Thanks for a great visit!

What a wonderful visit we had with Mom and Dad! It meant a great deal to us to have them here for Meghan's baptism and Patrick's Eagle Court of Honor. And it was just plain nice to have a chance to reconnect with them. Even though telephone and internet communication are great blessings, they cannot completely replace the joy of being in the presence of those whom we love.

Mom was amazing, as usual. While still jet-lagged, she baked a brown sugar pound cake for Meghan's baptism party and took care of many other details for both of the parties we had the first weekend they were here. And then she and Dad did most of the washing up of pans and serving trays that had to be returned to the club the morning after the court of honor. I know we would not have had such low stress levels (or gotten to bed before one a.m.) if they hadn't been here to help.

Besides all that, Mom finished an embroidery project that has been waiting to be done since before Matthew was born. Our shower curtain looks so much prettier now, thanks to her. :-)

And Dad was great with all of the kids, but especially Matthew, who latched onto Papapa almost as soon as he arrived and kept him very busy reading stories, playing puppets and trains, and tossing the ball outside. Besides that, Dad brought us pictures on CD of family events. It was so much fun to see all the cousins, aunts and uncles.

We had been missing our annual summer trip home very much, and Mom and Dad brought us a bit of home. It was hard to let them go on Monday, but we know our cousins are happy to have them back again, and they must be happy to be back in their own bed--if they've recovered enough from the jet lag to notice where they are ;-).