Dot’s Birthday . . . A Little Late
On our way home from our state park outing, Dot called us. She was on our way back to our house, but had some car trouble just outside of city limits. We zipped right down with our van full of smelly kids to rescue her and the dog. When the kids found out we were going to pick up Auntie Dot, they asked right away if Yanna/Jana (I'm not sure how to spell the dog's name) was going to ride in the car too. We replied that we thought she probably was with Auntie Dot, so she'd be coming in the car, and they were about three times more excited than they were to see Auntie Dot, which is saying a lot, because they were very, very excited to see Auntie Dot.
When we pulled up next to Dot's tired pickup truck, we opened the sliding van door, and the dog jumped right in and snuggled up in between two very happy kiddos, who had a fantastic time watching the tow truck. For the record, the pickup was easily and cheaply fixed. Yay!
We were fortunate to be able to celebrate Dot's birthday with her, although it was a few days late. Everyone mailed their presents to our house, and she had a lot of help opening them. We got an ice cream cake and had a magnificent time slurping away. 
The cake was so tasty that The Banana was not very excited about sharing with her father. But she eventually gave in and let him have a spoonful or two.
It was so wonderful to spend a few days with Dot. She watched my kids when I had chorale rehearsal. She watched my kids while I folded eight baskets of laundry. She came along to the library book sale and functioned as crowd control for my kidlets so that I could even find a few grown up books to buy, in addition to bags upon bags of children's picture books. I love that library sale. She played board games with Sarah and Mr. Sneaky Pants. She took The Banana and Mr. Sneaky Pants on a hike with the dog so that Sarah and I could go school shopping for the supplies on the back to school list (markers are on sale at Target this week. You'd be shocked at the number of boxes I purchased. We go through them so fast!)
It was a sad hour on Tuesday afternoon when Dot packed up everyone's favorite puppy and drove off to her job. She's going to be on the Superior Hiking Trail for four weeks straight. Wow.
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