Weekend at Jim and Missy's

These pictures encapsulate what I love so much about staying with relatives: away from the needs of our real lives (groceries, laundry, cooking, picking up after ourselves), we get the gift of time to really hang out with our kids. Of course, the girls love it, too, and not mostly because they get to hang out with their parents.

There is the outdoors for running


The new and different toys to explore


And, in this case, the added bonus of a pet to play with

(although, this turned out not to be a bonus for Eleri, whose reactions to Riley ranged from whimper to full-on cry).

And of course there are extra people to pay attention to you, get you markers when you ask, and read you books when you're parents are too busy (or too lazy, reading their cousins' Lucky and Entertainment Weekly magazine.) Finally, there is the special treatment, like late bedtime and movies (Clio watched her very first, Wall E; and then proceeded to watch her second, Cinderella, later the same day.)

So it should be no surprise when they don't want to leave. This afternoon Clio complained that she was covered in marker, and the conversation that ensued went like this:

That's okay, you'll take a bath later.
Missy has a bath?
You'll take a bath at our house- we're going home later.
pause.
No--I don't want to do that plan.

This morning, before anyone else was up, Clio wanted to go outside in the snow flurries. We decided to walk to the local playground, but halfway there, Clio started stamping her feet and crying, I don't want to go to the playground!

Why not, you ask? Don't be silly: she wanted to return to Jim and Missy's a wonderland far superior to any playground.

And so we did.