Deja vu or This is not a joke

This morning, van slipped on the floor at dance class and broke his tibia.

The good news: no spica cast

The bad news: no weight on his broken tibia for 6 weeks.

In other words, by the time he gets this one off, he will have spent 1/4 of his third year of life in a cast. Not awesome.

Skipping Church

This morning, everyone was sick. Except me.

Everyone was coughing and sniffling and cranky. Except me.

So I went to church by myself. Just for the first hour, but let me tell you, I haven't gotten ready and to church so fast in years. And I even took notes. And had some thoughtful, personal, spiritual moments. I think it may have been years since that happened too. (And everyone voted for us when the Bishop announced we'd been called to teach the teen Sunday School class, which was nice of them.)

But when I came home from church and everyone woke up, we decided to go on a walk to the ducks. It's been so rainy here this week that we had to take advantage of the bright, beautiful day in case there aren't any more for a while.

We ate a light lunch

Stole a few moments

Chewed on some grass and sticks for a while

And we left feeling a lot better. The noses were still running, but everyone's spirits had been lifted a bit.


*We didn't get any pictures of the poor babies' meltdown on the way home from the park. You'll have to imagine that part. But now that everyone's in bed for the night, these are the moments we remember anyway.

Sunday in the Park With Jo

And Van

And Deedee Bird

How to Enjoy a Graham Cracker by Coco

(notice the multiple bruises on her forehead. products of pulling up on wobbly things.)

My Emma

Yesterday, GK gave Van a copy of this picture in a frame. He fell asleep with it tucked under his arm.

Emma's dad is GK's childhood friend. They are almost like brothers. This summer, camping at Refugio, Van and Emma really hit it off. Van would talk about her and ask to see her and hug her and kiss her. Both before and after his broken leg, Emma was so sweet right back.

Since then, Van brings up Emma and her family quite often. Sometimes out of the blue. The other day, he walked in to find GK looking at this picture and keeps asking to look at it. In fact, he's quite upset as we speak that I'm covering it to write this blog. "My Emma! My Emma!"

Maybe when they're older, we'll show them this picture and they'll be embarrassed at their early romance. Or maybe they'll hit it off in college and make their daddies brothers at last.

Until then, Vanny has his picture. And he can gaze at his Emma while he falls asleep.

In the meantime...

This blog has been bumped from the top of the priority list as we've tried to jumpstart a new year. So here is a sweet taste of life around here until new posts begin flowing once again.