After nearly 10 months and over a dozen persistent and nagging pleas I managed to convince her it was the right thing to do. She, along with J & M, finally made the journey nearly 300 miles up Highway 101 to visit us in our cozy little house tucked away behind the redwood curtain. They arrived Friday afternoon, complete with a big tub of toys/books/games for Monkey that M had outgrown, a pumpkin pie and a 10 gallon fish tank containing two fish. One of which has a penchant for not only swimming upside down but simply hanging out at the bottom of the tank belly up. Er. But they swear it isn't dying. At least anytime soon. It will obviously die eventually though. And hopefully it won't be tomorrow.

Overall, the couple of days they were here were filled with good food, lots of laughter, exchanging of thoughts and ideas, some beers and two adorable little girls who forged an equal adoration for one another and went nearly everywhere together. They ran up and down the hall, splashed each other in the bath, wandered the property, took turns throwing the dog his ball and hung all over each other. Photographic evidence of their extreme cuteness? :



Jen and I had a few stolen moments without children hanging on our limbs. In the other moments we connected with each other's girls and just sort of basked in the glow that is children playing and laughing. M is a sheer force of nature, those big wide eyes of hers and crazy thick golden hair. She laughs with her whole body and is the sweetest when being super snuggly and scrunching up her nose while making funny faces. She seemed attached to my hip at times until her affections switched to Mr. Egg who she had wrapped around her little finger. Monkey learned, for the first time, what it was like to share her parents and she was not too pleased about it. Mr. Egg and J hit it off, as they have before, talking about everything under the sun. I am always amazed at how similar they are in so many ways personality-wise. Though I suppose they have both traveled extensively to most of the same places and those experiences have shaped who they are today which could explain a lot of it. They also seem to retain every piece of information they have ever read and are both natural born teachers in the way they pass that information on to other people. It's very interesting listening to their conversations.

Saturday was such a beautiful day and we took advantage of the sunshine and 65 degree weather. We wandered old-growth redwoods forests, crisscrossed a frigid creek bed several times over at the bottom of a canyon covered in ferns which felt entirely prehistoric, came across a herd of elk and ended up at the beach during sunset as the fog rolled in, creating an ethereal and almost alien atmosphere.

As the darkness of night began to set in Jen and J offered to take us to eat at a mexican spot near our house before they got on the road for their long trek home. Once we were back in the car J asked M, "What was your favorite part today? The forest, crossing over the creek, the elk or the beach?" (pause) "The restaurant!", she yelled with a wide grin and equally wide eyes. We all laughed and continued driving across the bay towards the glittering lights of Eureka.