Too much to say

This past week my family came to visit, and as if it weren't already a daunting enough task to try to capture that whole visit in one foul swoop, I just got all caught up on my sister's blog and now I really feel daunted. Not only am I going to steal most of her pictures, but I don't have the energy to write nearly as much as she did, so this will pale in comparison for those of you who have read your daily digest of Alison. For those of you who haven't, however, pay no attention to this self-effacing intro! Here is an awesome recap of my awesome time with my family!

Let's start with the photo shoots, because those are the prettiest. Alison is now an actual professional photographer, with her own business and the tax code to prove it, so I was so excited for her to turn her camera in our direction. She's still working hard on editing some of her shots, but she gave us a sneak preview of a few she'd already finished.

I call this series "Sadie: Future Ballerina?"

So she's lying in the grass. She's got a tutu on (thanks Beany!) and that sure looks like a plie to me!

This one I call "Garden Secret."



Anne Geddes eat your heart out! And I know this next one isn't the happiest face, but she just looks so beautiful and expressive in this photo. I love it.



One last one, here is our happy family.



Isn't she good? Now we'll turn to the unposed pictures, supposedly capturing our time together, except whenever I was having a really good time, I was too busy to get out the camera. For instance, Alison and Ava came up to stay with me in Oakland and we had a Girl's Day, which had been my Christmas present to them, and I think should now be an annual event, we had so much fun, and yet I didn't take a single picture. We went for a run along the bayshore, we went out to lunch, we made little imprints of little hands and/or feet, it was a stunningly beautiful day, Sadie and Ava were dressed in identical outfits, but did I record any of it?

I did take pictures the next day, when the rest of the family came up to see us and I took my nephews to the Chabot Space & Science Museum (which is a little heavy on the "space" for me). Here they are, being astronauts, and goofballs.

And because we like to stay busy, another day that week was spent at an amusement park/zoo/playground called Happy Hollow. Jack was delighted to get to run around with his cousins and Sadie was less than delighted to spend so much time in the stroller. (But it was hot, and even hotter with her on me!)

Jack taught Ava how to hold her hand flat when she feeds a pony and followed Thomas onto every ride he wanted to try. Some of them were extremely unpopular rides, apparently, because there were no lines and the boys got to ride them over and over again. But to be honest, I think Jack was just as excited about the water fountain as he was about any of the rides. He must have spent half an hour splashing and squirting with Ava, and was drenched by the time he was finished, but that huge smile never left his face. Two-year-olds are easy to please.

Bathtime with Ava was almost as fun as that water fountain, and even better because it happened every night! I have never heard so much giggling coming from a bathroom!

That was Alison telling Ava "you're one!' and Jack "you're two!" They thought that was hilarious for some reason.

I am running out of steam now, so we're going to move toward the conclusion: in sum, lots of time was spent with cousins and aunts and uncles and grandma and grandpa and Jack slept very poorly but lived very well. He and Thomas played so well together this trip, I was so happy to see that. Thomas actually protected Jack, from daddy T-Rexes or scrappy cousins; I saw him throw an arm around him more than once. Ava was a fun playmate, too, but a girl with three older brothers knows how to smack people around to get what she wants and Jack was a little intimidated by that. Who knew? Matthew and Ethan meanwhile adored Sadie and asked me if they could hold her about a hundred times a day. The only time Matthew appeared to feel otherwise was immediately after an enormous spit-up. Aside from that, they doted on her. As did her aunt and her uncle and her grandparents. Consensus was that she is a *very nice* baby and we are very, very lucky. I couldn't agree more.

So much fun! Jack misses his family already, and so do I.