A New Chapter

It has been a few weeks since Sarah, John, Sadie, Savannah and Scarlett moved back to Utah. We already miss them terribly, but we realize we have times and seasons in our lives. We'll miss Scarlett's sleep pheromones and her smiles when she's awake. Oma and I have concluded we will have more time to get ourselves organized, now that they are gone and we won't be spending time with them. But before they left we made a few more memories with them.
Shortly after we returned from Sweden, we found the apricots on our tree were ripe. So we recruited a couple of highly qualified fruit pickers to help us. Of course, even highly qualified ones can be distracted if there is a bug in the vicinity. The crop was rather limited this year, but we managed to harvest a few beautiful apricots. And then we ate them. Scarlett even liked them.

One of the things we've noticed is that our Sunday evening suppers just aren't the same as they were. For one thing, there is a lot less excitement in the kitchen without Sadie and Savannah there to help. Of course excitement in the kitchen isn't always desirable - like the excitement when Sadie dropped the egg carton...full of eggs. We actually only had to throw one away because we used the other cracked ones in the pancake batter.

About a week before they all moved, we decided to go see the redwoods north of San Francisco at Muir Woods and go to the beach. So Oma and I took a day off work and loaded up Sarah and the little girls in our van for a day trip. It was also a treat to escape the hot smoky conditions in the valley for the cooler, cleaner air on the coast. It's only about a two hour drive from here to Muir Woods. The redwoods are amazing, but Sadie and Savannah really enjoyed the carved wooden bear at the gift shop.

After seeing the redwoods and having lunch at Muir Woods, we left for Stinson Beach. The road over the coastal range to the coast is steep and winding. Being a Monday, the beach wasn't crowded at all. We waded in the surf and dug in the sand. Savannah was the only one to get totally wet, when an incoming wave caught her unaware and down she went. But heck, it's only salty water, and we picked her up quickly, so no harm done.