"Joy, gentle friends! Joy and fresh days of love accompany your hearts!"

This past weekend we were able to make the long drive down to Stratford to enjoy some theater and, more importantly, to visit with Unky G. Lucky us, Alice is a fantastic traveller, and we had no trouble with the 7 1/2 hour drive. She also adapted well to sleeping in the playpen at Gareth and Gordon's house, and loved eating in her booster seat. We've only been home a day and a half, and already she wants to know where we are going next...

We're off!

It's hot in the car, but we brought drinks.

She seemed to be sleeping well, but we worried a little about her getting a sore neck!

Uncle Gareth gets that first hug he's been waiting 3 months for!


Feeding time. You're doing a great job Unky, but when do I get my prunes?


We took a drive out to St-Mary's, as none of us had visited Gareth and Gordon when they lived in the farmhouse. What a beautiful spot!

No trouble at the henhouse.

Gareth inspects the old chicken coop.

One of our favorite activities for the weekend.

Looking out the window at all the cars and people going by.

Another fave activity, reading books, of course!

Gordon and Gareth introduce Alice to the yoga ball.

She is almost ready for the circus!

A stroll along the Avon river.

Check out the big swans! Lucy was careful they didn't try to steal away with Alice.

Gareth's office.

So funny that he should grow up to work in a place called a "playhouse"!

But seriously, we were able to take in a few plays (Guy: the Merchant of Venice, Lucy: King Lear), and marvel at how talented our young bro-bro is. We also had the opprtunity to meet Gareth's leading lady, Lindsay, and to see her perform in Oklahoma. What a treat! (but wait... we didn't get any photos of Lindsay... Gareth will have to send us some...)

Yay! We love to eat outside!

I'll take my pureed lamb medium-well done.

The sunny backyard.

Of course we did some touristy shopping

And stopped for a chat in town.

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

Time to go home.

Thanks for a super weekend, and good luck to everyone for opening week.