Leaf-ing, and leaving.

Toward the end of the week, the air got cooler and we started to wind down.

All these beautiful leaves...

 and still lots of them to rake up.  So we spent a little more time outdoors.

 Maia was delighted to help!

 Raymond and Ray took on a huge project. Clearing out the over growth under the cedars in the back corner of our yard.  At the end of their project, we learned that there was a grey house behind us, and that they have a dog and kids.  We'd not seen much of that corner of our neighborhood before. 

Unfortunately, this left us with a HUGE pile of branches that took Ray weeks to break up and get into our lawn service.

 While the Rays worked on the branches and I made dinner, Effie and Maia filled up bags of leaves, and mooshed them down.

After a wonderful week together, it was time to say goodbye, and we were sorry to see everyone go.  So Maia drew herself a picture of Aunt Tara... see?

(incidentally, this is the first time I'd ever seen her draw anything resembling a face, so this was pretty cool for me!)
Maia is frequently asking when Nana and Grandpa and Aunt Tara were coming back... or maybe we could just go to New York tomorrow, okay mommy?