Our Surprise Visit!

So, I haven't told y'all about meeting Janet, Donna's sister, while we were in Arizona! Yes, we were able to meet the lady without a blog. (And oh, does she need one! It would be wonderful!) As you know, our trip was a bit harried there near the end, and the day-long stop in the Valley I had planned on was scrapped so that we could stay an extra day in Prescott and help as much as we could. Just outside Rock Springs, I remembered Janet had sent me her phone number (we hadn't had internet access for four days at that point, so I wasn't able to email anyone ahead of time to say, "We're on our way!"), so I called Jess, who checked my mail and dug up the number for me. (Thank you, Jess!) We called Janet with a horribly short-notice proposal to meet us for an early supper when we hit the Valley. Her wonderful hubby and most of the clan were out enjoying the fine weather, but she and their precious Little One, L, were up for it. Yippee! I was so excited!

We decided to meet at the Cracker Barrel, as it's centrally located and easy to find. Er, well, all the others in the US are easy to find. This one, however, is easy to spot from a distance, but to actually arrive there, you really have to want it. We thought for sure she'd be there waiting for us, as we made our third lap around the Interstate and frontage road looking for the entrance. Fortunately, we arrived before we ran out of gas and were happily enjoying the rocking chairs and oversized checkers games when Janet called... wanting to know how to get *in* the parking lot. (See? It wasn't just us!)

Here we all are, after supper. Tired, but refreshed after a fun visit. James is telling Zorak "yes" in sign language. I guess he didn't want to ruin the smile.

We had such a nice visit! Janet is so kind and funny. She really does need to blog because she's got a store of wisdom and insight that the world truly needs to have. She's funny, too, and very gracious. Not to mention lovely. Zorak ran herd on the end of the table, so she and I were able to visit quite a bit. We got several uninterrupted sentences in! (Thanks, Honey!)

Her littlest one is absolutely darling, and is so sweet. She's got the same vibrant sparkle in her eyes that you can see in Donna's photos of Katie. (You can definitely tell they're cousins.) She and John got along famously and had a blast on the porch after supper, both yelling very loudly and then asking each other, "Did that hurt your ears?" I'm not sure what they thought was so hilarious, but they would both crack up and do it again. I wish we'd had more time. These kids would have had a blast at a park or a playplace. As it was, though, all four children were pretty good the entire time.

Here they are, all hanging out. Only James seems to realize there's a camera. L and the Smidge are deeply engaged in conversation. Don't know what John's doing...

Zorak was very impressed with L. Not only was she just cute as a bug during supper (and don't believe a thing Janet says- this little girl was very well-behaved!) but on the way out, she dropped her candy cane and it broke, and she didn't cry. That touched him, and the boys each got her another one. The boys love to look at the pictures and ask when we'll get to visit with them again. I hope it's soon.

One more shot- this is the yelling and laughing game. It's L's turn to yell. So cute!




Yikes- I forgot to resize that last one. Be right back... Ahhh, much better. Nite!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy