The last few days of summer vacation

I just returned from the trip to Tucson. I had a wonderful time visiting the family. Chloe is just beautiful, and I had a great time visiting with her and her parents. There aren't too many stories to tell. The flights went smoothly, and the time in Tucson was very relaxing. My sister kept apologizing that we couldn't do anything exciting. Normally, she'd have taken me swimming, hiking up a mountain, or out to visit some of the sites of Tucson, but the baby was only four weeks old on Tuesday (the day before I left) so they couldn't do much outside the house. That may sound boring to some of you, but I found it wonderfully relaxing. I got to hold the baby a ton. It was also really fun to spend some time seeing my sister.


Also, we did get to see one tourist-y place. It's an old west town and restaurant called Pinnacle Peak. We ate at the steakhouse there, and my sis and I got one of those old west costume pictures taken together. I'll post a picture of the ceiling at the steakhouse. Any guest who wears a tie to dinner gets it clipped off by the "sheriff." The tie is then nailed to the ceiling. It was a little comical to see some of the men wearing old ratty ties over t-shirts and waiting for the sheriff to come by. If you're hoping to see the picture of my sister and me, though, you're out of luck. It's not very flattering, and the beauty of having my own blog is that I can choose which pictures I want anyone to see.


I can't post about this trip, though, without posting pictures of my beautiful new niece. I also need to brag a little about her. She just turned four weeks old on Tuesday. While I was visiting, I saw her roll herself onto her side more than once. She also smiles, laughs, and coos.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with baby devlopment charts, these are all things they don't expect babies to do for the first couple months of their lives. In short, my newest niece is not only beautiful, she's a genius.