Hope & Sebastien Visit!!!

Well, this happened a whole month ago, so i apologize for just getting around to posting this. It's truly no SMALL thing, because Hope and Seb (Ron's sister and her husband) live on the West Coast and the last time we saw them was for their wedding last summer. If i could have my way, they'd move into the house that is vacant diagonally from us. But then again, Sam would probably bug the hell outta them every hour of every day and they'd be forced to move! ;-)
Hope and Seb just completed a 30 day long hiking adventure in Spain and France on a trail called Camino Frances. Hope's blog tracks their progress and journey. Most days, they hiked no less than 8-12 miles. EVERY DAY. I really admire them for not only committing to that sort of physical challenge, but also for their adventurous spirits. Everyone who knows them knows this sort of jaunt is not at all unique or unlike them; they've traveled the globe over, a few times, often plunking down to live for months/years at a time! So cool.


During their stay in cozy little Corning, they were without a car (unless borrowed from us), which didn't seem to bother them at all. They enjoyed a couple walks into town, and just plain relaxed and chilled here, reading or working on a jigsaw puzzle - yes, even with three crazy kiddos to keep them on their toes. Sam was completely enamored with Sebastien. I think Seb "had him at hello" when he agreed to play in the leaf piles out back. From that point on, Sam was tugging on Seb's hand repeatedly to do it again. Meanwhile, Thom crawled onto Hopey's lap on numerous occasion to hear some books or just plain snuggle for "huggies and kisses." Hank made his way around to both quite often as well.

On Halloween night, Hope and Seb manned the barracks at home (Ron had to work that night - poo!) with sleepy Hank while I took Sam and Thom around the neighborhood for trick-or-treating. I think they had a good ol' time, even if they only opened the door to about 16 total kids. Hope whipped together a crazy cat-lady costume while Seb was some sort of Fireman Zombie.
It's always SOO good to see them. The distance between us really bums me out a day or two right after they leave. But maybe by the time the boys are grown up, "they'll" have perfected the whole teletransportation thing and it will be much easier to see one another.