When Elsie had reached out to see if Zelda wanted to take the children to the Harvest Festival, it had been with great hesitation. She was well aware of her friend's losses, felt them so deep in her own bones that she worried it might be too much. Elsie had been there, two times, two heartbreaks and she had only gotten through because of the people around her. Distraction for an afternoon would do everyone some good. Then tomorrow they would go to the funeral and the moving on would continue. It was impossible to completely get over it, Bentley had nearly a dozen years ago, and Owen just over three now and she still missed them in some capacity every day. No matter how much she saw of Tyb in her son, he was not without some of the characteristics of his namesake either. Elsie had been so akin to her elder brother that anything she had passed on to Ben came out as reminders of him; it was comforting in a strange way. She wanted nothing more for her son to grow up as some mixture of Tyb and her brothers, all the best of three of her favorite people.

It was all to say, some day it would get a little easier to breathe.

Els had opted to leave Marley home with Tyb today. Just a couple weeks shy of her first birthday, already walking and unfortunately down with a little cold, she had been sleeping soundly when the rest of them head headed out. If she woke up feeling better they might join later. Els also thought it might be good for Zelda to have some more familiar company, in addition to the expected chaos of chasing the children around. As soon as Maisie had seen the ponies, she had demanded a ride and Els, without a good reason to say no, had suggested they take a turn doing that before perhaps finding a snack. Even Ben seemed interested, so it would be a good activity for the short term. "I almost wish I could take a turn," she jested lightly as they stood in the queue, the children glued to the fence as they watched those ahead of them take their turns. "I'm not sure I've ever though to try riding, brooms were always so terrifying that horses seemed as unlikely." Athletics in any form had never been her thing. Elsie was a gifted student and a fair musician, but anything involving coordination or athleticism had better been left to her brothers.