The other day when we went to Leslie & Ed’s for dinner, Leslie had cupcakes all baked and cooled and ready for Annalie to decorate.

I helped with the frosting, but Annalie was the Official Sprinkler. Leslie was ready with an assortment of fun stuff: pastel sprinkles, blue sugar, and Sixlets.

Does Aunt Leslie know the way to Annalie’s heart, or what?

Leslie’s husband Ed is a farmer. They live out in the country and drive tractors and grow feed corn and fix their irrigation systems when they break. They’re 21st-century farmers, mind you; they have DVD players in their tractors. They also recently built a new house on the site of the old house that Ed grew up in. I’m not sure, but I think that house had been there for 70 years or more. They invited the local fire department over to do training exercises on it, and then burned it to the ground. I bet that was exciting.

Now they have a really nice new house with a big garage and basement and a guest suite, and the only fires happen in the fireplace. (And sometimes the grill when Ed isn’t paying close enough attention to the meat he’s cooking. Not that anything like that happened the other night when we were there. Twice.) Did I remember to take any pictures of the nice new house? No. No, I did not.

Doh! Silly me.

I did take pictures of Annalie climbing a rock pile in the backyard though. Queen of the mountain!

Then back down to look for cool rocks. It’s true that most kids like rocks (I know I did), but ever since we visited Erin and her extensive rock collection last fall, Annalie has been especially fascinated. She keeps finding cool rocks and saying, “I bet Auntie Erin would like THIS one!”

Then she asks me what kind of rocks she’s found, and most of the time I say something like, “Um, I don’t know. We’ll have to ask Erin next time we see her.” But at Leslie & Ed’s, Annalie found some rocks that I could actually identify. I think. I’m pretty sure. Maybe?

Erin, does that look like flecks of Pyrite to you? It sure looks like fool’s gold to me, but I could be way off. I’m no igneous petrologist, after all.

The rocks kept Annalie occupied till dinner, which was delicious. The corn was homegrown and the roast beef survived the flames very nicely. Troy and Leslie only got into one small fight over the horseradish. The conversation was lively.

Eventually Annalie got so crazy-tired that she was literally climbing up Ed’s legs as she giggled hysterically, in between throwing her teddy bear up in the air and jumping all over the couch. So we had to say our good-byes and head back to Omaha. Annalie conked out in the car about five minutes after we left.