Calm & Quiet

I guess when you're faced with a major family vacation, the weekends leading up to it are fairly calm and quiet -- like this weekend was for us.

(Disneyland = 2 weeks from today!!!)

It rained on Saturday (a delightful thunderstorm), and that relieved Aly of mowing the lawn. She was soooo disappointed....

....NOT!!

(But she still had to

do dishes and clean the bathroom.)

The HIGHLIGHT of the weekend was being able to spend an evening with my brother Greg

and his family. They were here visiting from the glorious state of Colorado. Greg is one funny (and gassy) dude! We enjoyed a delightful barbecue (in the rain) and a crazy game of Rummy played with Rook cards.... an old family tradition.

Greg's son, Logan and Adam had a blast reconnecting. Little boys (aged 7 and 6 respectively) are amazing. All you have to do is give them a spoon and a crayon (or a couple brillo blocks) and they can imagine super heroes, villains and whole villages that need saved. The only time they came up for air was when one of the superhero boys, in the act of saving someone important, accidentally knocked a bottle of Famous Dave's BBQ sauce off the shelf in the storage room. A quick clean up and they were back to battling bad guys.

(Both boys, in anticipation of seeing each other said to their parents, "I wonder if Logan/Adam will recognize me because I grew so much and lost some teeth!" It's only been 10 months since they've seen each other!)

Another highlight of the weekend was Calvin and my first ballroom dance class. It was HILARIOUS!!! Calvin has no rhythm... seriously. I love the guy, but after about three claps on the beat, he's lost it.

I, on the other hand, have zero coordination skills. I can keep a beat til the cows come home (as long as I'm not clapping along with Calvin), but I trip over my feet ... standing still.

We make a GREAT dance team!

The teachers, a cute little married couple who LOVE to dance kept watching us and giving us encouraging glances and thumbs up... but you could read in their eyes that there is no hope.

Well, we'll show them!!!

This week we're going to move the coffee table out of the living room and practice the cha-cha til our feet are bloody stubs. AND WE CAN DO IT TOO!!!

Until you turn on the music and we have to find the beat...

and then start dancing.

(Sorry, no pictures of dance class!)