Idaho Part 1 : The "Bothers"

This past month has definitely been a busy one for the House of Miller. Everything from Swimming Pool Benefit Auctions to tagging 4H pigs to work trips and (at long last) an official we-won't-be-home-n0r-are-we-working-on-the-road vacation. That's right folks....Anne, Eric and Gwen hit the road and drove the 11+ hours to Lewiston, ID to visit Anne's family. This was the first maiden voyage across two states with the young hooligan and it was relatively calm, strangly enough. However, could be suggested that feeding your wee daughter sausage off a supreme pizza for the first time, while staying in a hotel room, when you really need to sleep later and when you don't have the baby Gas-X in sight is a real inopportune time to discover that various elements of the pizza have the same heritable traits of gastric distress that they do in one or more of the parental units. "But," says the responsible (male) party, "she liked it!" In any case, the group emerged unscathed and triumphant from the 'wilds of Montana.'

The next order of business was to make sure Gwen got to meet both her uncles on that side of the fam. Philip, the one in the middle of the three of them, is a mechanic who officially graduated from the Lewis-Clark College degree program this past weekend. He has actively worked in his field for multiple years, meaning that when his sister has a breakdown of the automotive variety, she calls him and then is forced to imitate whatever sound she last heard before the malfunction. Stuart, the tall one at the end, is the youngest of the three and has worked for Microsoft the past couple years. He basically went straight from seeding fields to an apartment in Seatttle and a job with Mr. Gates. Anne is rather proud of both of them and, to cover for it, still refers to them by the older sister gradeschool nickname of "The Bothers." Gwen warmed up to them right away and it is believed they'll be allowed to see one another again. Of course, that all depends on whether or not Phil and Stu REALLy plan to start her off early on fireworks, loud toys and by teaching her all manner of deplorable habits.