The Last Days of Sam

Dear Laney,

We packed a lot of action into the final days of Karen and Sam's visit. I know there are a lot of photos in this post; the below-average ones were taken by me, and the beautiful ones were donated by our friends Meghan and Cedar's Mom. Good life lesson: It's helpful to be friends with photographers. Now we just need to make friends with a stylist and a hair and make-up guy, and we'll be set!

We went to the river for one last swim, and met up with Cedar and her parents. We went to dinner after, where Cedar got stung on the finger by a bee. She recovered from the injury in about 60 seconds with a minimum of fuss, making her the John Wayne of babies.

(This is maybe my favorite photo of Sam ever - thanks, Brooke!)

And for every trip we took to the river, we had to have a communal bath in an effort to keep the sand out of your nethers.

It took us about five days, but we finally figured out that the secret to mealtime peace was to give you and Sam your own dinner table. The people at this smaller table shared the same agenda: Eat as fast as possible, so you can go outside and share your "leftovers" with the dogs. As a result of Sam's visit, Gus and Ella have now been enrolled with Jenny Craig.

For one of our final outings, we took you to the Children's Museum, which I think you both enjoyed. There was a family of kids who were hogging all of the buggies from the grocery store display, and I thought Karen and I were going to have to throw down. One of the older girls from this group told you not to touch her cart, and I considered shoving her head down into the water table. This is when I realized why - despite all of the suggestions I have left in their Suggestion Box - the Children's Museum does not feature an open bar.

To celebrate Sam's last night, you two had a dance party on the deck. I don't know why you wanted to run around naked and flop down on the floor like you were sliding into home. But you do a lot of things that make no sense to me.

The night after Sam left, you took a bath alone, and halfway through, started hollering: "Sam! 'Ere are you, Sam?!?" Turns out Sam was on a plane with her mom, peeing on her plane seat and generally giving her mom a splitting headache. This is why open bar on planes = a given.

Glad you girls made it home safely - we're already looking forward to your next visit!

Love,

Mom