love.

One of the best things about getting to spend a sixth of a year at our home places is the chance to spend a lot of time with our nephew and niece. They are sweet, sweet kids, and we love them so much. Unfortunately for you (because you have to miss out on their cuteness!), I'm not going to post their pictures here for the world to see.

We were glad we got to be there for our niece's first birthday party. Missing some of those important milestones is one of the toughest things about living as far away as we do. We usually have to miss our nephew's birthday, and it was rotten to have to wait weeks before I got to meet my niece last year, so we are happy for any opportunity to be there when we can! My sister-in-law definitely has talents in areas where I don't, and she created a super cute party (I suppose I am making assumptions here that it was her and not my brother-in-law, though he no doubt helped pull it all off!).

Several days during the summer, Brian's parents watched the kids during the day, and we got in a lot of play time on those days! We could always expect that we would (1) need to "work the fields" with play tractors and take them to the mechanic, and (2) put out a lot of fires. Both of these activities require a lot of crawling on your knees around and around the living room while pushing a toy vehicle. I seriously needed to invest in some knee pads. One evening when the kids were over, we had a hot dog roast, and then Brian's dad let R be a real fireman and put out the fire with the garden hose. Pretty cute.

At the end of the summer, I had to come back to Colorado by myself because my job started a couple of weeks earlier than Brian had to be back for classes. The night before I had to leave, the kids were super cute when they were leaving to go home and kept giving me big hugs and saying good-bye. Definitely made me tear up. Miss them!