Company like Crazy

Today is a longer than normal Monday as we're all adjusting to an emptier house and "normal" routine again. The last four days have been so filled with fun family and friends that today seems, well...., dull. This past Thursday evening Nate's youngest sister, Joanna, came over to visit for her fall break from MLC. She's spent up to a week with us several times in the past years so even in a new house she feels right at home with us. (She didn't even complain about the lack of guest room! :) On Friday afternoon, after a morning of bagel munching (by us all), coffee sipping (by Joanna), and caramel corn baking (by all of us), Tammy, Nate's sister-in-law, stopped in for an afternoon visit. She was in the neighborhood for a wedding and couldn't resist the lure of niece/nephews tender affection. It was also a great excuse to eat that fresh caramel corn. Saturday Joanna and I managed to escape the house without children in tow and spent a few hours at the outlet mall hunting for bargains (we found exactly 3). Then for dinner on Saturday evening Nate's brother, Michael, came over to get his fill of us and some soup too (and maybe join his wife for that wedding). We all joked that it was odd to have that many Smiths together without it being a major holiday or wedding.

Sunday since all the biologically related Smiths were at or heading to their respective homes and we hadn't had our fill we headed down to Jefferson, WI to see some SD Smiths. A former student of Nate's was giving an organ concert and since his parents had driven 830 miles to hear him we drove the 70 to see all of them. It was again nice to see some of our SD friends again.

After all that in four days it's easy to see how today was kind of dull around here. Hopefully tomorrow picks up again. :)