Jude stepping off the plane to meet Baba at the gate in Des Moines

It all started last weekend in a dinner conversation. Marcy talked about how she took a solo plane trip (actually she was with her then two-year-old sister Mandy) when she was 12. Jude said he wanted to do that, too. After he and I chatted for a few minutes we realized that there was no reason he couldn’t do it this week and fly to Des Moines early.

I went to United and sure enough there was a free ticket we could book for Thursday afternoon. So, we called Baba and it was all set. She was not going to tell anyone so Jude could surprise them. Marcy drove Jude to the airport on Thursday and was able to get a pass to go to the gate to see him off. The plane was a bit late but other than that the trip went off without a hitch. Baba was waiting for him when he got off the plane in Des Moines. She drove him to his cousin’s house and surprised them all.

Jude surprising his cousin Chloe at her house

So, Jude arrived for the annual Des Moines trip three days early. I am writing this as we are driving along I-76 on our way there. He is apparently having a great time, he is hanging out in the pool a lot and they have gone bowling. It has been nice for him to be there without us.

Lily reading bed time stories

So, Marcy and I were empty-nesters (kind of, we still had an injured dog to look after) were a couple of days. We had date night on Friday night, the first one in Denver all year, we rode our bikes to Jax so that was nice. Then, Saturday morning arrived and it was time to pick up Anna. We were both so excited to see her and find out about her camp. There are no electronics allowed at camp, so we had resorted to communicating via the mail. Anna wrote us a letter pretty much every day and Marcy sent her one each day as well. I was traveling a bit during this time so I sent her two postcards from San Francisco and one from Detroit.

Anna with her Geneva Glen camp mates, the Prospectors, wielding pretend pick axes

We brought Olive along to pick up Anna and we saw where she slept and met some of her cabin mates. We also walked around the grounds a bit and Anna went to the camp shop to buy a blanket.

Where Anna slept for two weeks at camp

Anna loved telling us all the details about her first long sleep-away camp. While she truly had a great time she did miss us, particularly Marcy. She even sat in Marcy’s lap this morning before breakfast, something she hadn’t done in ages.

It was great for Anna to reconnect with Marcy

Marcy spent a good chunk of today working on her big sprinkler project she has undertaken. And then it was time to pack for our trip. We dropped Olive off at the boarding place where she will spend the week and we were on the road just after 4:30pm. We are only driving halfway tonight, staying in Kearney as we often do.