Unplanned vacation

Mandi, Jacob and Aaron all got a little unexpected "vacation" to Nana and Papa's last week. As it turns out, our 30 year old plumbing has seen better days, and it wasn't content to spring one little slab leak on us. No, our plumbing decided to throw us one more curve ball. Apparently, while they were constructing our house long ago, someone ran a little nail right into the pipe that feeds the master bedroom shower. For 30 years, this nail held fast and watertight, and only decided to start rusting out and dripping at some point during the last few months. We were happily oblivious to this issue until last Monday morning, when the dining room ceiling started dripping water onto our floor.

Repairing the actual pipe was simple enough, but there were two small complications that often accompany most any plumbing fiasco: the ceiling drywall was soaked, and the moist environment in the ceiling had led to small amounts of mold. A full repair amounted to replacing almost half of the ceiling in the dining room over the course of the week. Mandi wisely opted not to stay in the house with two small boys while heavy construction was underway and mold could potentially be in the air, so she packed up the minivan in a frenzy Monday afternoon and drove up to Paso for the week. She managed to take care of both kids without daddy's help, and without the usual comforts of home, for five nights and six days—go Mama! I stayed here and took care of contractors, going to work, and restoring order to the house once the ceiling was back up. The family returned home Saturday afternoon and we've spent the rest of the weekend getting back into our usual routine and doing the usual unpacking-laundry-groceries-cleanup dance that one does after returning from a trip.

Anyway, Mandi managed to get some fun pictures during the trip. Best of all, Aaron started smiling while they were gone, so there are some really fun pictures in here. Apparently Aaron likes grinning at Chuck. Go figure. :)

Little grins