down to the valley

weekend before last i went down to the valley, a surprise trip to celebrate S's birthday.  well, it was for her grandma; M & I surprised her though.

when i got to town i went by nana's house; i had to see it.  there was an rv in the driveway with a for sale sign on it & they installed a handrail along the front porch steps, then i went back to the alley.  i needed to see the backyard too, even though i knew it was going to hurt.  the shed that was just outside the back door was gone.  the big chair that used to be in her living room was out on the patio.  i think the hardest part was looking at her trees; knowing i couldn't go walk in that yard anymore.

the fig tree i used to climb.  the trunk still has the marks from where i used an axe to cut steps in it.  yeah, so my dog could climb the tree, duh....never mind that it was ok for a little girl to play with an axe unsupervised.

i left there & went to visit cousin C.  little C didn't like me at first, he thought i was a teacher coming to work with him.  cousin C & i caught up on family drama & little C warmed up to me.  for the first time i saw the scar on his tummy from the operation he had when he was a baby.  before i knew it he was putting his feet & hands on me so i could rub on him.  must be a guy thing, i am here, rub me.

i got to town late so i didn't get to spend as much time visiting the C's as i would have liked before it was time for me to head over to surprise S.  it was fun to talk, hang out & catch up, we've all been so busy with things; even FB check ins have been sparse, so in person was really over due.

even though i didn't take Z with me, one of S's cousins managed to end up calling me mom, here i thought i would get the night off.  mid-October the middle of the day was still 100, so we were all wiped pretty early & headed off to M's hotel room to soak up some a/c. 

the next morning we got up just in time to have hotel breakfast, then shortly we went on our separate ways.  when i got home the boys had enjoyed their time alone.