Patti picked us up early, and the boys were super excited when they found out their surprise was a visit to the park. She knew right where to take us to find Darth Vader. Ben immediately freaked out when he saw him, and had absolutely no intention of getting up close to him. Probably had something to do with his first encounter on Halloween. Zach on the other hand patiently waited in a long line for his chance and would tell me how handsome Vader was and how he wanted to give him a kiss and say "Nice to meet you." To top it all off, I had packed the boys' Vader capes and masks and Zach enthusiastically wore his in line and in his photo.
Later we checked out a MASSIVE makeshift store specifically constructed to house all things related to Star Wars right down to Darth Vader cupcakes. Wow! I was nearly speechless walking through the doors, and I'm not even a huge Star Wars fan. After we left the Star Wars Emporium, the rain started to pick up and we were content to leave.
The rest of the day we spent at the Bacons' new home, which they were busy moving into when the boys and I were headed out to Utah. It had been a month since we'd seen the Bacons, and it was so nice to be with all of them again in their new house and see how it looked with everything moved in. Their home is beautiful and in a really nice neighborhood. In back of their property is a nature preserve which is super busy with wildlife! In the evening while we ate dinner, we saw nearly 20 deer and 2 baby raccoons, one which came right up to the back door. Other interesting house guests are the tree frogs that climb up the sliding glass doors leading into their backyard. After days/nights where there is a lot of rain, the frogs (for some strange reason) scramble up the glass doors....probably by the hundreds! I got a peek at a few dozen of them while I was there. It's fascinating but also a little gross.
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| Just a fraction of the deer we saw. |
