Here are some final highlights from my week with my sister LeAnn and her family. It was really fun and great to spend time with LeAnn and her boys. I miss them lots because I don’t get to the see them very often. I especially enjoyed my time with Matt since I hadn’t seen him since he was three years old. Hopefully, now that he’s older, we won’t be strangers!

When the group dropped me off at home last Tuesday, the kitties got really scared because there were so many people in our place all at once. Dax stayed under our bed while Cassie and Tigger ran downstairs. Cassie realized this wasn’t the place to go so he headed back upstairs and under the bed at top speed, almost running into my nephew Christopher. Luckily, Christopher jumped out of the way just in the knick of time. Tigger, on the other hand, found a place to hide.

On Friday afternoon, the group (LeAnn, my sister Caryn’s entourage, and my mom) went to Antelope Island to swim in the Great Salt Lake. I almost joined them after work, but I’m glad I didn’t for two very good reasons: the water’s nasty and there are bugs everywhere. LeAnn captured this video of a seagull “hoovering” some bugs. Near the end, you can really see how many bugs there are. Most of the family came home with several bug bites. *shudders*

While everyone was at Antelope Island, Matt and Christopher decided to swim to Egg Island, an island where the seagulls lay eggs and hatch their young. Matt decided he wanted a keepsake and stole a baby seagull from its mother. The mother was frantic and tried to scare them away, but in the end, Matt and Christopher won. They swam back to the main island with the baby seagull. The adults were very upset when they found out what they’d done. But, instead of having the boys swim the baby back to its mother, they left the baby on a grassy part of the shore, hoping it’ll survive. (I’m upset by this because it’s inevitable that the baby’s going to die.) On the way home, LeAnn started to call the boys, “bird killers.” I was doodling on a napkin during dinner and it ended up as a nice picture for Matt and Christopher. I think it’s quite appropriate, don’t you?

I think the neatest part about this entire experience is that LeAnn got to have all three of her boys together for the first time in six years. Before LeAnn and Matt left (Wyatt and Dustin are staying with Caryn for a few weeks), LeAnn wanted to get a picture of all of them together. I know it must’ve been nice for her.

Cloe’s (my old kitty) life has been upset for the last two weeks due to so many people being around all the time. While everyone was there, she only came out to visit at night when things had calmed down a bit. Once the coast was clear, she decided to hang out with the family again. I miss her a lot, but I’m glad she’s as happy as she is.  And, I’m glad my parents enjoy having her around.

I spent this weekend at my parents’ because Corey and I decided to give Cloe to them. Cloe will do better in an environment with just one cat. She doesn’t like sharing the attention with the other cats and she doesn’t like sharing the food with them either. She’s also bulimic, so her food needs to be monitored better and more regularly, which we can’t do with three other cats.

All weekend, she seemed very happy. She relished being the only one getting the attention. A few times, she did look for Dax, one of our other kitties, but she should get used to not having her around. Hopefully, in the mean time, she doesn’t drive my parents bonkers with her yowling while looking for Dax.

When Corey and I left today, I cried. Even though I know Cloe will do better with my parents and I know she has a good home, I’ll still miss her. We had her for seven years and I feel like I’m giving up a child. I guess I’ll get used to not having her around all the time too.