A weekend away.

From May 09

Brian is in Seattle (his plane arrives home at DTW in the middle of the night), and Maia and I have returned from a lovely weekend in East Lansing. The sun was shining on both Saturday and Sunday, and we had a great time roaming the various nooks and crannies of MSU's campus that have been Hecker favorites for decades.

We started with . . . horses! There was a quarter horse show at the Judging Pavilion, which was our first stop. It was a small show, and we weren't there for very long, but Maia seemed to get a kick out of roaming up and down the hallways with stalls of horses on either side, and climbing the bleachers in the show arena.

We quickly decided to move on to the horse farms down the road, though, to soak up more sunshine and visit the new babies. There were a couple of foals, one of whom had a very rough start to her little life (she caught an infection in-utero, and almost didn't make it); she's looking wonderful now, though, and we watched her and her Mama take it easy in their stall for quite a while. Maia was fascinated by the nursing process, and she seemed quite perplexed for a while that Mama horse's "nook-uhs" were in the wrong place! :) I was happy that she had the chance to see another mammal nursing--we'd told her it happens, but she'd never had the opportunity to see it in person.

We wandered across the field where the marching band practices, through Beal Botanical Gardens, up the steps at the back of the library (where Maia wanted to go in--we explained that there weren't any blocks or toys or picture books in this library), and past Beaumont Tower to the MSU Union for some Dairy Store ice cream. Delicious!

I visited Nannie this morning sans Maia (due to her recent cold), and then we hung out at the house through dinner. Thanks to Nana and Papa, I had plenty of opportunities to go sit at coffee shops and bookstores on my own, soaking up the sunshine and reading up a bit on family nutrition (via Dr. Sears's book The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood). Maia slept wonderfully in a queen-sized bed with a kid-friendly bedrail attached--we all were very proud of her quick adaptation to the new bed situation.

We're looking forward to Brian's return home tomorrow, and then a routine week for all of us starting on Tuesday (Brian's taking the day off work tomorrow to rest up--he'll sleep until noon). In other family notes: we're sending happy thoughts in a couple of directions this week. Katie's birthday is tomorrow, and Jo is taking her milestone PhD qualifying exams this week. Happy Birthday, Auntie Katie, and you ROCK, Auntie JoJo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)