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it was such a nice trip. long, tiring, not enough time in any given day, but nice. every morning in evansville my mom and emma drove through donut bank and brought home coffee and donuts. in the afternoons, they’d water the gardens and pick the ripe veggies off the vine. there was music all the time (piano, guitar, and a good amount of kazoo). friends came to call, and we called on a few (including a dear friend’s brand new twins). we went swimming with cousins. we went to see the ponies run (i sang the national anthem at ellis park; mama was so proud) and i won $4. we spent lots of quality time with my girls’ only first cousin, Olivia (em said one of her favorite parts of the trip was when 3-year-old Olivia told her “i like you”). lots and lots of stories were read (mostly Seuss). grandpa took emma for a ride on the tractor. eliza went through a remarkable growth spurt and came home a bigger baby.

in Indianapolis, we charmed our way into pictures on the LOVE statue without a $50 day pass, emma played tennis at butler with tito abel, and made necklaces with tita ana banana. we got to see an old friend of eric’s briefly but happily, and had one very special party for Eliza with some of our favorite people. we ate more food than i can comfortably remember, and did our yearly Target clearance-shopping spree.

of course, i have many, many pictures on tap. my intention was to post a few every day (this was supposed to be last tuesday’s post), but couldn’t access the internet from my computer in either homestead. so, stay tuned (or tune out) as i sort through our photo album selections from summer 2011. hopefully i can actually find the time to put together a real album for this one…

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