Overdue

We had a very nice, but long overdue visit with our friends from MN the past few days. Ryan, Leah and Lauren flew in this week. We got to spend time with them on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We took care of Lauren Thursday night and had fun spoiling her at our house. I gave her some rides on the gator, which she loved. We had popsicles, swam in the pool and laughed a lot. On Saturday night, we went to a cookout in their honor and had fun playing bags, eating and being silly. It was very hard to see them go, Mom was very, very upset last night. Mom and I are hoping to make a solo flight later this summer to spend some time with them at their cabin. Schedules are busy, so we really hope something works out. Lauren is such a cutie and fit right in with our family -- you never would have known it was our first visit with her. Even Zach bonded with her and gave her hugs.

Poor Zach had a rough weekend. He happened to be standing in the wrong spot last night when the wind blew a door shut. His face caught the brunt of it, leaving a black and blue line down his entire left cheek. Then today, he got stung by a bee. He is very afraid of flies, bees and insects in general, so this experience did not help things. Fortunately, he is not allergic and seems to be ok tonight.

We went for a nice hike this morning and then to a park to play. I've been telling Mom a lot lately that I'm "outgrowing things" -- like the sprinkler park, playground and baby pool. Mom is perplexed and sad at the same time. She knows I am not intentionally being unappreciative, but it is frustrating for her and Dad when they try hard to do fun stuff for us and we don't have a good time. Hopefully, it is just a phase, or we're going to have to figure out what's really going on here. Maybe we need to take some things away to make them be special and fun rather than taken for granted.

I've got a break this week in between tennis lessons and swim lessons. We have a few things to catch up on, but it should be a relaxing week before the Holiday.

Hope you are doing fabulously well!
K.