"start at the very beginning"

reminds me of the sound of music jingle.  every time i have thought about blogging in these past few days, i get completely overwhelmed and that song loops through my head.  where to start?  ...start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start...

so gramma d to came visit several weeks back.  normally, she plans to stay for weeks at a time, but i had scheduled a last minute trip to minnesota, forcing her to accompany me and my brood for the 5.5 hour flight.  our 8 days together went entirely too fast, and without having one lounge day to hang out in jammies and snooze when the kids snooze.  dang!  i love those kind of days.  but with only 8 days, we had to make 'em count.

and as i think back, what did we do?!  it rained the majority of her time here.  boo.  i scheduled appointments that are not choice to bring kids along (ie: vet, hair appointments).  i may have even snuck in a grocery shopping trip alone!  yes, i just said that.  see, we mothers that have to lug around a cart not only full of groceries but also, like, 50 pounds of children, doing this task alone is like a dream.  really.  so being able to gaze about the aisles and check prices and the amount of protein, etc., it's really quite nice.  so momma d acted as chief warden when i ran my errands and outings.  not exciting but quite helpful.  we visited the zoo, went for drives, grabbed coffee, took turns picking up and dropping off jackie at school and stayed up late watching hgtv shows and talking at the same time.  i love those simple evenings.      

on our last day before our early wake up, we met roberta and her brood at the state fair.  oh, how i love the state fair!  it's the fresh, fall air, sweatshirt and jeans weather.  it's the teeny-tiny piggies.  giant pumpkins.  it's the smiles on the faces of the people i love most.  we have our handful of foodie items that i deem non-diarrhea-giving (ie: cotton candy; soft pretzel; cinnamon & sugar mini-donuts; ben's favorite candied apple; and if we're there on an extra-chilly night, vagabond coffee.)  and, there's the anchorage boutiques that set up booths so i can grab my t-shirts without making the hour drive into town.  thank you, ak starfish!  thank you, babes in the woods!

here are some of the moments from that palmer afternoon.  oh, and 2 buck thursday, no less!  score!  more money for rides!

 jb and the porker.  he kept saying hi.  

 i almost put one in my pocket.  almost.

 "catch it, mimi!"

 "hi, brown cow.  hi."

 he takes his big rig driving seriously.

 i love this picture, momma.

(i only wish there wasn't a big, white arm in your face.)

 the trio

 yes, mimi is picking up jb.