What a Visit!

This is my niece, Nicole:

One word to describe her and her week-long visit with us? FABULOUS!

During her stay, despite heat and summer storms, we managed to do the following:

1. Saw many animals, including an albino raccoon here.

2. Spotted a tiny frog, green lizard, skinny snake and colorful grasshopper (but no alligators) here.

3. Listened to a band play here and bought fresh squeezed lemon/limeade.

4. Played tennis and said things like:

“Maybe we should try to keep the ball on our own court.”

“Sure, whatever. This is fun.”

5. Shopped here. After only forty-five minutes at the mall, my sons got a giant bag of candy, coffee drinks and heaping bowls of ice-cream with money they’d saved. (I can imagine our dentist smiling with thoughts of paying off his Porsche extra early.) Nicole and I got a good laugh at how expensive everything was.

6. Floated in the calmest, clearest ocean and said things like:

“Ew, Nicole, there are fish swimming around my ankles.”

“Oh, Aunt Donna, they’re only fish.”

and . . .

“What’s that giant thing everyone on shore is pointing at?”

“OHMYGOD, I think it’s a barracuda.”

“Swim!!!”

Here’s Nicole taking a photo of our cat, Jasmine:

Nicole loves animals and plans to have lots of them someday. For now, she helps some of them find homes here, like the dog she helped get adopted last Saturday – Hooper, which we affectionately nicknamed “Pooper” after he did you-know-what on the floor in the store.

And here’s Nicole’s favorite member of the family: Lady.

Lady is thinking: Can’t somebody please go into the garage and get me a dried chicken strip? Lady is NOT a vegetarian like her owners.

When not visiting us, Nicole goes to school here and makes some interesting pieces of art, like a giant toothbrush. (Hey, maybe our boys could use it to fend off giant cavities.)

And finally, here’s a picture of Nicole and me at the airport. I’m smiling, but inside I’m sad because it’s hard to live 1,200 miles away from someone you love so much.