Visitors!

Last weekend we were lucky enough to have some long-distance visitors. Will's mom, DeLayne, and two of his sisters, Luci and Denise, drove all the way down from Wisconsin to spend a few days with us.

It's a long, long drive.

And while they were here, we gave them the news! (see Ellie's shirt)

It took Ellie a few minutes to warm up to them, but once she did, she did not like to let them go.

Aunt Luci!

Games with Nana.

They were kind enough to bring a bunch of Will's old stuff down with them...

so we got lots of new toys. I'm not sure which one of them was more excited.

Coloring (and doing bubbles) with Denise.

little footprint :)

how did she get chalk all over her bum?

that's how.

There's not a whole lot to do out here, but we tried to come up with some fun things. One of them was pear picking. 

We have a pear tree. It's 30 feet tall and COVERED in pears.

So we had Will climb the tree. (At this point, my camera died and I had to let it charge.) We stood under the tree with a sheet held out between the four of us. Will shook the branches and we *tried* to catch the pears. Also, we tried to dodge the ones that were threatening to knock us unconscious. A few fingers and toes got smashed, and Luci got smacked in the ear, but other than that we came out undamaged. Except for when the pears hit the branches above us and exploded, causing us to become covered in flying bits of disintegrated pear. 

My favorite part was when Ellie was running around picking up nasty pears off the ground and trying to put them in our blanket. She had a particularly nasty one and Denise told her to throw it away. So Ellie dropped it directly onto Denise's foot, where it exploded. It was amazing.

Here's some pears.

And these are the rest of the pears (the bruised, bugged or otherwise imperfect ones) that we cut up. We used some, and froze about a gallon. Just of the cut up ones. That might give you an idea of how many pears we had.

It's too bad I don't have any canning equipment. (Or know how to use canning equipment.)

We made some delicious pear crisp.

We ate it while playing Munchkins. Zombie Munchkins. We were all ganging up on Will and suddenly DeLayne won right under our noses.

We have also given pears away to several friends and neighbors, had our visitors take some with us when they left, and I made a couple loaves of pear bread. We still have pears left. 

I. Am. So. Sick. Of. Pears.

Too bad the pears we "picked" were just a very small fraction of what our tree is offering us.

While they were here, we also found the septic tank! For real this time!

The access point is that little bit of red. Because the tank is so deep, there's a pipe to the surface to make it easier to pump. So you don't have to dig. I wish someone had told us that.

This is how much ground we tore up with the backhoe. For one little access point a couple inches below the surface. They were trying to flatten the ground and plant some grass seeds.

Denise used her feet to flatten the ground. (she was washing off her shoes, which were equally dirty)

Nana and Ellie played in my car. My dead car.

They seriously played in that car for over an hour, going on all sorts of adventures. Nana is so much more patient than I would have been.

I cleaned the toys out of my car and snapped a few pictures, and then Luci and I hung out inside because it was too warm. If I remember correctly, we also ate too many chips.

Our final night together, we watched the newest Sherlock Holmes and had a roasting party.

Denise roasted Starbursts and Luci roasted marshmallows.

We were going to roast things out at the fire pit... but we didn't. Too lazy or warm or something. Stove works just fine. I'd never had roasted Startbursts before, but let me tell you, they are AWESOME. And I'm glad we did it, because I'm sort of crazy about Starbursts now, in any form.

We were all sad when it was time for them to go, but they had more grandkids/nieces and nephews to visit. Ellie still keeps asking if they are coming back. I tell her we will be seeing them at Christmas (if everything goes according to plan), but since she doesn't know what that means, she keeps asking.

We were so glad that they could come!! We had lots of fun and my favorite part was that most of it was just sitting around talking and relaxing. Which works well for me. It was also nice that Will took so much time off too. 

Pretty much, you guys are welcome to visit anytime!!!

(And I guess anyone else is welcome too, but keep in mind there's not a whole lot to do out here.)