a lizard on a leash...

I don't think most people are too aware of time zones. I don't even pay attention when I hear "7 central" listed as a tv show time. But having family in CA and GA makes us more aware that one is two hours behind, the other one ahead. Which just means we pay attention to the time when we call.

Beckett, on the other hand, doesn't know or care about time zones. Which is why he woke up Tuesday morning at 4:30 a.m. Pacific Time, because it was, after all, 6:30 a.m. in St. Louis thank you very much.

Despite the early start, it was a great day. The cousins hit it off immediately. Emerson and Eli "cooked" in her kitchen, Aiden and Eli golfed and threw balls in the yard. I ate my weight in olive tapinade and sourdough bread.

Later that afternoon, my mom arrived. Aiden and Eme call her "Chicken Grammy" because, well, because she had chickens. The other Grandma is, quite logically, "Pool Grammy". Beckett met Grammy, and eventually we all walked to the playgroud and the beach.



There, we ran into a man who had a lizard on a leash. Yep. Apparantly, even though lizards are lightning quick, you can catch them by making a slipknot on the end of a long piece of grass. They don't care about grass touching them, so they let you place the circle around their neck, and their movement tightens it just enough to keep them on the end of the leash. And that's how you catch a lizard.

The kids were fascinated, and "hiked" to follow the man and his kids. Then we checked out the waves, but it was pretty windy by then, so it was a quick look.