James and Carrie

I am fortunate to be on the route my brother James and his wife Carrie take to deliver furniture from Illinois to a client in AZ. And I'm fortunate that James has a client in Arizona at all, who has ordered substantial enough pieces to warrant a delivery...twice. (They delivered furniture to the same client two years ago.) This time James and Carrie's visit was really fun because they stayed for a few days. My mom came up to be here while they visited, and we all had a great time. My favorite part of his visit was - hands-down - finding him here at the kitchen counter early in the morning coloring with Beau on one knee and Marianne on the other. He let them sit there for at least an hour, maybe more, coloring pictures and drawing lions for Marianne and tracing her hand on the paper.

 James is pretty tall, has this deep, deep voice, and dark features (including his great hair - he should thank my parents every day for that hair), and you might think kids would be scared of him a little. But instead they're drawn to him like moths to flame, even when he threatens (and carries out) putting their feet in the fan or sitting on all four of them at once.

 I think it was at this point that Jacob or Beau very kindly turned on the fan so as to make the "foot in the fan" thing more exciting. And he really did put their feet in the fan. And they loved it.

 No one was hurt in the taking of this picture...

 It was also GREAT that the three big kids went to school everyday. While they were away, I was able to play. Marianne is a terrific shopping companion, always eager to look at and touch everything, get carried everywhere, and eat a dozen pieces of gum a day. We looked around old town Abq, went out for lunch to satisfy James and Carrie's chile cravings, went thrift store shopping, and looked around at shops in Nob Hill. I also spoiled them with a coconut cream pie (which they ate for breakfast because the homemade stuffed sopapillas were a little much the night before). And we had to enjoy a white chocolate berry pie when they stayed at my house one night on their return trip. We were all fooded out by then, but that pie was good...
It was really fun to hang out with Carrie. She is a very thorough thrift store shopper with an eye for valuable name brand items. She loves quirky things, has a great sense of humor, and loved Colonel (my dog) so much I think he has an eternal crush on her. And she very graciously endured carrying Marianne all around Abq - Marianne is a solid 26 pounds...and a lazy 26 pounds.

James knows everything. About everything. Art, jewelry making, obviously woodworking, people, styles, history...It was fun to watch him in a little gallery in Nob Hill, looking at turquoise and talking to the worker - an artist herself - about designs and methods and origins of the jewelry. I'd love to hang out with James more - I think mere proximity would make me a smarter person.
On their return trip they stayed just for the night. I think James read to Marianne for thirty minutes, at least. My favorite was hearing him read the Disney Princess book...Such a good uncle...

I'm so glad they came to visit!

If you'd like to check out how awesome James and Carrie are, you can get a small taste at their website: www.pearcepearce.com