Visit with Grandpa Loren and Grandma Rowena

We had a really nice time visiting my grandparents this weekend. We made one stop at Smokey Row Coffee shop in Oskaloosa for mochas and potty breaks. The kids barely slept on the way there, I think they were too excited. Vanessa did though. They were both excited to see us when we arrived at their place around 5:30 Friday night. I think we unloaded our gear for 20 minutes. Grandma Rowena was at the top of her game (as usual!) hosting our family and had a little scavenger hunt ready for Violet and Calvin upon our arrival. Violet excitedly ran around their place and asked me to read all the clues. At the end of the hunt were two presents, one for each kid. Calvin got some pipe cleaners, and Violet got a cardboard picture frame with stickers to decorate it. She got right to work on the frame while Mama Row finished getting supper on the table. She served such yummy food. Dinner on Friday night was baked ham, corn, purple cabbage, and peach-pecan pie with ice cream. The kids slept together in the small room. Violet got the twin bed, and Calvin slept in his little portable pop up tent with the blow up mattress that gets inserted under neath it. He was just fine sleeping on the floor. They took awhile to settle down since being there was exciting and new. They eventually fell asleep though. Grandma Row showed me a lot of pictures on her computer that had been converted from slides - many pics were of my family (mom, dad, Rachel, Jay and I) from many years ago...they were fun to see. She is planning on labeling all the pictures with who the people are and some places, and burning some pictures onto CDs for the family. We brought along a pack n play crib for Vanessa and her big swing. We didn't even end up opening the bed for her, as she was happy to sleep in the swing for naps and night. We just set up the swing in our bedroom and she did great. The first night, about 3 am, I heard Violet screaming at the top of her lungs. I asked Dave to go see what in the world was her problem. She said it was too dark, and was scared. I guess she tried to get up in the middle of the night (maybe to use the bathroom? I'm not even sure)...and was just terrified. Her screaming woke up Calvin, so both of them needed calming down before going back to sleep. Saturday morning, the kids woke up shortly after G&G. Grandma had waffles already prepared that she toasted to warm up. When Dave and I got up, the kids were finishing up their waffles and were ready to play. She had planned on taking everyone to the pool that day, but (as in times past, the pool hours were not as she thought they were) the pool didn't open til 1 pm. We killed time by eating an early lunch (leftover ham from the night before in sandwiches and cottage cheese on the side), letting the kids watch some TV, and played at the park before it opened. The pool had a nice set up for little kids, with a large kid area and lots of shallow water to play in. They jumped right in the water with Dave and Grandma Row (I stayed under an umbrella with Vanessa, she slept most of the time). Calvin was overconfident in the water - slipping under a couple times and got scooped up quickly by daddy. But he wasn't scared by it, he just kept on swimming. Violet was brave enough to go under water a few times and wiping her eyes with her hands instead of a towel like she normally insists. She got braver as the day went on just by watching older kids jump in, go under, and come right up out of the water like it was no big deal. Amazing how other kids can boost the confidence of a younger one. She wasn't quite tall enough to go down any of the slides, so we stayed on one end of the pool the whole time. The kids played hard for an hour and a half in the glaring sun, and soon it was obvious that we needed to go and get them down for naps. They were acting tired and whiny...so getting them to sleep wasn't that difficult when we got them tucked into bed by 3 pm. G&G took naps, Dave and I watched some TV, and the kids slept - and when everyone woke up it was time to get supper ready. Grandma made some delicious BBQ ribs, baked beans, and broccoli. Grandma Row got out a wrap-around-the-waist style apron for Violet to put on like a big flowing skirt, and dressed her up with necklaces and flowers in her hair. She danced around the house and sang songs. We hung out in the den area and spent time singing songs, goofing around, and the kids seemed to enjoy all the attention. Getting them to bed was more difficult since they had just taken a late afternoon nap. They fell asleep somewhere between 9:30-10. Dave took the night light from the bathroom and put it in an outlet in the bedroom where the kids were sleeping so we could avoid them being scared by the darkness. I think that plan backfired around 4 am when we heard both kids awake and messing around in the bathroom together. Calvin was on the toilet, and Violet was in there with him. I don't think he did anything on the toilet, I bet she went herself and he was just copying her. Not exactly sure...but Dave did his best to get them back to bed. As soon as they were tucked back in Vanessa woke up to eat at 5 am. We did not feel all that rested Sunday morning, but made the effort to wake up early enough to eat a light breakfast and go to their church with them at 8:30. I brought along dry cereal and two snack cups for the kids to munch on during the message so they would be occupied and it worked pretty well. Their church has a new person doing the teaching message and Dave and I found it to be a very sound message and we're glad my grandparents are in the habit of hearing some decent Biblical teaching on a regular basis. Maybe some day what they are hearing about Jesus will sink in. The kids enjoyed the kid sunday school, and us adults participated in a Bible study after wards. The Bible study was a discussion from scripture (Philippians 4) about purposing in our hearts to have a better attitude about things, life, and circumstances. Definitely an applicable message for me! Grandma Row prepared lunch for us before we left. She made a one-skillet dish with couscous, scallops, pepperoni, peas, and turkey, along with sauteed carrots and parsnips as a side dish, and bread/butter. Calvin ate the food better than Violet did. She tried to avoid eating the carrots but we made her eat them anyway. We packed up our stuff and got our van loaded which took close to an hour. Grandma Rowena let me choose a couple of her paintings to take home with me, along with a couple of stools they had refinished with different fabric on the cushions. I thought we could use them in the kitchen so the kids can stop dragging chairs across the kitchen when they want to "help" me. The museum of history that was down the block was open, so Grandma Row took the kids down to see the trains on display. The trains were a hit - the kids enjoyed walking through the caboose and the engine, pretending to drive the train and toot the (nonworking) whistle. After we left, we only drove a couple blocks when I remembered that I left Violet's swim suit on top of their washing machine. I stopped back to grab it and we were on our way. Somewhere on the way home (I was driving so Dave could get a little work done on his computer), I missed my turn on Hwy 63. I ended up on Hwy 6 heading east, so we intersected with Hwy 21 and went north until we hit Hwy 20. I was really distracted while driving watching a sky diver fall from the sky and hit the ground at one point, I think I missed the sign to tell me to turn while paying more attention to this sky diver than the road. Oops. All 3 kids slept almost the entire way. They were excited to get home. Dave went to pick up Solomon at the vet at 7 pm - and the dog also seemed excited to be home. He didn't potty in the house and was pretty relaxed...a big change from the first time he came to our house two weeks ago. In my next post I'll post pics.