Live Long & Prosper

Mikala's grandmother turned ninety last weekend, and all of her descendants gathered at Yosemite National Park to celebrate. Josie drew a beautiful family tree for the occasion, complete with tire swing and treehouse. We won't try to replicate that here, but we will show you the main trunk: Grandma with her three children. That's Mikala's dad, Burns, on the left, and his brother Steve and sister Carol on the right.

And our own branch: Mikala's Dad & stepmother Kathy (on either side of Grandma), brothers Danny (next to Dad), and Jeff's (far left, with his girlfriend Sarah). And us, of course!

To complete the cast of characters: Steve and his wife Jan have two grown kids, Juli and Jimmy. Carol and her husband Don have two, Brian and Elaine. With Brian's girlfriend (also Sarah), we had eighteen of us at the big birthday dinner at the Ahwahnee Hotel Sunday night.

The Ahwahnee is a gorgeous blend of 1920s luxury and nature's grandeur -- stained glass, antique kilims, huge exposed beams, colonnade supported by living trees. Fortunately we had remembered to check -- about ten minutes before we had to leave for the airport -- the e-mail Dad sent out about the dress code for the dining room there, so we had managed to shove a dress for Mikala and a collared shirt and long pants for Simon into the suitcase at the last minute. Simon had some trepidation about whether his outfit would pass muster -- would there be someone at the door checking to make sure his shirt had a collar and his pants were long? What would happen if a scofflaw tried to sneak in with shorts on -- would they get arrested? We assured him that he could definitely avoid a lengthy prison sentence by learning to iron his own shirt; Danny sat in on the ironing lessons too.

It turned out that proper attire was only the beginning of the Ahwahnee Code of Conduct:

We loved this sign, because it could conceivably condone any behavior -- kickboxing, frog dissection, gospel singing, sudoku -- depending on where you posted it. The danger, of course, is that All Persons may not be on the same page regarding the Intended Use of the Premises. A certain member of our party, for instance, had to be convinced that throwing the red darts he had fashioned earlier in the day out of Laughing Cow cheese wax and sharp twigs was probably not on the list of Intended Uses. We are proud to say that with careful planning, subtle prodding, and the judicious administration of Shirley Temples, we were able to focus his attention on more suitable activities. These included: reading his Lava Lamp poem to Grandma (whose original lava lamp -- blue, with white goo that took forever to warm up -- looms large in the memories of several of her grandchildren), photographing Sarah's gold high heels from several angles, grilling Brian about X-Men psychology, singing Happy Birthday to Grandma, and thoroughly enjoying the cake.

Here's the birthday girl herself, surrounded by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren:

Live long and prosper, indeed -- now we know it can be done. Happy Birthday, Grandma! Thanks for giving us a wonderful family.