Time with the Grandparents

The kids are away with the grandparents this week. I know they are making awesome memories, just like we did last time my mom and dad came down for a visit.

Here are a few of those highlights from their visit last month:

Marcus: Are they coming today? Is it today yet?

With sidewalk chalk they wrote, “we love Nana and Bump!”

• Eldon running up to Nana with a full-body hug
• The “good-to-see-you” gift exchange.:
• For dad: Flamingo and candle. For mom: flower basket. For me: new shirt and body mist. From Aggie to Nana and Bump: approximately 20 beautiful pictures.
• Mom’s eye-rolling at dad’s slowness.
• Dad’s head-shaking at mom’s hurry.
• Dad’s shock, “He’s peeing out on the tree, right in the front yard!” Hearty laughter. “What are you guys, the Clampits?”
• Dad’s big laughter at one of my favorite kid picture: “You’re the best mom I ever had.” Love, Lorraine.
• A long kitchen hug with my mom. We really missed each other.
• Dad’s new car surprise! After driving his Yukon for 300,000 miles (until it finally died on the side of the road), he paid cash for a new Lexus!
•  Mom folds up the dirty clothes she finds on the floor.
• Dad and his bag of cheese. (He’s on the Atkins diet.)
• Josh and dad talking politics over the grill, laughing about our constitutional right to high speed internet.
• Mom asks me, with politeness, “Don’t you think they should wear shirts, at least into town?” I shrug, whatever. Then I realize she’s being nice and I’m being a hillbilly. I get the shirts.
• They leave at 8 with the boys for a night in the hotel, breakfast included. Mom wants snacks for them, just in case.
• My sister calls to make sure they got down here ok. “They’d have a fit if I didn’t call them, but of course they don’t call me!” we laugh.
•  Mom on the trampoline, shrieking!
• Mom’s still getting used to our countrified lifestyle. (She asked, “Do they have shoes?” Almost as if she were asking, “Do you even believe in shoes anymore?”)
• Seth can make it all the way across the pool now!
• Dad letting Pete sit next to his work area in the kitchen while he chops peppers, onions and mushrooms to go with the steak they brought.
• Mom walking across the log in the woods.
• Mom just loved the horse, like we do.
• Joking about Branson MO, “You'd love it. It’s like an amusement park for old folks,” said Josh 

We leave and we hug goodbye, and they kids ask me when I get in the van, “Why’s nana crying?”

  

Enjoy those precious days with your grandparents, kiddos!