Last Two Weeks in September

 

After a few weeks at home, it was time to take Libby to Bellingham to attend Western Washington University. She was heartbroken as we left early Saturday morning. She struggled as she said goodbye to everyone. Saying goodbye to Gertie may have been the hardest. Poor girl.

We drove all day, stopped at IKEA for her bed, and then moved her into her shared house. It was a long day, and starting to build IKEA furniture at 10:00pm led to a few short fuses. Thankfully, we got everything built, with help from Aunt Katie who tagged along. We left her around midnight and crashed at a very questionable hotel before heading home early in the morning. It was a very long weekend, but we managed to get her safely moved and her bed is still holding strong. We even managed breakfast with some friends in Kirkland before we drove home. It was a crazy 1,200 miles in 34 hours.

The next Saturday I had my great nephews over. The five year old had seen some Halloween decorations up and asked me where Mr. Bones was, a long-loved skeleton decoration. This led to decorating for Halloween. The three year old was so excited when he saw the trash monster peeking out. He got a bad case of happy feet and kept signing monster. Most fun I've had decorating for Halloween in a long time.

Sunday I worked a library booth for the first ever Open Streets hosted by the Boise Bicycle Project. Latah was shut down to cars for a mile and was open to pedestrians and bicyclists. It was sunny and hot, but also a lot of fun. One of the Boise Bicycle Project employees even stopped by to say hi to me! Love this kid!

While I was keeping things running in Boise, Michael was assisting a work conference in Sun Valley. Usually I'm his plus one, but it wasn't feasible this year. So instead he took his friend Andrew. They managed not to get in too much trouble, there was a wee bit of fence jumping, but everyone survived, and he came home to me. I was a trifle worried he might run away with Andrew, but he resisted the temptation.

Five days later we took the whole family out to Chinese food. I was leaving the next day for seventeen days, and we wanted some time together. We ate a lot, talked a lot, and Sam tried crayfish for the first time. He was not impressed, but he did try it. Grace stuck to safe foods. The girl knows what she likes.

This pretty much covers September. We are alive, the kids continue to grow, the pets and parents continue to age. All is well.