ode to leah (and seth)

I wrote this a while back but never got around to posting it. Leah left yesterday and definitely miss her - she was wonderful to have here for two months! So this post is dedicated to one of my two favorite younger sisters.

The blessings of Leah being here are many. Here are just a few...

1. Swapping clothes, or rather, borrowing her clothes. I don't know as she really borrowed any of mine.  (I really wish this wasn't the top of my list... but it is.)
2. She likes to try different kinds of cheesecakes with me, even if they involve caramel that I made multiple months ago. (It's not that Grant doesn't like trying cheesecakes, he's just more of a consumer rather than a producer.)
3. Two extra arms for when I just don't have enough
4. She cleans her own bathroom.
5. We have enough people for a game of Settlers whenever we want.
6. Being amazed at her educational bulletin-board creating skills
7. Just getting to know her - we haven't spent this much time together since before I was in high school, probably. 
8. She's so devoted to laundry - she'll get soaking wet doing it! :) (So, we did laundry. And it rained. A lot. You can fill in the blanks.)
9. It's 11:48 p.m. and she just helped me sand my chairs, and now she is dutifully swatting all of the mosquitoes in the house that congregate in her bathroom around this hour. I know this because I'm sitting here at the computer and the house is completely quiet except for this WHAP against the wall... speaking of which, we could sure use a swatter in here. I'm ready to be done with mosquitoes. (Side note: I think her cockroach count was at least 10 by the time she left.)
10. SHE WASHES DISHES. All the time. Such a blessing. :)
11. Leah being here has somehow provided me with opportunities to get to know other people in church better. It's kind of hard to explain, but it's been a tremendous blessing. Case in point, we went to the coffee shop with some church ladies one afternoon. It was lovely.

And with Leah and Seth both being here for the last week and a half - that was even better. I'd really really really be missing them except we're going to be home in 2 1/2 weeks, so we can do it until then. :)

On Wednesday we took a little day trip to spend time together at a national park about 2 hours from Ixtlan. It reminded us a little bit of Turkey Run, except with more pavement. Here are a few pictures from that:

I should mention - Ivory slept the entire time. She loves the baby carrier!

And now its just Grant and Ivory and I for the week. We are looking forward to this time with just the three of us before we head home on the 27th! Looking forward to seeing many of you!