Uncle David and Drew

My sister Tracy came in to town with her son, Andrew, and we both really enjoyed playing with him for the weekend. We offered to keep him for the next, oh, eighteen years or so but Tracy and Darrell decided they were too attached to the lil' booger.

Why don't you make like a tree and leave?

Well, that's what ours did anyway. One of our beautiful Bradford Pears finally bit the dust on a windy day (I don't even think it was raining...) after we procrastinated way too long on having them all topped. The next door neighbor's little girl was quite frightened as she was nearly squashed--but luckily for all, she managed to escape any damage from the falling foliage. As a result, we decided to get rid of both of our Bradford Pears to prevent any future catastrophes...unfortunately, our neighbors also decided to have all three (or four?) of their trees cut down as well. We're all feeling a little bare and exposed now--and we quickly realized that our respective houses needed power washing in a serious way since the gorgeous trees were no longer there to hide our neglect. Now the trees are gone and the power washing is done...and none of us can wait until the Spring to plant some pretty, but sturdy, trees.