Stolen from my parents' blog

Photographs courtesy of my father

As most of you know by now, Brandon flew out late on Thursday night, and arrived in Cairo to find the apartment in good shape, in fact amazingly clean. This would be explained by the fact that Rere had been kept on retainer, but has had no one to mess the place up.

Left behind with the kids, Ashley decided to take advantage of our invitation and come to Raleigh for a little while. She packed up the Pilot and headed south, stopping only for french fries at Wendy's along the way.

As always, it's been a delight to have her and the Sherwoodian gang around.

There has been lots of swinging,

and some intrepid climbing,

and some not-so-intrepid climbing.

Of course, a guy has to have a stick in his hand at all times.

Put a stick and some water together, and you're in 15-month Nirvana.

The girls also liked disturbing the long-suffering fish, who had just survived the long winter and the marauding blue heron.

The kids, including the Nedwinator, were amazingly well-behaved watching General Conference with their Mom and grandparents.

So, we're glad to have them for a little while. We hope that they get to be reunited soon with their Dad and finish their Cairo time peacefully. Meanwhile, there's fun to be had, pancakes to eat, toys to be rediscovered, books to be read, and bubbly baths to be enjoyed.