Hanging with the boys

I've been busy for the past month, and remiss in not writing, but having recently returned from a ten day trip to Missouri, I'm ready to return and talk about a myriad of topics.

Cole Robert "Cole Bob" Kreienkamp was born into the Kreienkamp clan last November 22nd.
He becomes the first grandchild of Sue and Paul Kreienkamp, father of Matthew Robert, my son-in-law.  Caitlin and Matt have done well with baby Cole, who was always expected to be a boy.  The family photo features 3 of Matt's 4 brothers, and a wife.  His mom, Sue, has turned all of them into fine young men, who know how to say "yes, I'll get right on that now".  Matt vacuums, irons, cooks, and is great with children.   Caitlin is free to pursue her career knowing all is well at home.

So, what do I think of Cole?   He's just great, and while my wife had ventured north twice before we met face-to-face, I'd at least seen him on the Apple version of Skype.  Holding him was another matter entirely.  Here he is sitting with me and Ripley, at Caitlin's home in St. Louis.  He's now sitting up, and Ripley is falling down - he seems to like Ripley, but probably because Caitlin has two dogs of her own so Cole is aware of animals.  Beagles are great dogs for children however, as they'll take a lot of poking and prodding without complaint.  We had gone to Missouri to witness Cole's baptism, and later that day a party with five dozen relatives and neighbors and friends came to Caitlin and Matt's home.  Everybody brought food - I must have gained five pounds that day, so now I'm back in Florida I have a mission to accomplish.  I'll probably add some photos to my FaceBook page, but for now I'm offering this as my first blog entry in over a month.  Hopefully that long dry spell is over.