Toes & Arches

I see that I'm going to have to move away from the "match two words" for titles, but I like this one, so I'm leaving it. I like pairing up words, especially when they lead a person to believe the topic is Podiatry when instead the subjects include a sister visit and a trip to a National Park. Ah-ha! For indeed, these last almost two weeks, we have been embroiling one of my sisters and her husband and children into our family life and you can only IMAGINE how glad they are to be home again! Marian, on the other hand, doesn't have to imagine.

Our picasa web albums will show the story in pictures, at least the story that leaves out spousal tiffs, moments if indecision, heat and thirst(mostly) and instead shows the smiling visages of two happy families having an unforgettable time. =) I think my favorite picture of the more "realistic" view is this one:

You may need to click on this one to enlarge it, but I LOVE the "in the moment" facial expression of Shane's yawn and Calysta's trudge, especially. This was our last "hike" and the kids were getting pretty tired! But I am ahead of myself.

Mike and Calysta got to our house on a Tuesday, two weeks ago, today. We hugged and exclaimed, drank each other in with our eyes, then waved goodbye holding their two sweet babies while Mike and Calysta headed back out to Santa Fe for a night away. We very responsibly took care of their children, allowing Cora to dine on a glass bead. Needless to say, I tried to take over the task of going thru diapers once Calysta got back, but had some difficulty. Instead, she gave me chocolate and flowers and thanked me for my "help".

Isn't she sweet?

So we did a few things, including a teeny bit of shopping and a pedicure, after which I rudely told Calysta I did not like French pedicures, and for my punishment, scraped my conservative nails on my shoe and wrecked both my big toenails.

We did got to Explora, and there are pictures of that, too. It is an incredible science museum for kids, hands-on and I confess that parents love it, too.

Eventually, Mike and Calysta had to leave, so we left with them. We went to Moab, UT, stayed the night in some little cabins and went to Arches National Park! It was really hot, but SO amazing! And Papa's who can't be glued to their laptops do indeed have fun with their kids!

At least you know we don't pretend. This is WHO WE ARE!

Cora, being the child of two responsible and fair-skinned parents, found the sunscreen and reapplied a refresher dose and rubbed it in:
We roasted brats, chicken and hot dogs at Mike and Calysta's cabin on our last night together. There's never enough time to chat, though, even though we had over a week together!
Calysta and I had a little adventure: She found a black widow spider next to our porch one night. So I appropriated her flip flops, smacked them together a few times to make sure they contacted each other VERY well, had her shine the flashlight right on the spider and WHACK! Two things happened. I dropped the flip-flops and jumped back and the flashlight ran out of batteries. For real. It just turned off. So I yelled to Calysta "turn it on! turn it on!" As if she'd turned it off because she lost interest or something. I raced inside, got more batteries because we wanted to know if I'd killed the spider(it was dark) but turns out the flashlight only takes very special batteries, not AA's. So I tried to use my phone light, while Calysta guffawed. Eventually, we decided that a small dark blob was the dead spider and I mashed it into the dirt just to make sure. Next time I pack spray!

Arches was lovely and eventually I'll figure out how to link our Picasa web to this website. I have LOADS of pictures on there!

Thank-you for coming, Calysta. Thank-you, Mike, for being willing to spend all that vacation on a sister-in-law and family. We loved having you! And you were great camping companions, too. At the very least, we can meet again sometime, I hope! =)