Dayton bound

Gabriel and I made our trip to Dayton last weekend to visit Kim and family, including her new baby boy Ian. The photo above shows the happy facesKim and I got to watch almost all weekend long while Gabe and Jade played together beautifully. They really got along well, to the pure delight of their parents who got quite a bit of undistracted time to ohh and ahh over Ian and catch up. We had a packed weekend including the children's museum, a trip to the bounce house for the kids with Kim's husband Kaz, a morning of mall walking (intended to be window shopping, but the Dayton mall takes its time opening onSundays), and plenty of relaxing at home while the little ones played. That is to say I got in plenty of relaxing. With a newborn attached to her hip I'm sure my visit was less than completely restful for Kim, but she and Kaz as always were incredibly hospitable hosts. I still dream of theday when they don't have to "host" me at all because my appearance is more common, but that will have to wait for one day down the road when we live a whole lot closer than we currently do. As it is, I'm delighted to finally be within decent driving distance so I can see Kim several times a year instead of once. We're at least moving in the right direction!

My time with Gabey last weekend was really special and I'm so glad that now I've had a chance to take all three munchkins to Kim's for a weekend away, though Amelia's turn was about two years ago now. Gabriel was so taken with his time with Jade and the activities we did it really felt like he kind of did his own thing most of the weekend, but I still cherished the quiet times we had and the travel time, during which we got to do some super special things like having dinner together just the two of us. It's amazing how such a simple thing can be so packed with precious moments when one on one time is so novel. We indulged on popcorn and even a donut on the drive home and it's those little things that are remembered and talked about long after the trip is over.