Our Generation Vol. 1 No. 48: Easter 2010

Wow! What luck! First Kari visits for almost a week, and then Sara "Clobberson" Robertson brings her team and family unit to Baltimore for a volleyball tournament. The two aunts, Kari and Kim overlapped by one day, for a few hours really, and it was just a function of awesome luck, rather than any planning. Anyway, we lapped up the serendipity, and just enjoyed the time together while we had it.

We drove up to Baltimore Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to take in the volleyball action, and the kids not only accepted the long car rides every day with composure not usually present in 3 and 1 year olds, but actually embraced them with excitement.

We were glad to finally get to see Sara in action, and she is truly awesome. We saw the serves on a string, a couple of violent kills, and our fair share of sweet digs. Sara's Samurai (yes, that is the name of her team) did not win it all, but they were certainly impressive, and at times, brilliant.

The real action, though, happened in between matches. Ben received the rock star treatment (literally, sort of) and he carried himself like a natural. He was passed around and cooed at and fawned over, and he just smiled and laughed his way through it all. One girl even took his picture for her phone (if that is even what these minicomputer/camera/phone/homing device/etc's, are even called anymore) screen saver. She said something to the effect, "Sara, I know this is weird, but I don't care." Hilarious.

Both kids had a great time running around on the empty courts, as we nervously guarded against rogue serves and kills, zeroing in on their little heads at 40 or 50 mile per hour. When she wasn't running around, Mia watched in awe as the young amazons flew around the court during their epic battles. Sara and the girls were great with Mia: they played catch and chase with her and took her to the sideline once to give her a feel for being "one of the girls". Best of all, Mia interacted with cousin Sara just like... just like they were meant to hang out. Like they aren't separated by thousands of miles most of the time.


Then came Easter! The Easter Bunny visited our house and left Easter baskets full of goodies and little plastic eggs filled with treats (candy for Mia and animal crackers for Ben) all over the house. Mia is an egg hunt pro already. She found all of her eggs and helped Lil' Bro find some of his, too. Ben found a few on his own, but concentrated mainly on throwing and fetching the first one he found. We relaxed that morning, praised the glorious weather, had a nice breakfast, put on our Easter duds and....

... headed back to Baltimore to hang with the Robertsons, just like Mom and Dad used to do back in Texas. Sara's team lost early that day, and Marlo and I not so secretly were relieved, because it allowed us to just hang out as a family on our last day together for some time. We strolled around Baltimore, ran around like crazy in the hotel while Sara hit the showers, and had a super nice lunch, including a couple of cool brews and plenty of hot tapas, on the harbor. Dan, Ben, and Dad even got a chance to track down Babe Ruth's childhood home. No pictures of that little side trip, sorry.

We talked and laughed and just hung out, just like old times back in Texas. Except the addition of Mia and Ben made it even more fun. Not a beat missed (though Kristen and Laura were) in the time and space between us now. Just like it should be.

We closed the night out with some hot baths, the Neverending Story, a little play, and lot of relaxation. Below, Mia says, "Goodnight," with her magical egg buzzyoo from Sara.

Next up... Ben turns the big oh-one!