In mid-October, shortly after Callie turned six (seriously, is she actually six already?), we had a great visit with Sport and Nana Banana. The girls were very excited, and Callie was lucky enough to have her fall break when her grandparents were in town, so she got to spend a lot of time with them.
October visitors must make the pilgrimage to the weekend morning workouts at Keeneland. It is always a little chilly, but it is just so cool to stand along the rail as so many different horses go running by. You can feel the pounding hooves as they pass. Each year it seems that these morning workouts get more visitor friendly. This year they added tours of the grounds to the experience, and we spent a fun thirty minutes getting a more in depth education about what makes Keeneland such a great place to experience horse racing.
This picture has become a classic every time we get together with Taffy and Jay (aka Mom and Dad, aka Nana Banana and Sport). John's has fond memories of his Mom reading books to him growing up, so it is only fitting that his daughters love it too. Now we just need to get Taffy to visit long enough to read through all of Sir Machinery. No one does the voices of the characters in Sir Machinery like her, that's for sure.
One thing is for sure, when we have visitors we don't let them rest. Even if you have recently had your knee replaced you better be prepared to hit the orchards running. Nana Banana did not let us down, and she was a trooper while Callie and Reese led her around their favorite spots, including not only the full bins of gourds, but also the play areas.
Of course it is not as if the grandparents got to have all the fun. Sarah and Reese went down the slide quite a few times, and Reese loved every minute of it. Callie is old enough to do it herself, and loves the fact that she is old enough to do it herself. One thing about Evans Orchard is there is never a moment when your child says that there is nothing to do. It's only a question of what to do next.
For us, the next stop was the petting zoo, where Sport was kind enough to spend a couple of quarters so that Callie and Reese could feed the assorted animals. Although they enjoyed feeding the goats, we must admit that their favorite, and ours too, were the baby bunnies. Our only complaint was that we couldn't hold them. So far the girls have yet to plead incessantly for a pet of some sort, but when we saw them look at the bunnies we figure it is only a matter of time. We have to be strong.
As we were saying, there are a lot of activities at the orchard, and we could not pass up a good old fashioned tractor ride through the grounds. And we are pretty proud of the picture we got of the girls with Nana Banana and Sport. That's a good looking foursome.
It is not always easy living so far away from our families. But we are very comforted to know that the girls are very aware of who their family is and that they are loved. We could not ask for more.
If you are reading this blog, it most likely means that you will be receiving this picture in the mail very soon with best wishes for the year ahead. This picture captures so much that we love about Callie and Reese. They are very sweet girls, and they love each other very much. We feel very lucky that they get along so well and can only hope that it continues for the rest of their lives. We have said it before, but it bears repeating every time we think of the two of them together.
Oh, Reese. We added this picture just to highlight what a spitfire Reese is turning out to be. She is sweet to the core, like her sister, but she can hold her own in just about every situation. And while she may be feisty, all signs point to her enjoying and understanding a good sense of humor. She loves to laugh and loves even more to make people laugh. And while it may be hard to believe that Callie is six, it is even harder to believe that Reese is about to turn three. As she would say, "Oh my goodness!"
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