We’ve been back home for Colorado for nearly a week now, and my sister Leslie and niece Athena came to visit after that. Athena is slightly over 3 1/2 years old, and Leslie a bit older than that. I’ll tell you more about our Colorado trip in a day or two (or you know how I am-I’ll get to it, though!) but I thought I’d pop in tonight and say hello to you all and give a quick overview of the week here!

It’s fun having family visit, because you really do all the things in town that you don’t normally do. I took the week off to spend with them—I had to turn down some really fun opportunities, but I think that sometimes you have to pick what’s important, and I decided that the Colorado trip and family visit was very important, and would be what I remembered down the line.

We went to a lot of great attractions in town: the Zoo, the Science Center, Grant’s Farm (an annual affair)…we got pedicures and had high tea at the London Tea Room. We went to Olio, Union Loafers, House of India, Bing Bing, and Seoul Taco. We rode a train, a tram, a carousel (some of us twice), one rode a pony, we fed goats, parakeets, we saw elephants and bison and elk and ostriches and MORE. We read books, played games, taught Athena how to talk to Alexa on the Echo, and basically just had a great time. I’m completely exhausted just thinking about it!

Elephants at the Zoo.

On the Zoo Train—you pay one price and can hop on/hop off all day long.

Pretzels and beer at Grant’s Farm—and lemonade for the little one. The beer is FREE.

Feeding the parakeets.

It was a really fun visit with them, and I’m sorry we don’t live closer to each other! Athena was shy at first, but after a few days she was right at home bossing me around and telling me how to use my windshield wipers.

High Tea at the London Tea Room-a gift from Leslie.

We ate all those tiers of goodies. The scones were especially tasty, and the cucumber sandwiches were a sleeper hit.

Athena had a nice time with Muriel the cat too. We are still so sad and missing Mackenzie, but it’s been good to have a lot of things going on to distract us. I tell myself that she had a good long life for a dog of her kind and I tell myself that she had a wonderful and fulfilling life, lots of people playing the violin, walks and hikes, good food and friends and hugs and pets…

But this isn’t the day to be sad. We had a big storm the other night, lots of rain, a bit of hail, and afterwards…a huge rainbow.

It was a double rainbow, and Louie sent that picture from work. I was at home, and could see it, but the picture wasn’t as good, plus the rainbow was obscured by the neighbor’s house.

It was sad that Athena didn’t get to see Mackenzie again. I was looking forward to that, but that’s how things go.

But, life goes on, doesn’t it? We have a ton of things going on in the next week as far as culture and recreation, and I’m back to work too. I played at Showcase STL today with my band , Third Millenium World’s Fair. I don’t consider that work, but play, but I’m back on the violin, and the emailing, and the trying to organize lessons…but it’s easier in the summer. It’s hot, it’s sticky, it’s buggy…and summer is definitely here.

Goals for the next few weeks: stay relaxed, work out almost every day, practice violin and viola, continue decluttering the house and see more of my friends than I have been.

Do I sound more relaxed than usual? I hope so!