quality parent time

I always love it when my folks come to visit (even if they do drive me a little bit nuts). I enjoy showing them the latest improvements on the house as well as tootling around Santa Barbara with them. For the first time, my mother stayed with us because we finally have a guest bed, having transformed the back bedroom into a guest room/home office. (Here's the blog entry on that accomplishment.) It was a really nice change having her here with us rather than at a hotel. (Dad has always stayed with us because he sleeps in a recliner, which we have.)

Here they are on the day of their arrival:





On Wednesday, we took a drive up to Solvang, where we breakfasted. In the afternoon we stopped briefly at the Chumash Casino, where Mom dropped a few dollars into a slot machine and Dad read the newspaper. I just took the photos, most of which didn't turn out. Here's what did:





On the way home we took a brief detour to view Cachuma Lake. It was a gorgeous sight.













Among the other activities was a visit to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art to see the photography exhibit, Made in Hollywood. We also took in the Asian Collection, which is always worth the price of admission by itself. And we saw the movie WALL-E, a heartwarming animated film. But I had the most fun going to Mamma Mia!, the ABBA-inspired musical. We had a blast. Mom was tapping her toes the whole time. I could definitely see it again. Only problem -- we couldn't get the soundtrack out of our heads for days.

I'm very glad that I have such a strong relationship with both of my parents and that they make the effort to come visit at often as they do. It means a lot to us to be able to host members of our family. We welcome them anytime.