Thursday, June 9–Lunch at LePeep’s

Thursday gave us another productive morning, then on down to 71st & 465 to meet Andrea & Abbie, just back from Togo, West Africa, where the family spent the last 10 years as missionaries.  They’re stateside for 9 months, then back to Africa, but this time they’re moving to Rwanda. 

The four of us had a nice, leisurely visit, eating, chatting, nursing (well, Trent was the only one who nursed, but he nursed enough for the group.). 

Abby and Courtney, cousins a few times removed.



Trent would not stop staring at a nearby customer, so we took this picture from an angle to try to look more natural.  :-D

 

We really had an enjoyable time.  Between homeschooling, mothering and great book recommendations, Andrea and I had no shortage of topics to discuss.  In the 14 or so years that they have been married, I really haven’t had many opportunities to visit with Andrea, but I feel like she’s a friend, as well as a relation.  Of course, once you realize you’re talking to another Jane Austen fan, there’s an instant connection.  :-)

After lunch, Courtney and I went to Wal-Mart to finish up Claire’s birthday shopping.  While on the way home, I got a worried call from Rachel, who spotted a helicopter landing on our road!  A year or so ago, we saw a police helicopter nearby when a couple of car thieves were hiding out a few miles from our house.  She was concerned it might be police, but I told her it would probably be marked as such.  I really didn’t have an explanation for it. While we were talking, it lifted up, then a truck pulled up where it had landed and the helicopter landed on the truck!  So strange, and I felt bad that I couldn’t do anything to calm her since I had no idea why there was a helicopter sitting on a truck just at the edge of our property.

I continued talking to her while we were driving home and she eventually realized the helicopter was spraying the fields.  Ahh!  Now it all made sense.  I do remember last year seeing a helicopter spraying distant fields.  The fields immediately surrounding our house have always been sprayed by a traditional airplane crop-duster, but I guess they’re using a helicopter this year.  Since I had the camera with me for our restaurant picture, Courtney was able to get some pretty good pictures of the picture as we were coming up on the house.





Here’s the helicopter landed and, I suspect, getting reloaded with chemicals.  Comforting thought.





I don’t think I can overstate how captivated Grant was the whole time. 



How cute is he, with his hands on his hips?  :-D