There and Back Again

Continental breakfast.

9:30 service at our old church.

Shane got to play on the indoor fields. We were still in the computer system amazingly.

After church, we tried to surprise Jama.

I hadn't told her we were coming to town. Sadly, she wasn't there (which can happen with surprises).

We waited around for a little, but had to move on.

The Jeffers are around the corner, so I decided to drop in there next.

Gerry Tom Sawyer'd Shane into vacuuming.

The most amazing thing was Bill called shortly after we surprised Diane and Gerry. He was in town, too! Plans were hastily made for a pizza party. Bill talked to Igor. I recruited John. Diane called Dan and Shar.

I wasn't 100% sure what to do with Shane until everyone gathered. Then, another kid appeared.

Jackson lives two houses down from the Jeffers and is Shane's age. I actually knew his mom. She'd grown up in the same house when I used to visit the Jeffers.

The boys played outside until Jackson had to go in.

Gerry told us he was taking Oreo to the lake and asked if we wanted to come along.

While at the lake, we came across a baby squirrel.

It had been a windy night, so the little guy must have fallen from his nest. He hopped up to us from the woods.

I heard another baby squirrel squeaking up in a tree. Gerry spotted the nest and I scooped the little guy up in my hat and took him to the base of the tree.

I hope his parents came down to look for him. He tried to follow us out again. The online "What to do?" site I pulled up said to give the parents a couple of hours to pick him up. Otherwise, he was probably an orphan. With the nest and other squeaks I heard, I figured that all of the people and dogs present on the path probably kept the parents hidden.

I thought about this while Shane played on the playground.

We made it back in time for everyone else to start showing up!

It's been too long since we've all been together! Dan and Shar's wedding was the last time....and that had been the first time in years!

It was like old times trading stories and joking around.

I pointed at Dan and told Shane, "This one makes funny noises if you tackle him."

Turns out he's also very good at wrestling!

Shane and I left a little after 6 PM to give ourselves time to get home.....and do one last stop by Jama's!

Jama left me a voicemail earlier. She was sad to have missed us.

We almost missed her again. She wasn't in her room. Despondent, Shane complained he missed her the whole way back to the front desk. However, the front desk lady asked us who were looking for. When she found out it was Jama, she espoused, "You can't go yet! She'll be so sad! I know she's here!" She gave us Ed's room number and said to check there.

Which we did. We found her, too! She gave Shane a bunch of candy to hype him up for the car ride home.

We stayed until 7 PM, but then we had to get on the road.

We got home just before 9 PM and it was straight to bed for Shane. There were still two days of school before Thanksgiving break to go.