Cruise ship living on land

The girls woke up at 4 am this morning.

Huge blessings should be heaped on my husband for getting up with the girls and letting me lie in bed for another hour.

Our clothes are currently covered with Lola hair, but it's well worth the occasional dog hair in the mouth for the amount of joy my girls are getting from petting this slobbery creature.

"You're have such soft fur" "what a good girl you are" "that's a sweet girl" are a constant purr from their mouths, creating a very maternal undertone to our days.

We are spending as much time outside as we can.
Warm in the sun, cool in the shade, basically perfect all the time. It explains the price people pay to live here.
I want to live here.

I'm so happy to be here.

We're all decompressing a bit.
But Kansas isn't too far from mind. Our connections, those strings that have been strengthening for the past 3 years, are tugging at us, making me feel grateful for new roots, while appreciating the old ones here by the bay.

Today we went and visited Grandpa Pappas who has recently moved into a new senior living facility. Visiting his new home was like stepping aboard a cruise ship without the hassle of packing bags and having to renew a passport.

We fed koi just outside the dining room.

We shared a delicious meal. The server even made Maia a peanut butter sandwich, no jelly, and cut up strawberries specially for the girls.

And then we used the beautiful swimming pool, which is housed in an indoor facility, with a retractable sunroof.

This was the first time Grandpa had used the pool and it looked to me like he picked up right where he left off. My 92 year old hero swam a couple laps and then we all enjoyed the therapeutic bubbles of the hot tub.

Grandpa is popular and well liked by all the residents and staff. Every hallway produced opportunities to meet neighbors and friends, each one friendly and kind.

It was a good, happy day.