The past two weeks have been spectacular, nearly every day packed with family - enjoying each other's company, celebrating big moments, and having as much fun as we could squeeze into every minute.
First, my brother, James AKA Rusty and his family visited. They moved from Arizona to Florida and stopped by for a few days during their drive across the country. It was one of the best family visits. Prior to them visiting, my niece, Harper and I created a list of things we wanted to do while they were visiting, and we did just about everything on the list and then some. We walked the dogs, visited parks, bookstores, the Overland Park Arboretum, Deanna Rose, Wonderscope, Crown Center/Union Station, and played games, practiced the ukulele together, and even popped into my favorite cat cafe.
The first thing Harper wanted to do was visit my favorite cat cafe, Whiskers, which is in Westport. My brother, no surprise since he is not a cat lover, was the most popular with the cats. Harper was chosen by this sweet kitten. Unfortunately they already have four dogs and a bunny, and I have a Robert, so none of us went home with a cat.
The Overland Park Arboretum was ridiculously beautiful and they had a really fun storytime too.
Harper treated us to a few stories when we visited the library where I work.
The whole family showed up to enjoy the stellar Strang Park while I helped set up a Walk and Read. And then Harper and I walked both ways and she read me the two books. She was a Walk and Read expert after that so she walked the family around and read the two books to everyone again. It was really special to enjoy the Walk and Read experience as a patron with my family.
We pet lots of animals and fed the goats at Deanna Rose, which was a hit.
Just two days after I said goodbye to James AKA Rusty and his crew, I hopped on a plane to Tucson to see my niece, Autumn in her first of six performances of the Frozen musical. It was a dream come true for me, and a lot of people helped make it happen - coworkers, my boss, my family, and most importantly, Robert. In a perfect world, I would be at all my nieces and nephews' major events, but because I do not live close to them, it's just not possible. Getting to be in the audience at Autumn's musical was one of the best moments of my life thus far. She did such a beautiful job, and as her grandma Debbie put it, she was such a ham. I enjoyed every minute of it.
Though I spent less than 48 hours in Tucson, we made every minute count. I went to Tohono Chul, one of my favorite places, a whopping three times in those 48 hours. I got a tour of where my brother, Scott works and even got to meet people he works with and see Scott in action. Though Autumn was busy preparing for another performance on Friday, I still got to spend some of Friday with her. It was another wonderful visit.
Savannah and I were very excited to see her big sister on stage!
I sat with mom, Scott, and Savannah during the performance. As you can see, we were clearly out of our minds with excitement in this picture.
But Savannah soon fell asleep. The excitement was too much!
We don't have any of the pictures from the performance yet, but after it was over, we all crowded the stage and anxiously waited for Autumn to appear. She was pretty much mobbed by her adoring fans.
Look at all of Autumn's fans!
The following morning, as soon as Autumn woke up, I asked her a question I've been dying to ask all these months of facetiming and watching her play with all her slime. I asked her to bring out the slime. All of it! And we had a nice little slime party. She has about as much slime as I have books, so I can't tell you what my favorite one was. But I finally got to touch the slime after hearing her talk for months about how squishy, crunchy, and farty it all was. It was another dream come true.
After a hearty breakfast, Autumn, my mom, and I decided it was the perfect time to jump on the trampoline in the blazing heat. And no one died or threw up. Autumn encouraged my mom and I to practice all kinds of silly faces, so we not only did human popcorn kernel exercises, we also exercised our faces too. I believe Autumn was doing one of the faces in this picture. Or was she thinking about the hearty breakfast she just had? Who knows!
We explored Tohono Chul and the children's museum, which was adorable and a lot of fun. Because I had extra time on my hands when I flew in on Thursday I visited Tohono Chul the day before too!
After exploring the children's museum at Tohono Chul, Autumn went to rehearsal and Savannah settled in for a nap. My mom suggested just the right thing. A visit to Seven Cups for tea. It was incredible!
We picked three teas to try and a few treats including a tea egg and a red bean cake. All of it was delicious.
We walked around 4th Ave before picking up Savannah and heading back to Tohono Chul for live music and dancing.
Savannah fell asleep mid-dance pose. So much excitement!
On Saturday morning Scott drove me to the airport where I flew to Dallas to spend the weekend with Robert, his sister, Abby, her boyfriend, Joseph, and Robert's mom, Audrey. After visiting Abby and Joseph last November, we made a plan to go to the Canton Flea Market together, and we had a great time enjoying each other's company, eating stellar food, and wearing our shoes out walking the flea market.
We came home yesterday evening, and though I'm thoroughly pooped, I am flying high with all these wonderful memories.
I love reading these family posts!!
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