family visit

My awesome mother-in-law and sister-in-law Kay were in town with nieces Little A and Little M. We dropped them all off at the airport this morning at an ungodly hour. Mr. Knightly and I are tired. I couldn't nap so I got up to sort through my many photos of the weekend. Unfortunately most of of them are of the kids so I won't be posting them here. But if you are my friend (or family) you can check out my flickr account and I'll give you access. I think I have to invite you or something, I haven't really kept up that account properly.

It was sort of a tiring trip, but we had so much fun during the day that we only noticed how tired we were when we knocked off for the night. There was lots of catching up to do with Little A and Little M. I learned all about their travels from this past summer, the upcoming start of the new school year and most importantly the outfits they had chosen to wear for their first day.

The trip was mostly kid-oriented and they really wanted to do the Hollywood experience including meeting some stars and maybe drive-bys of their million dollar mansions. Mr. Knightly and I couldn't deliver on those requests so we took them to Universal Studios and Hollywood/Highland instead. Holy cow, those places were loud. It seems like everywhere we went it was really loud. Do they do that just for the tourists' benefit? Or is that the way kid-friendly places tend to be? Or perhaps I don't leave my house enough to be up to date with the outside world. It just seems like every place needed to stimulate you with endless sights and sounds, particularly the sounds. Oy.

On Saturday we had planned to go to Solvang so my sister-in-law could check out some of the wineries and go to a few tastings. On the drive up I pulled out a scarf I was working on for Mr. Knightly and the girls were fascinated. I had sort of thought they might ask about it and then lose interest, but BLESS THEIR HEARTS they asked me if I could teach them to knit. What a dream come true! I taught them how on the only set of needles I had with me while we drove up to Solvang. And after lunch, I found a yarn shop that was just next door and bought them their own set of needles and some yarn. They totally got into it. I was so jazzed. Just about the cutest thing was hearing them say things like: When we get back to the car, I want to work on my knitting. Or: I should have brought my knitting out of the car so I could have something to do while we wait. How freaking cute is that?? They picked up really quick. I was so impressed. There was some creative knitting every once in awhile when conversation in the car got really interesting and they weren't paying strict attention to what their hands were doing. But Auntie Jean would pick up their knitting when they weren't working on it and fix the stitches so that they could go on to the next row uninterrupted.

We all had a blast. I really enjoyed spending time with the kidlings. They really do say the darnedest things cracking me up.

We'll miss them, but luckily Mr. Knightly and I had a trip planned to the east coast for October, so it won't be long before we see them again.