After we got settled in our new mansion by the bay some more peculiar things started occurring. Everyday we would go home from school and each of us would have a new outfit on our bed. You know you are getting spoiled when third graders start realizing you never wear the same outfit twice or you start to wonder why you don't get new weekend outfits too?

 On another day we walked home from the bus stop and there was a brand new MG convertible sitting on our driveway. I immediately wondered if my long lost dad, Michael Langdon, was paying us a visit to make sure we were treating his old home right. Or quite possibly he was there to take me home to Hollywood?

 How wrong I was!!

 "Kids, do I have a surprise for you??!!!" Our dad said it with such enthusiasm it made me back up a few steps.

 Our mom magically appeared looking like a robotic homemaker from the 1950's. She wiped her hands on her apron that was plastered with the slogan, Florida Wives Bake it Better. The huge smile was equally as scary as our dads. None of this was adding up. We lived in a very small home 20 feet from a set of railroad tracks in West Virginia to all of this in a matter of a month.

 We followed our parents outside. My dad ran to the back of the shiny white MG convertible. My mom quickly shuffled to the front in her loud ass Dr. Scholl's heels. She ran her hands along the car in Vanna White fashion as she said, "Ta-da!!"

 "Here's our new car," dad added in.

My brother was the first one that spoke up.

 "Does this mean we have to get rid of the new Cadillac?" He asked.

"I don't understand how we will all fit in it," I said as I nodded at my siblings.

 "That's just it kids; we now have two cars!" Mom exclaimed. "Can you believe it?!"

 "To be honest, no," our sister, Allison, stated.

My dad appeared flustered at that comment as he tried to squeeze us all in the new car for a spin. The car was fun! I have many good memories of us taking both cars to the beach. At stoplights we would toss a tennis ball from one car to the other. Life was good for the 'New Face of Apple'. I still wondered what that meant, but feared asking it would make the new life go away.

Two weeks after the new car we came home to a strange vehicle on the driveway. It looked so space-agey for the 70's that I was sure this HAD to be my long lost dad. Wrong, dad bought us a new Cobra RV.

Their exact words, "this will be a great bonding experience for us to go camping!"

Possibly for children that were not becoming spoiled brats. We lived in a shack that was pretty much like camping every single day. The last thing we wanted to do was to actually leave our pool and fancy house to go sleep in that in the woods.

It was clear our parents could feel our enthusiasm waning, "Great news! We're going camping this weekend!"

(To be cont'd with our first camping excursion)