Chilling in the heat with the Murnanes

Instead of telling us to check into a hotel until our house is ready, the wonderful Murnanes took us under their roof.  It was actually payment for a long-ago debt when I organised Amanda's flat in Berkeley after all her stuff was dropped off while she was at a lecture, sometime in 2008.  "If you find a whip, it's not what you think," were her final words before shutting the door.  I'd known her for around three days at this point.

Now we're all older, wiser, and have children.  Charlie and Isabella are exactly Pete's age but have way cooler toys, none of which were bought from thrift stores, so he was over-the-moon to have both playmates and things to play with that worked and were clean and complete.

We're only here for a few days, but we did bring our own duty-free spirits so as not to be too much of a drain on resources.  Unfortunately this doesn't balance the generosity; the scales have swung mightily back and we're now hugely in debt to Jack and Amanda.  I guess there might be some babysitting of twins in our near future...

Feeding the army.

Two monsters with bubble guns.

The biggest (and cutest) monster of them all.

There was a lot of playing with bubbles.

A lot.

"So, Pete, what exactly are your intentions towards my daughter?"