First (and probably only) house guests

We had our first house guests!  My parents came in September, right after the flood.  (We were worried we wouldn't have any running water, but it came on a few hours before they arrived.... just enough time to hop in the shower and mop the floors.)

One of the days they were here I went outside looking for them, and saw shoes on the sidewalk.  These two came walking down the sidewalk soaking wet, because they found a water hydrant spraying water.  (They were flushing water through the pipes, so it wasn't an uncommon occurrence.)  To this day, every time Tiago passes a hydrant he says "Agua!"   

The firemen also went around door-to-door handing out fliers, letting people know they still needed to be boiling their water until further notice. They were so nice!  Tiago was mesmerized by the firetruck, so they let him check it out and climb inside.  

They even said we could stop by the fire station any time we wanted to get a tour, so we went the next day!  [Most of their visit was just hanging around the house, because our planned day trip to Charleston was thrown out due to the flood.]  Tiago basically froze in front of the firemen, but I know inside he was happy to be there.  Whenever hears sirens outside he says "woo woo woo" (imitating the sound.)  

We went to the park, where it was nice to have some extra hands to hold babies. (Siena in pink, Mila in blue)

Tiago likes to pretend he's talking on the phone (or the "bring-bring")

Don't be fooled... he wasn't running away from the ducks, he was chasing them.

Instead of carving pumpkins, I bought one for Tiago to paint.  We put down a design with masking tape, then peeled it off once it was dry.  I don't think I took a picture of the end result, but it turned out better than this mess below might lead you to believe.

One thing we always do well when my mom is around is eat well.  She is a big help when it comes to dinner, and an equally big help when it comes to dessert.  I made sure to load up on butter before she arrived.  We tried toasting pumpkin bread (which didn't turn out the way it tasted at a restaurant where I got the idea... but pumpkin bread is always delicious anyway), baked apples with caramel sauce, and cookies.  This was the week before I started my sugar cut-back.  

I was trying to take a picture of Hyrum, and after the first one I think I told him to sit up straighter.  That led to a whole bunch of different poses and commentary from around the table. He was having a hard time keeping a straight face, and I don't think he realized I was taking pictures the whole time, but here you go.

The end result was worth it!

We went downtown to see the capitol building, as well as an old cemetery next door (which happened to be where we parked the car.)  The outing was fun, but it took us an extra 45 minutes to get home (from down town) because of the flood damage.  The two screaming babies made that a miserable delay.

And the night before they went home, we went to try a Puerto Rican restaurant that we pass on the way to church.  It was a fun way to wrap up their visit.