A Night at the Ballet

My sister and her two children flew into town a week ago and my house wasn't completely guest-ready. I had them stay in our newly finished basement, which is the nicest part of our home at this point, but there was one problem--the toilet was disconnected.

Why is the toilet in the best part of our home disconnected? It's a long story I won't get into, but it involves a Washlet (computerized toilet) and my mom.

After Jessica arrived, I removed the Washlet and reconnected the toilet. My sister watched as my husband attended to some other domestic chore. Jessica's comment: "It's weird watching you fix the plumbing while Jake is doing...well...whatever he's doing."

What an insightful commentary on our marriage.

Jessica was only here for two and a half days, which was way too short, but we managed to cram in a few things. I forgot to take my camera to the zoo, so there are no cute zoo pics. Somehow I managed to remember to snap a shot of the kids' handiwork, because this is a scene I want to preserve for posterity. (<--that was sarcasm)

This is one of those "find the hidden object" pictures. Can you find the children in this mess? There are two of them...

I call this one "Fish Head."

Judd with his Aunt Jessica who looks, literally, half her age.

Ellie spent the entire weekend following her cousin Erika around and doing everything she did.

Jake scored some awesome tickets to Swan Lake (performed by the Colorado Ballet), so we had a girls' night out. We took the light rail downtown, which I think was fun for the little girls.

The ballet was beautiful. We left after the first act, though, because: (1) it was well past Ellie's bedtime; (2) one act seemed to be more than Ellie could take of staying in one spot; and (3) because of (1) and (2), Ellie was misbehaving quite noticeably. When the lights came back on, Ellie said quite loudly, "I don't like it Mommy! I don't like it!" She was actually referring to the villain in the ballet, but I don't think that came through when she said it.

On the way home, Jessica commented, "That makes me want to do ballet again..." Jessica and I had been pretty committed dancers when we were much younger--we even danced in a local ballet company. My comment back to Jessica was, "You're nuts. I am glad to never ever ever put another pair of pointe shoes on my feet again."

Jessica and her kids had to leave the next morning. I took Ellie with us to the airport. She was not happy about her cousins leaving. In fact, she refused to say goodbye.

None of the kids cracked a smile the entire time I was at the airport. Ellie cried as I took her out to the car. It had been nearly a year since I last saw my little sister and her beautiful kids. Ellie wasn't the only one bummed to see them go.

Today, finally, Jake and I ventured to clean up. I'm not such a diligent or gifted housekeeper--I'm well aware that cleaning up a mess a week after it has happened is not good housekeeping. As I turned on the vacuum cleaner, Ellie came running out of the woodwork, grabbed her kid-sized broom, and attacked the vacuum cleaner. I had never seen her do this before and I was quite surprised. When she did the same thing to my Bissellator (that's my pet name for my carpet shampooer machine thingy), I yelled at Jake to grab the camera. Check it out.

Come visit again soon, Jessica, Erika, and Kalvin!