Are you my brother?

My uncle Skippy (dad's youngest brother and last living sibling) and Donna Bolander (Dad's niece that is two years older than him) drove down from Blackfoot, ID for a visit last weekend.

They arrived Friday evening and we had a very nice visit. They had started driving around 3 in the afternoon and hadn't eaten dinner yet when they got here. Because I thought they were coming Saturday morning we had already eaten, so I went ahead and made dinner for them. Dad, forgetting that he had already eaten dinner twice (once with Eli & the boys and once with me after my class) had dinner with them also. It's been so hard to get dad to finish a meal lately, it was good to see him eating so good.

Friday evening we all had a very nice visit and dad was actually more conversational then usual, but poor Donna...she has been on dad's mind quite a bit lately. He has been telling me stories about how he and Aunt Verna (his twin sister) grew up playing with Donna...About every twenty minutes, dad would ask Donna how things are in "her neck of the woods," and did she drive all the way to Provo.

Uncle Skip has two cute little Pomeranian dogs, Mandy & Buttons, that he brought with him. "The Girls" as Uncle Skip calls them, stayed at our house when Uncle Skip and Donna went to their hotel. Shortly after Uncle Skip left, Mandy jumped up on dad's lap...I think she thought he was Uncle Skip...it was really cute. Dad was surprised when she jumped onto his lap, and even though he tried to act like she was bothering him you could tell he liked it.

Dad is usually a late sleeper and on Saturdays we all like to sleep in, so at 9 a.m. when Uncle Skip rang the doorbell we were all still in bed. After letting them in, I went to tell dad that Uncle Skip & Donna were here...of course I had to remind him they had come by last night.

While dad was getting dressed Eli & Uncle Skip went to get breakfast. By the time they got back, dad had joined Donna and I in the living room. As they came in the door with the bags of food, dad asked who Eli's guest was. Poor Uncle Skip, I think he was a bit surprised that dad didn't recognize him.

For lunch we met some other Thomas family relatives for a barbecue in the park. It was a beautiful day and turned out to be a pretty good time. Tanner got some good pictures of dad and Uncle Skip together.

I like this one best.








Just a note: last night as dad & I were taking our evening walk we saw someone walking a Pomeranian. When I made a comment about how much it looked like Uncle Skip's dog Mandy, Dad had no recollection of Uncle Skip, Donna and the dogs coming to visit.