So . . here's the recap of the rest of our crazy summer! August and September we played host to our long lost cousins that we just don't ever get to see enough of. The girls enjoyed a few weeks with their cousin Justin and Aunt Laura while they're dad took a vacation to Seattle for a couple weeks under the pretense that he was attending banking school . . (Ok, ok, we know you worked very hard James, whatever.) Anyway, the girls had a great time playing with Justin everyday . . and we hope he felt the same way. Maddie was actually very cute, bending down to talk to him on 'his' level and surprised me with an almost 'motherly' approach to playing with him. Keira, at this point, was just intrigued to have another person 'her size' hanging around and felt moved to smother the poor little guy with kisses and in the next instant give him a swift poke to the chest or attempt to check if his eyes were, in fact, for real. Justin was a trooper and took it all in stride . . and seems to still like her for the most part . . unless of course she is occupying the coveted 'Dora' car that he is instantly drawn to everytime he walks in the house . . as the 'boy' in him delegates that he should.
The day after the girls sadly bid Justin and Laura 'goodbye' . . we welcomed Melanie and her girls to our 'hotel' for a few weeks while their dad renovated their house in Seattle. If we thought we had been hosting a preschool the previous couple of weeks . . we were truly in full fledged nursery mode now. . and the girls, could not have been more happy with the situation. Non stop chaos and playmates available all day everyday, right in their own house! We, the adults, did our best to keep the situation under control and even managed to have some fun outings and tea parties! 
We spent a day at the dinosaur park, the petting zoo, backyard pool parties, indoor tea and birthday parties, numerous princess parties of dancing and chasing in tutu's and high heels . . and lots of swinging, jumping, and wiggle cart rides around the sports court in grandma and grandpa's fantastic backyard park! And, not to be forgotten . .the almost daily stroller brigade to visit the geese down the street! The time went by quite quickly and sadly, we had to send back our new playmates to see their dad who had tried to cut off his finger and needed some little girl (and wife) TLC.
We took a few weeks off from our social party life . . but Gregg soon grew restless of this sedentary lifestyle so we decided it was time to go visit all of our long lost friends in Denver. We loaded up the car and bravely ventured out on an 8 hour road trip with two toddlers! The girls surprised both of us and did very well being tethered to their car seats for such a long time . . and the payoff was a lot of fun.
Maddie has relentlessly requested a visit to see her favorite friend, Sue sue, ever since we left Denver. It has been difficult to make her understand why this wasn't possible on a weekly basis, as she had become accustomed too . . but she picked up right where she left off with her friend and Keira, who notoriously does not warm up to people very quickly . . seemed to understand why Maddie loved her fairy godmother friend so much and was quickly enthralled in playtime with the two of them. Truth be told, I missed Sue Sue just as much as MJ and was very excited to be able to spend our trip at her house.
We covered a lot of ground in not nearly enough time and saw lots of friends that we have missed so much, as well as visited some of our favorite places in Denver including the 'food' playground at the Cherry Creek Mall . . the girls thought we'd brought them to a fantastic amusement park! All in all . . we had a fantastic time and hope to make it back soon to visit again. While this is way too long . . I'll sum it up with the other important tidbits of our summer. Maddie is giving potty training a great effort, which I'm mostly very happy about . . and Keira always has to sit on the pot when MJ does . . if only she were as fruitful as her older sister. AND . . last but definitely not least, we finally found a house to move in too . . albeit, it's a rental . . but you have to start somewhere after you've lived in your parents basement for the last year . . How did that happen?????!!! Oh well, guess it's time to grow up and move out. That's scheduled to happen on November 1st . . and while we'll miss grandma and grandpa . . it'll be good to be on our own again!
