Best Visit. Ever.

My favorite moment of this visit happened today at Costco, of all places.  I was pushing Brianna in the shopping cart.  Lacie, who had been in the cart too, was a bit fussy, so Laurel took her out and walked off in search of peanut butter.  Tom and Walt were off getting paper products.  Brianna was being cute and suddenly she grabbed my arm and hugged it. She looked up at me and I said, "I love you."  She smiled and said "I love you too."  Worth traveling 800 miles for!  And l, of course, feeling like a soft marshmallow inside, I ended up buying two books for the girls.

We started the day at the beach, around 11 a.m.  Bri's play on the monkey bars required assistance from lots of people.

Lacie sat on the lawn while people played with her and Laurel took pictures.

Tom, Bri and Walt headed off across the grass to see if they could get Bri's ladybug kite to fly, which they did.  Bri's interest in it lasted about 20 seconds, then she and Alice Nan went off to chase birds while Tom and Walt were left holding the kite.

Bri eventually came back to the grass for lunch.

Eventually, everybody started getting sleepy and it was time to go home, briefly.

Around 4 p.m., we met Laurel again, at the mall in front of Starbucks.  We were tasked with keeping Bri occupied while Laurel interviewed a prospective nanny.  The three of us (Walt, Bri and I) invented a new game: "wack a finger."

Then we met Tom again at Costco to go shopping for staples and to hit all the free samples, which Bri loved

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It was the first time Lacie had ridden in the cart.  I pushed the girls around while Laurel went off to look at dresses for the girls to wear to Fiesta Days this fall.

When we finished at Costco, we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner...

Then we all said goodbye (since we are leaving tomorrow morning) and Walt and I headed off to meet Alice Nan, Joe and Joe's son-in-law and granddaughter (2 weeks older than Lacie) for a brief visit.

The evening ended with Alice Nan and Walt having a lengthy phone chat with Norm, who sounds just fine, thank goodness.

This has been a whirlwind trip, but one of the best visits I've had since Brianna was born.  I'm so glad we came.

 "I remember this being more fun when I was 11," Tom said.