back home

The family and I made it back to Madison intact yesterday. No one got carsick, thank the lord baby Jesus, and the kids managed to hold off on major whining until the last 45 minutes of the drive. I don't know what it is about car trips and kids: you can be on the road for 3 hours or 10 - it doesn't matter how long, really - yet they can somehow sense when you're on the home stretch and your back aches and your head is pounding and you have to pee but there is No Way You Are Stopping One More Time So Stop Asking and that is precisely when they start wriggling and complaining and asking "Are we there yet?" (Daniel) and whimpering "Home! Home! Home!" (Anya). Who can blame them, really? It was a long drive.

Anyway. It seems the large maple tree in our back yard belched off all its leaves in one go while we were gone. Daniel and I had some fun piling them up and spreading them around again this afternoon while Anya was napping:










As you can see, he quite enjoyed himself.