July 19th, Fernley, Nevada at Uncle Jimmy's

Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Day 24
Uncle Jim and Aunt Sharri Lou’s house, Fernley, Nevada

Today was another wonderful day visiting Uncle Jim and Aunt Sharri Lou, and their cute kitty named Tigger. Today was Sheldon’s birthday – Happy 8th birthday Sheldon! Rodney and Uncle Jim ran errands this morning, got the oil changed in the truck, went to Wal-Mart, got gas, bought a new water filter, etc. The kids and I hung out with Aunt Sharri and I did some laundry. We found the local pool and went to the post office. It was nice to just sit and relax and chat with Sharri.

Brownie had fun this morning because she got to come to the house with us. She hung out in the backyard for part of the morning and then was calm enough to come inside for a while. The cat disappeared while Brownie was there, but he showed up later again, once we took Brownie home.

Later in the afternoon, when the “boys” were back, we came back to the trailer, had lunch and took the kids to the pool for an hour and a half or so. Sheldon and Brianna had a great time going down the water slides at the pool (this is the Fernley Public Pool). It got a little cloudy and finally cooled down, and we had a bit of light rain. And then we went back to Jim and Sharri’s for dinner and birthday cake. Sheldon opened his gift from Grandma Owls, and he loved it. He also got some money from Jim and Sharri which he will use to buy something he likes. Uncle Jimmy also gave Sheldon a model of a 1953 Pickup Truck that we all think is pretty cool.

We talked a lot and there were lots of stories about the cabin and I thought it was so neat to have so much in common with someone who I’ve only met about 4 times in my life. To be able to talk about a common place that is obviously special to many people in the Casey family was nice, and even Sheldon and Brianna were able to contribute to the conversation. I also learned a few things about how it was growing up for Jim and Bill and how it was a bit different for my dad, being so much younger than the other two brothers. We found out how Jim and Sharri met and got married. That was a nice story and they have been married for 51 years as of July 7th! Congratulations! That’s a long time and they are obviously still happy.

Tomorrow we are going to meet for breakfast and I am going to be very sad to have to leave here the day after tomorrow. These are very special people and we have all felt very welcomed here with them.