Fayling brought the boys into town for a week, and we filled a weekend. Todd and Nicole's oldest son Aiden graduated from high school, along with his nephew Ben, so we celebrated the graduation on Saturday afternoon with BBQ, then headed to the bowling alley for video games and food. It's fascinating how the quick-witted exchanges and general potty humor never seems to fade, we can still keep up with each other quite well thirty years later (and catch up on all the inter-connected gossip from the people in our youth who have fled the country for drug trafficking!)
Sunday we went to Cedar Point as a posse, with three of Todd's four: Ben, Nick, Avery, and then Seth and Thatcher, and of course our Nick. Todd's kids love the coasters, so I wandered off with them to see how the old rides have fared: Steel Vengeance (formerly Meanstreak) has been retooled and is much smoother, Gemini is still a favorite (I yelled alone, the new generation just sit and ride), the rest of the boys did come along on the Mine Ride, and we took the Sky Ride across the park. I don't know how these kids eat fried cheese all day and still function. What a great bunch of kids, all of them, for conversation (Nick and Aiden's idea of a good time is debating tolerances in soldering techniques, meanwhile I'm telling crude jokes with his dad) and just easy with which to spend a day. Avery owes me a bracelet from her side business, in exchange for the five 'Obama bucks'. It was a little like herding cats, but we got everyone there and back, finally to Bubba's late for a snack before bedtime.
In between we managed to take the Corvette out as Seth is gaining interest in 'old cars' and it now qualifies as old. He shot a few photos of the cars, and Thatcher took photos of almost everything we saw all weekend. But ask him what draws him, why he shoots the images he does, and there's intent behind every shot.
