Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Fall and Family

It took some time to recover from my shame, but I must admit our local librarians were cool and reasonable (I think it helps to grovel while holding an exceptionally cute baby.) So, they suggested we extend our lending time, so we could look for the book. But guess what? Sometimes no amount of searching is going to recover a missing item...

We made a spontaneous visit to Aunt Becky's. Uncle Dan, Julie and Grandma, Aunt Becky, Fiona and Molly gave us the red carpet treatment over the weekend. We squeezed in a movie, and another carousel ride, this time at the big mall. We rode bicycles. We found denim shorts for Max, also at the big mall. When we weren't running around having fun, we were at the dining table being fed. Well fed. Alex and Max played with Julie's Legos. William and Alex did some drawing... just like last time... and just like last time they used large books like a clipboard under their paper...

Guess which book they used and presumably left in Pasadena during our last visit... ? Yup! I SPY Treasure Hunt has been hanging out with the periodicals on the coffee table at Aunt Becky's. JOY! Relief. Redemption. It was a very good weekend.


Alex caught a tiger.


Maria rode the zebra.


Max, on a seahorse, followed Julie on her horse.

Today I will send our Pasadena family a thank you card for their exceptional hospitality. I will go to the library and return the missing/recovered book, and thank them for their patience. And finally I will pause and acknowledge that perhaps I have become a better library patron. Maybe I have matured, somewhat. The thing is, while I was fine tuning my life skills, we introduced four new lives to the world and they create a whole new set of variables. Ah, life. Except when I can't find my keys, the check book or my sanity, life is really, really good.


Uncle Dan brought out his motorized scooter... "Scooter" is now on at least 2 Christmas lists now!

When we got home we noticed our Autumn tree had really begun to drop leaves. Alex and Max love to rake the leaves. They learned the joy of raking with their Aunt Laura in Wisconsin. One tree, once a year leaves time and room to appreciate the job.




Fallen leaves can be appreciated on many levels.