Update with tree climbing, babies, french castles, and cows

What an amazingly rich and full week it has been here in Enoughsville! It almost feels like three weeks, there has been so much happening. Here's a very short version: tree climbing, Halloween, trips to France, babies born, and math meetings.

Last Sunday, I was wandering across my campus, heading to see a screening of the opera Die Fledermaus, when I ambled past a bunch of people wearing helmets and staring up into brightly colored ropes in the trees.

It turns out, they were climbing the trees (which actually means climbing the ropes that were secured on high branches of the trees).  They invited me to join them, and even though I'm not particularly comfy with heights, I jumped -- or rather, climbed -- at their offer.

Hard to see me up there, so the second version is me circled.

The tree that I climbed happens to be a record holder: it is the tallest linden tree in the state of Enoughsville.

These were all pictures taken by other climbers; I'm wearing a green jacket, so it's hard to see me climbing up that blue rope. We got up high enough that we could look down at the roofs of various other buildings, and I got to hang – literally – with some of my former calculus students.  It was so much fun!

And then I went to the opera screening.  

Not enough chairs, so I'm sitting all the way down on the ground.

Next up:  Halloween.

The weather was lovely, and I -- like many other peeps in my family -- dressed to impress. 

I continued my father's tradition of handing out pencils, which kids seemed to be oddly excited about.  I also offered the trick-or-treaters a chance to give a treat to Prewash, and almost everyone gladly offered her one of the cheerios I gave them, so my dog was delighted by the evening, too.  (One of the kids ate the Cheerio herself, so I was glad I wasn't giving them regular dog treats!)

I had a few specially dressed people make special trips to my porch, as homage:

Hugging the cow pillow . . .

. . . and checking out the cows on the shelves.

Even adults can appreciate the cow-vibe.

Shortly after Halloween, my guy left for France, Achild came to visit me, and Kinderling went into labor.  I loved hanging with my oldest granddaughter.  In this candid photo below, Prewash's tail is going crazy with happiness; my glasses are on my head, and I'm wearing my awesome colorful tights.  (Not sure where the hats with feathers came from; they're probably a fond memory from the Pirate Dinner.)

I will walk with my Nana and Prewash.
I love my Nana and my Prewash.

And then . . . behold!  C-child!

The day after she was born, my husband -- who had gone to France the day before -- walked into my office.  He had pulled the old "forgot my passport" routine, just so he could hold the baby even before I did.  cheater.  

He held the baby, made adorable faces, . . 

. . . got his passport, and went back to the airport bound for France.  

Looks like he made it this time:  Visite * Chateau

And that was all in the first few days of the week!  The rest of my week was largely full of teaching classes and doing research.  Both because of hanging with my granddaughter, and because of going to math talks, I'm in the car much more than usual: four different days this week.  The fact that I got to spend all day Saturday (today) at math meetings is just a delightful way to round out a week that has been full of lovely adventures.  I admit to sneaking outside from some of the talks, because the weather is aMAZeballs.

Zoom chatting outdoors with Nelson.

A great day to spin outside with friends in the park,
says Inkling.

And that's the news-upon-news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our adventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.