they've been collecting this kindling from the lawn for weeks. The fire pit was ready to go when everyone arrived. The most difficult part of starting this fire was for Lukey to effectively operate the little aim-n-flame lighter. It was obvious that the safety trigger was effective! Even Gee has difficulty with it! Next time, Lukey wants to try to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together.  We'll see how that goes when the time comes. It certainly was nice for Sheila and I to get out of the house for a short while after a rather miserable week. I didn't last long though as my energy level drained very quickly so we called it a night rather early. It was nice getting out of the house though and

As I mentioned in a previous post, we attended the Rutland Railway Association's train show on Saturday. We had driven down to Rutland in the morning, checked out all the beautiful autumn foliage and ventured back to Waterbury by mid-afternoon. After spending a few hours with friends at a local pub, we headed to Sheila's parents' house for a visit around a campfire in their backyard.   Since we were coming from the train show, I had my new G scale train purchase with us. I knew that Lukey would love this train set so I lugged the big box of trains down to the campfire and set the locomotive and cars on the picnic table. As expected, Lukey lit up with excitement! Even Kenzie was a bit excited when Lukey would give her some space at the table. The kids are at a critical age now... old enough to know their interests and certainly old enough to love accompanying us to train shows... but first they need to learn that most trains at train shows are not for touching. We see