First Half of Summer and Memories

Well the 60 days have elapsed and so, as faithful as I am-- I am blogging.

The KLBC year ends at the end of April which means 4 months of "summer." Although I am in the office everyday, the pace of the summer schedule is much different than the rest of the year. Unbelievably the first half of this summer break is over.

We were privileged to take a week and visit our neighbour nation to the south and its fabulous capital. Although most of you have probably seen the pictures on my wife's blog (valerieeaston.blogspot.com)-- you have not heard my take on it. It was challenging but fun-- the farther I am removed from the actual event the better the experience seems.

Parenthesis: The theory of Memory
(Memories are based on fact but they are preserved by post-discussion and review. Most of my childhood memories have pictoral documentation. Why is that? As time progresses, the pictures help me review the event in my mind so that the most reviewed aspects of the event are what I now have preserved in pictures. My wife asked me the other day if I remember the first time something clicked in my mind. Nothing came to mind-- how sad. She had 2 such memories. In St. Augustine's confession, he goes to great lengths in the discussion of memory. The memory is an amazing thing and curious. St. Augustine says "What happens when the memory itself loses something, like when we forget anything and try to recall it? Where do we search for it but int he memory itself? There, if one thing is offered for another, we refuse it umitl we find what we are looking for, and when we do find it, we recognnize that this is it. However, we couldn't do this unless we recognized it, nor could we have recognized it unless we remembered it. Yet we had forgotten it!" When Valerie asked me that question... immediately my mind began to race back through the annals of my life and times and tossed out various options for me to approve as fitting the criteria. To recall memories, one does not do anything physically but sit and think-- sometimes exhausting work and perhaps what you are doing now as you try to sort through this interesting phenomenon.)

If I haven't lost you: back to D.C.

... It was challenging to camp with 2 little girls. On more than one occassion the thought of heading home crossed our minds. But we tried to enjoy the happy moments. Having small children means choosing to do things that you might not normally do in such a historical and interesting city. Instead of touring the Capitol we instead visited an Aquarium. This was 800% more interesting to Lael and ended up being a very happy memory because of her excitement. Because Valerie had to feed the baby periodically-- that meant times when Lael and I could just relax and play "empty the contents of the diaper bag" under a shady tree. Such times are important parts of family vacations and the most important thing about our trip-- or lives-- whether we are at home or taking in the sites of powerful cities-- spending quality time with our families.

Thank you, Lord, for granting us that week. Help me remember the good times and help the girls remember them too!

Next week we are off to Nebraska to see all of Valerie's family. Her parents are celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary with family and close friends.