A Visit to the Staunton Branch

Shane's a morning person. Or at least, he's chipper when he wakes up an hour or two after Carrie and I do (Thanks, Kila).

Part of it could have been excitement, though. First, there was church. Then, there was Patrick's!

My plans to visit family was foiled Saturday by Kila getting sick. However, today Carrie was home to babysit the puppy, so we got to take a trip!

Patrick, knowing his audience, took Shane straight to the ants.

No, that's not a typo for "Aunts." Shane loves his aunts, but Patrick doesn't have several billion of those digging tunnels around his driveway.

We could have spent an hour out there and Shane would have considered it a trip well worth it. He would have dug straight into the colony if Patrick hadn't put limits on how far he could explore.

Patrick suggested looking in the yard for exits. Shane ran right to the tree. "I know! I know! There's one right here!"

Patrick thought there was another one near where he was, but what I learned was that Shane has memorized ant locations in Patrick's yard better than Patrick has!

The backyard was new to Shane. 

There were colonies of different types of ants under adjacent rocks! Shane was mesmerized. Most yards have an ant colony, but it felt like Patricks' house was the oddity: The ants owned the land and they tolerated its presence!

After I got fed up with ants, Patrick, Shane, and I went out for lunch. Patrick beat me to the punch and gave the waiter his credit card while we were ordering (He was pretty pleased with himself!).

Patrick had a fun story from work (complete with pictures!) he shared as we ate. One of the pharmacists is an older lady who owns a jeep. There's something in the jeep community known as "ducking" where people leave rubber ducks in jeeps they come across. Patrick decided to take it to the Nth level. He asked the pharmacist for her keys and she was surprised when he clarified it wasn't work keys he wanted to borrow! It's his story, so I won't steal the joy of telling it all here.

We killed enough time outside that Shane got to meet the neighbor's cat and Nathaniel woke up from his afternoon nap.

Nathaniel was up and Shelby was finishing up his lunch.

Shane went straight to her succulents and started poking and prodding. Shelby showed him a plate full of buds she was trying to propagate. 

Like Carrie, Shelby brings artsy skills to the family line.

The decorating in the house is all her. At one point, Patrick would be fine living in the a room with bare walls as long as it was a comfortable temperature, had working electricity and access to wifi.

But that sort of thing changes with marriage and more so with a kid! 

It was a beautiful day, so Shelby wanted to get out of the house and go to Gypsy Hill Park. We went to the tot lot.

It wasn't crowded, so there wasn't an issue with letting Shane play on the wheelchair swing.

That helped keep him busy while Nathaniel tried out different attractions with his parents.

I amused myself by balancing on various things while Patrick and I chatted.

It was a great park for Nathaniel....., but not so much for Shane. Thankfully, he's pretty imaginative and mostly happy just to be around people.

However, he does have limits. Once Shane started trying to climb all over the outside of the equipment it was time to go! I wouldn't have minded around bigger kids, but I'd rather have him be a good example when he's not technically supposed to be somewhere (as he was well over the age & height limit, ha!).

It wasn't the longest visit, but it was worth the drive. Shane and I stopped at Costco for groceries and gas on the way home. We stayed in the rest of the night. It felt like a productive enough and fun way to end summer. For me, at least. Monday was the start of in-service week. Shane will start school the following week on Wednesday!