PA

Six cousins in a box!

We love visiting Brooke's family in Carlisle. It's so convenient, having two of his three siblings AND their parents, all in the same town. And that town is a manageable six-hour drive from us. Now if only we could get Allison to move in an Easterly direction. Actually, I'd like all of my family to move Eastward, too. C'mon, people!




But yes, a highlight of this trip was the fantastic and enormous sandbox that Bobby built for the twins' birthday. My children LOVE sand. LOVE. More often than not, Isobel comes home from preschool with sand in her hair and shoes and underwear.

Another highlight was watching Stella and Maggie play together. Maggie is Brooke's parents' Brittany puppy; she's about a month older than Stella. They loved each other! It was a huge relief for me to not have to watch Stella all the time; she and Maggie (and the ol' timer, Simon) ran around the Shifflers' nice big yard all week. Next time we go up, I'll have to remember to get a video of puppy playtime. They were moving too fast for me to really get any good photos with both pups in the same frame.





Grandma and Papa have a nice-looking and sort of working piano that we all like to play a bit when we visit. We don't have a piano, so all four of us fight over anything with 88 keys. I try not to think about how ridiculous it is that I have a degree in piano performance; I only play about once a week, in church. Brooke, whose playing-by-ear abilities are miraculous, has even fewer opportunities. How depressing. Now I'm feeling sorry for us, which I should definitely not do because we have this adorable JUDE to gaze at all day every day!

This last photo is by Nicole. Oh, how I love it so!