our first trip of the summer

so this trip was rather interesting, as it involved the four of us splitting up and heading our separate ways.

first, we dropped glenn of at wolf creek pass for a 76 mile solo backpacking trip.

as he was saying good-bye to the girls, hazel said "daddy, you will always be in my heart."  june said "daddy, you will get eaten by a bear."  funnily enough, the area where glenn went was actually the last place where grizzlies were spotted in colorado, in 1979.

then i headed on to denver, where i dropped the girls (all three of them) off with my folks.  hazel and june had an amazing visit with their mimi and pops!

 and olive got a bit spoiled, of course.

 hazel lost another tooth while she was there.

 meanwhile, i was in cleveland, visiting my fabulous sister, traci, and my amazing little nephew, john.

 from cleveland, i drove to jim thorpe, PA with some friends to see...  you guessed it...  the felice brothers!

 it was the best show i have seen in a very long time.  you can read about it here if you'd like.

 the town of jim thorpe is so amazing.

one wonderful thing about the town is the absinthe house.

 we tried it and it was lovely.

this is the before picture...

 and us, in anticipation as the water drips over the sugar cube

(that's shan in the middle and cindy on the right)

and this is what it looks like after the sugar has been added and it has been "louched", which means a splash of icy cold water is added.

shan and ady, a.k.a two sisters and a show, a.k.a. sisters dissonance

we had so much fun!

 and then i headed back to cleveland to see my beloved john,

 and traci and mike of course.

 goodNESS, i adore this kid.

 and it was so very fabulous to hang out with traci.

 cleveland is a really great city.

 john pretty much never stops running.

 we went to the zoo.

 and rode the train.

 i bought john one of these little water drop toys (not really sure what you call them) he was fascinated with it, couldn't take his eyes off it.

 this giraffe's little face reminded me of olive's lips, with her underbite.

 while at a thrift store shopping for belts, john tried them all on and was very pleased with himself.

and traci took me to the incredible melt for dinner one night.  there are no words...

 john brought his "cool" as he called it.  still mesmerized...

what a great time!

thank you so much, traci, for everything

and thanks shan, ady and cindy for so much fun

and thanks mom and dad for having the girls!

p.s.  glenn did not get eaten by a bear.  we met him back home, safe and sound.