Vacation with the Mallotts

Our friends from Texas came last week to visit. We had a BLAST. They are the kind of people everyone wants to have for friends or neighbors. We have really missed them. John built their house in Texas and he built ours down the street a ways. She brought me a baby gift when I had Esther was born and I was so impressed with how nice that was since she hardly knew me. Then then we got to see each other a bit more since our mail regularly got mixed up and before we knew it we were playing games together every weekend (mostly NERTS which, for the record, I never won and we played SEVERAL times). Anyway, we have been looking forward to their visit since we left Texas. We played hard when they arrived. Here's a short list of all we accomplished: Golden Gate Park, Pier 43, 41, and 39, Lombard street, H&M shopping trip, Santa Cruz Boardwalk, Carmel By-the-Sea, Monterrey Bay Aquarium, Other parks and playgrounds, Woods National Monument, Stinson Beach, 5 or 6 rounds of NERTS, and a few other games. Whew. The only low point of the whole trip was someone backing into our recently purchased minivan in Carmel. That was a bit of a downer but the rest of the time was SO FUN. The kids had so much fun together. I forgot I had two daughters half the time because Esther was so preoccupied with her friend Chloe. Even Lucy was not her usual demanding self because sweet little Bennett was always playing with her. By the end she was requesting that he "hold" her. I can't thank them enough for coming out here and we hope it's not too long before we see them again!

This is a picture of their cute family. They are the kind of family that you can always tell how they feel about each other. They are all about family and they are great parents--we are really grateful for their example.

Lastly, I have to say that any time John gets to take three days off it's a vacation whether we go anywhere or not. I love hanging out with that guy!