Pleasure is the flower that passes; remembrance, the lasting perfume. ~ Jean de Boufflers

It's been one of those weeks:

Dylan and his mama left for Atlanta at 11 PM on Monday.

He was invited to come on to the jet

by the flight attendant

on their stopover.

Toured the cockpit.

Seventh heaven for my little gear-head grandson.

Tuesday, Cooper arrived,

totally lost without his brother.

We walked to the library.

Wednesday, it rained.

But we walked to the bakery

for

blueberry muffins.

Thursday, Coopy and I took a bus ride in to downtown Portland.

We went to the park by the court house.

Fed the pigeons bread we'd brought along.

Took the bus home.

His first bus ride.

He was enthralled.

Friday, we took the bus to go shopping.

Walked to the store.

Walked back to the bus stop.

Took the bus to Clackamas Mall.

Took the bus home.

He could've ridden forever.

In the midst of it all, several phone calls from Dylan.

Who was terribly homesick.

But having a blast.

Allergic to cats, we found out.

And his mama's friend,

who they'd gone to visit,

had several.

And Dear Hubby.

Gone on vacation all week to Idaho.

Bear hunting.

Got a bear.

A BIG bear.

And yesterday...drove up to my hometown

with my son and Cooper.

My son had never been there before.

We were going to walk thru the town so I could show him

my childhood.

Saw the house I grew up in.

Went to the lake on the outskirts of town.

Cooper loved the water.

The waterfall dam.

The fish we saw caught.

We drove in to town to have lunch.

Just as the food arrived

my son's cell phone rang.

My daughter on the phone.

"Mom, we've sprung a leak in the basement!"

I am 150 miles from home.

Water gushed every where.

The neighbor had a valve key and was able to turn the water off.

So much for the trip down Memory Lane.

We drove home.

I tried to be Red Green and patch the pipe

with duct tape.

Didn't work.

Called a 24-hour-emergency plumber.

Thankfully,

he was able to come.

Patched the pipe.

We are $385 poorer.

Overtime holiday rates, don'tcha know.

And today,

daughter-in-law and Dylan arrived home safely.

They were all just here.

I got

a Florida key chain.

An alligator magnet.

A lighthouse magnet.

Auntie got a lighthouse snow globe.

Papa got two coffee mugs.

One says:

"I'm a little bit crabby"

with a crab on it.

All picked out by Dylan.

And tomorrow?

Grocery shopping.