Catching Up

It has been quite a while since I've taken the time to sit down and fill the world in on the Browder family happenings.  This will most likely be the first of several posts to catch up.  I am also not going to promise to tell about events in chronological order so bear with me.  Here it goes....

Back in early May we were happy to welcome Brian's parents, Dave and Sarah (Teddy and Nan) for a long weekend in Tahoe.  It also happened to be Mother's Day weekend.  From the moment Sarah arrived at the Reno Airport on Thursday, May 6th, the fun began.  Because it was a Thursday I was in the Meals By Maggie kitchen making my weekly dinner so we had our amazing sitter, Mary, drive over the mountain with the boys to pick up Nan.  As soon as they arrived back in Incline the boys had Nan playing...riding bikes, digging the the dirt, reading books, and just wearing her out in general.  By the time Brian and I arrived home from work the boys were bubbling over with excitement after playing with Nan and Mary and taking a bath at the Hyatt where Nan was staying.

The next day Nan and I left Sam with one of our other favorite sitters, Jen, so Mommy and Nan could attend the Mother's Day Tea at Ben's preschool.  At the tea we were entertained by twenty little voices singing songs.  Later that afternoon we welcomed Dave after his brief visit in Modesto with Great-Grandpa before driving up the mountain for the rest of the weekend.  Later on in the day we were joined by Roger and Janet and all headed out to a great dinner at a local Italian restaurant owned by some of our friends.  We were joined at dinner by more friends, George and Irma, who own the home in Belize where we all stayed back in March.  It was the first meeting for Dave, Sarah, Janet and Roger with George and Irma.  We had a great time telling all of our stories about Belize and hearing more of George and Irma's, including how they met while George was in the Peace Corps in Belize.  After amazing food and good wine we parted ways for the evening with promises to George and Irma that we would be going to their home in Yo Creek again.

The rest of the weekend was fairly low key but included a lovely Mother's Day Bruch at Garwoods on the lake, all of us hanging out, cooking, eating, and reading the many new books Nan brought for the boys.  One book in particular called Moonshot tells the story of Apollo 11's first lunar landing.  What many adults would consider less than entertaining our boys found captivating!  In the weeks following Nan and Teddy's visit the boys have built their own space ships and have appropriately named them "Columbia" and "Eagle".

Ben's classroom decorated for the Mother's Day Tea.

Ben and Nan

Ben showing us his sunflower.

Ben Michael Collins piloting "Columbia"

Sam Neil Armstrong piloting "Eagle"

"Houston," Armstrong says, "Tranquility Base here.  The Eagle has landed."

Orbiting the moon.