seasons change. . .

seasons change, can you get anymore cliche than that? but they do, usually before we are ready.
right now, i feel as though i am in the midst of the changing seasons, tide, or any other clever phrase already coined by another. . .i am too tired to be original right now.
i was so excited to discover recently that i had three baby owls living in my yard. i have a thing for owls. every evening around 8:30, they would come out to play. they would call to each other and play follow the leader from tree to tree. i affectionately named them Henry, Theodore, and Willamina. i would watch them every evening after putting my girls to bed.
i just got back from our annual vacation to the Ozarks. while there, i had to continually remind myself that for the first time in my thirty years of being present on this vacation, my 96 year old aunt hazel is at her nursing home instead of with us. i didn't prepare myself for how hard that would be on me, but it was. it caught me off guard when i stepped out onto the deck of our condo to find an empty porch swing or walked down to the boat dock to find my three little girls fishing without the competition of a silver haired old lady. . .
speaking of my three little girls. . .this is the first time in six years i have not purchased swim diapers for the trip. it is also the first time we have not left an infant at home for our annual trip to the dam (which is a white trash, hillbilly version of a boardwalk). Luci, who is two, continually reminded us "i not a baby; i a big girl!" and proved that though she is my youngest is not a baby anymore. my middle daughter, Mia, can swim underwater, eyes open, nose unplugged. she thinks she is a fish. she also discovered that she is a butterfly charmer of sorts. Zoe has proven to be the biggest change. she confided in my sixteen year old cousin, Lizzie, that her and her boyfriend David (imaginary i must add before i am deemed crazy) sneak into the bathroom and kiss. she also asked Lizzie to teach her how to be a big girl and said "all i know is when you are a big girl, you swing slow, you have to do homework, and you get to watch tv all day."
i had a college discussion with my cousin Lizzie, which doesn't seem possible. in my mind i think she should be about the age of my oldest daughter.
all of this said, i came home from vacation to find that my three little owls had left the nest. they have left to build nests of their own.