Thor and I were able to squeeze in one last visit with my parents in Walla Walla before they head to Southern California next week for the winter. Friday just happened to be our boy's ninth birthday, and he was thrilled to be able to see them and my two sisters on the very day! (Side note: This year we only gave him one gift and I was so worried he was going to be upset that he didn't get several, but he was so thrilled with the gift, a long skateboard, that he never even asked if there were more. I love the idea of just one special gift, and I love him being happy with something simple without extravagance, not more and more and more stuff. He did get a great gift from Grandma and Grandpa and each of his aunties, and he was quite happy.)
Saturday morning my sister and I went and had coffee and chocolate croissants at Colville Street Patisserie and then drove out to my favorite graveyard, Mountain View Cemetery. (I blogged before about it here.) I simply find it endlessly beautiful.
As my parents are wrapping things up for the year there, my Dad wanted to get everything picked that was left in the garden, so Sunday morning Thor and I helped him pick what was left of the tomatoes and all of the butternut squash. I didn't count them, but the back of his van was filled with butternuts. He had just picked the last of the beets and I brought home a bucketful. Monsters, they are! The neighbor's horses always come running to the fence, and Thor and Dad fed them the last remaining cornstalks.
And so ends another season. With memories of family and ice cream and gardens and angels. With love.