Squishy Tulips: Pass the Baby

Last week my brother, Scott and his wife, Kristin, flew in with my nieces, Savannah and Autumn. We all went to the Lake of the Ozarks to visit with my dad and his partner, Lisa. It was a wonderful visit.

I had many laughs flipping through the pictures from the trip and happily favorited several for my blog. Before I knew it, I had favorited over 30 pictures and videos! This is far too many for a blog post so I whittled it down some (but not much).

Scott and the crew flew in late Saturday night and he promptly plopped Savannah in my arms. If I'm going to be honest, I was hoping to see them hold the baby for awhile before it was my turn. I wasn't sure what to do or if Savannah could hold up her head. Or if she would take one look at me and scream in holy terror. Thankfully, no screaming, only curiosity and acceptance.

She is one of the sweetest, most content babies I've met. And while I don't know a lot about holding babies, I meet a lot at the library!

When Autumn walked in that night she looked at the couch and said, "this is where you read with me!" And she was right! I mostly read with her on our downstairs couch. So many warm fuzzies with that declaration!

Margo and Josie wanted to know, "WHO DIS??"

Margo and Josie were very gentle. Josie was curious and Margo was jealous. To be fair, Margo is the baby in our home.

Josie and Autumn were instant best friends. Both Margo and Josie LOVE kids, so we were pretty sure they were going to be super excited to meet Autumn and Savannah. What we didn't know is that Autumn and Josie's energy levels matched perfectly.

Originally, Josie and Margo were going to be boarded at the doggie daycare we use, but we got bumped at the last minute. Thankfully, the owners of the Airbnb granted us an exception and let them join us. This worked out for the best because Josie and Autumn were inseparable.

Watching Dad and Lisa meet Savannah for the first time was one of the best moments of my life. Scott immediately plopped Savannah into my dad's arms just like he did with me the night before, and seeing my dad's face light up makes me tear up with happiness any time I think about it.

We took a lot of little walks and did a lot of poking around and exploring. Autumn was always up for anything, anytime, whether she was tired or not.

Somehow, all the stars aligned and my Aunt Lil was able to drop in and hang out with us. Prior to the vacation I joked with my coworkers that it was going to be a week of "Pass the Baby," and that's exactly what happened, and Savannah loved everyone, and it was perfect.

We spent some time checking out dad's favorite thrift stores and in this picture, Scott is helping load up a treasure dad found. The picture makes me think of my childhood, how we were always finding and hauling around treasure.

My favorite moment of the trip was playing Let's Get Talking with everyone - Robert, Dad, Lisa, Scott and his crew. Dad was not big on playing games growing up, and now that I think about it, Scott usually couldn't sit still long enough to play many games. Let's Get Talking was the perfect game, and before we knew it, everyone was traveling down memory lane with dad.

Tuesday evening we walked around the castle at Ha Ha Tonka, and Wednesday morning we visited the spring, climbed the stairs and hiked to the Natural Bridge. Savannah loved everything but fell asleep during the hike.

Savannah lit up anytime she saw her mom, dad, or big sister. It never grew old to watch her contemplative face break out in a smile whenever she saw one of their faces.

Thursday Scott, Autumn, Robert, and I went poking around where Scott and I grew up. We found our old treehouse, which is now just a couple of boards, one of which is slowly being devoured by the poor tree that supported it for so many years.

We saw lots of deer during the trip, but on the hill above grandma and grandpa's house we saw several deer lying down, which was unusual.

Autumn has a wild imagination and the ability to come up with songs and stories on the spot. Savannah loves everything Autumn comes up with and I even got to hear Savannah chortle during Autumn's crazy fruit song.

My first babysitting attempt ended in disaster, with Savannah crying loud enough to bring the neighbors outside. Thankfully Scott and Kristin gave me another chance, and Savannah and I had a great time with the other baby in the house - Margo.

During this trip I read with another niece, Harper (we also read together every week) and Autumn joined us. Because Harper and I were on the second book in a series, Autumn read the entire first book to get caught up with us.

Autumn promptly finished the second book and then reread both books. Whenever we had any moment of downtime Autumn would either race around with Josie or curl up with a book.

Though the trip to the lake was perfect in so many ways, there was one more exciting thing that happened before everyone left. They all wanted to visit my library! So we did! Scott's face in this next picture captures all the wonder I feel when I go to work everyday.