The Heart Of An Awl

Steven and Hayley

On Monday we bid farewell to the beautiful Oregon coastline and went to visit my cousin Valkyrie and her family in Verboort, a farming community about 20 miles from Portland. I don't know how all those family connections work, but my mother and Valkyrie's dad are first cousins.

They have two girls almost the same age as Steven and Sean, Hayley and Robin, and the four kids got along perfectly together.

I asked Steven and Sean if they were having a good time with those girls and they both said yes. I asked Sean how he could be having such a good time with those girls when he never plays with girls at all in San Diego. Sean refused to answer, but Steven said that those girls were exceptions.

Sean, Christy & Steven

We drove into Portland on Tuesday and had lunch with my friend Christy, whom I met through the brain tumor group I used to help out with before Steven was diagnosed. Her niece Shannon is a longterm survivor of a brain tumor.

Wednesday morning we bid farewell to Oregon and headed to Coeur d'Alene. We picked Doug up at the airport in Spokane, and on Thursday Doug and the boys went to the first day of a 2-day fly fishing school. After dinner they practiced fly fishing in the park.

Perfecting their casting

Coeur d'Alene is a poetic-sounding name, which, when translated, means Heart of an Awl. Some things sound better in French.

It's beautiful here in Coeur d'Alene, but very hot, temps in the 90's. Today they actually get to go fishing to try out those newly learned skills, and I'm going along, no chicken livers involved.

- Kathleen