7/3/08 The full crew

My sister and brother both arrived in Pennsylvania this afternoon. I finally got to meet my brother's girlfriend! And perhaps almost as importantly, his "new" F150 pickup. The kids took an instant liking to jumping up and down on its bed.


I went running again today, this is a scene along the way in lovely rural Pennsylvania.




The boys played outside with these tiny baby scooter toys until rain forced them inside.


Gabriel and Aidan played checkers for HOURS today, advancing the play to chess by nighttime.


After the rain, Julian and Anney (bro's girlfriend) played ball.


We also set up a ping-pong table in the garage, on which I narrowly beat my brother. Then we showed the boys how to play (my niece had a fever and was resting inside). I can see this won't come easy -- just hitting the ball at all was a challenge for all three, but the one who made contact the most -- and got it across the net and hit the table to top it off -- was Julian.

Katrina took a break from our now thrice-daily power struggle about meals and actually ate some broccoli. She was still glued to the little scooters, and loves this little antique one because it's so easy to push around.


Tomorrow, Papa Paul's son and his girlfriend and two dogs arrive too, so we'll have a very full house for July 4!

7/3/08