Today we drove my mom back up to my Aunt Julie’s house. We’re staying the night, then saying good-bye and heading back home so we can do laundry and make lists and pack for our upcoming trip to Texas. Even though we know we’ll be seeing my mom again in less than a month, it’s always a sad day when we have to say good-bye to her. Especially for Annalie. She loves Gramaw Debbie so much and is always sad to see her go.

So it was especially nice that we got to make a pit stop in the sticks today to distract us from being sad. Brenda’s mom and dad recently moved to her grandfather’s house (he moved to a nearby retirement community), and Brenda has been going up there frequently to help her mom sort through all her grandpa’s stuff and unpack the boxes they brought from their old house.

Since my Aunt Julie was at work all day today, we stopped by the new house for lunch. I was quite impressed by how much work they’ve gotten done in so short a time! They’re getting stuff organized and preparing for the coming estate sale. I’d say their house looks like it’s more unpacked than ours is, which is pretty sad when you consider that they just moved a couple of weeks ago and we’ve been in our house for three months now. Oh well. Our goal is to be all done by Christmas!

We had a lunch of yummy sandwiches and homemade cranberry-orange scones that Brenda’s sister-in-law Heather baked. And coffee of course—there’s always coffee. I love hanging out with fellow coffee drinkers. (Nothing against you non-coffee-drinkers of course, but…I don’t know, there is just something I love about sitting around and chatting over coffee. Maybe I’m just shallow, addicted to caffeine, and easily influenced by all the cool Starbucks marketing.)

Annalie and Baby Bug had a great time together, as usual. They did get off to a bit of a rocky start on Brenda & BB’s first visit to our house back in July, but since then they seem to have figured each other out and get along just fine. There is the occasional hiccup, but I guess that’s bound to happen with two strong-willed only children like those two.

The adults enjoyed the visit too, chatting over lunch and then afterwards while the kids splashed in the pool. Then we said our good-byes and headed to my aunt’s house. We won’t have to say good-bye to my mom till morning, since Annalie and I are staying the night. I’m feeling like this is the calm before the storm, as our lives are about to get crazy with a lot of traveling this fall. But it’ll be fun.