Baby Owen

Owen Lawrence Summers was born May 17, 2013 at 1;52 AM.  7.8 lbs, 19 inches tall.  This is our first Grandson,  and the first child for Brooke and Scott Summers.  I was able to stop in the middle of a trip to Sacramento California, and fly into Phoenix in time to welcome Owen into life.  It sure brought back vivid memories of our two children being born.  Very proud of Brooke who was in labor over 30 hours without any food or sleep.  Finally she gets to hold her child and he dumps his very first payload all over her and Scott gets the cleanup duty.  I'm telling you,  they never quit doing that.
 I was in the hospital with Brooke and Scott, and also stayed with them at their house for the first 3 days with their new child. It's a tough adjustment for a young couple bringing a newborn home.  Every parent knows there's not much sleep in the house for a few weeks, but I actually slept quite well in the spare bedroom with the door closed.  I do enjoy being a Grandparent and am really lucky to have my two granddaughters living only 10 minutes away.  Too be honest I wouldn't want to start all over again but this is really fun.

Career Break

Barclays Announcment;  Senior Executive Julie Roddy, Director of Retail Lending Services has decided to take a career break with effect from 4 May 2013, to allow her to return to America to spend more time with her family. Julie has made tremendous customer centric improvements within Mortgage Services over the past two years including the implementation of the Mortgage Originations Program. We'd like to thank Julie for her personal support and her contribution to Barclays to date.

This is what Julie decided to do in December of last year.  We have missed out on family and friends, and would like to spend time with our grandkids in Arizona who we hardly know.  Julie will take up to a year off and will have a job with Barclays to go back to if she chooses.  We will now adjust to living together 24/7 which we've never done.  We will live at our lake home in Washington State for the summer and then be in Arizona for the winter. 

Beer Bike

 

 

 

This might be the greatest invention I've ever seen and found it in downtown Budapest.  This can be rented for 180 euros, ($230.00).  This includes seats for 12 beer drinkers, up to 60 mugs of cold beer, music, and a sober driver.  You can tour the city but of course everyone has to peddle. Go where ever you want in 4 hours, with frequent pit stops also included.  I can't think of any better way to see Europe. 

 

Budapest, Hungary

 

 

 

 

Last weekend we flew to Budapest, the capitol city of Hungary, for the Easter holiday.  A short 2 hour flight got us out of the cold London winter to a very popular European city.  The modern 5 star Budabar Hotel was our base and it worked out well as it was in the heart of the city center.(bottom pic)  Ranked as the 25 th most beautiful city in the world, Budapest still couldn't hide the destruction of WWII which we see often in Europe.(second pic).  The name Budapest came from 2 military forces in 829 AD, Buda and Pest, each based on opposite sides of the Danube River.  We had brilliant weather half the time and more nasty rain our last day.  A local river cruise was a good way to see the city on a rainy day.  The Hungarian stew and the hot spiced wine kept us warm as we checked another great European destination off our list.