Dave and I took the opportunity of a free weekend to go visit Grandma Rowena in Albia. She mentioned in an email earlier in the summer that it would be nice to see us. We scheduled this weekend, and it was a nice time. We drove down Friday afternoon in time to be there for supper. We planned to arrive at 6:00 but we didn't leave our house until 4:00pm. It takes just over 2 hrs to get there, and we had to stop and feed a screaming Eli about 25 minutes before we got there. We arrived around 6:30. I'll call her Mama Row because she likes being called that instead of Grandma. She had emailed me earlier in the day and told the kids that she would have two straws in her hand when we arrived, and whichever kid drew the shorter straw got to be the elevator conductor first. Then the kid with the longer straw would wait their turn and push the buttons on the elevator second, whenever that trip occurred. The elevator is by far the most exciting thing in her house in their minds. :)
Violet drew the short straw first, and waited patiently at the elevator until everybody had their luggage in with her. Calvin knew the deal and was excited for his turn. She eliminated the fighting about the elevator and I was impressed by her thinking ahead on that detail. She also had arranged a little scavenger hunt with little easy clues for each child (V, C and V) which led to a little gift of some sort. Vanessa's clues led to a book about animals. Calvin's clues led to a book he can practice writing letters in, Violet's led her to another work book. What fun!
In the elevator:
She had sweet and sour pork on the stove, with a few other sides. She served up some yummy fresh Iowa tomatoes with italian seasoning, mixed veggies, and brown rice. Dessert was berry cobbler and vanilla ice cream. After supper we took a walk around the Albia square. We pushed Eli in the stroller and walked with the rest. Albia had some type of singing event on the square which prevented us from completing the four sides, so we went a block past the square and ended up walking past a window scene full of wooden bears and motorcycles, which captured their interest for a few minutes. It was a constant effort to reign in Calvin ~ he is always running way ahead of us.
We got the kids to bed and Mama Row went to bed shortly after that. Violet, Calvin and Vanessa (in a pack and play) shared the room with two twin beds. Mama Row gave us her room for Dave, Eli and myself, and she slept in the bedroom with 1 twin bed.
Saturday - July 21, 2012
The next morning she cooked everybody soft cooked eggs, peaches and blueberries, and biscuits. Violet and Calvin are always the first kids awake and they were eager to help with the biscuit making. We planned out our day and got ready. She had a lot of recycling items to drop off at their recycling center which is only open one day every 2 weeks, so Dave helped her load her trunk full. We stopped at the cemetery to see Grandpa Loren's gravestone. Mama Row noted that the hosta plant she put next to his stone was dry, and wanted to water it the next day because she didn't have her watering bucket with her at that time. We then drove to the Pamida store which was closing and had the remains of their inventory marked down a lot. I picked up a ruler, 2 packs of pencils, and a few children's books. Mama Row bought coffee beans. We went back to her place for lunch and then the plan was to head to the Albia pool and swim. She served up BLTs, coleslaw with apples/walnuts/grapes and cut up watermelon. The kids knew we were planning to swim that day so their patience with "running errands" was running thin by the time lunch was over. They were both chomping at the bit to go swimming. I totally understand how they feel, the feeling of begging to go swimming and having to wait at times when I was a kid is still fresh in my memory. The smell of chlorine at a pool and being told no, we can't swim was the closest form of torture in my mind at age 8. ha!
Anyway...we changed into our suits, went to the pool at 1:00 pm (Mama Row stayed back to take a nap) and enjoyed the water for the next 3 hours. I stayed under a big umbrella in the shade on a lawn chair with Eli for the whole time, and Dave swam with the kids. The Albia pool is GREAT. Its such a nice pool for little kids. There is a really big area where Calvin can touch easily. He felt super comfortable in that pool, splashing and going under water plenty of times. The pool also isn't splashy and crazy like Cedar Falls. It has a train slide they can climb in and go down, and one area with an umbrella of water that falls off a mushroom-shaped thing, but other than that, it isn't scary. The Falls at CF has a huge bucket of dumping water that freaks them out in the kid area. We generously applied sunscreen before they swam and avoided sunburns. Vanessa could touch in some areas, Dave kept her in his arms most of the time though. Violet was an inch too short to go on the slides, so they all stayed in the large kid area. They came to me to snack on some crackers I had packed.
We went back to Mama Row's place around 4pm, and she had some sweet treats to eat - mini chocolate candy bars and juice. I think the kids got too full on candy! We gave the kids all baths. Mama Row had a delicious supper ready which was ham, sweet potatoes, mixed veggies, quinoa, and brownies covered with flaked coconut for dessert. Vanessa was acting strange at dinner - and we quickly figured out she was just exhausted and at any moment could have plopped her face right into her dinner plate. She wouldn't chew her food, she sat quietly, her eyes and cheeks droopy, and rocked slowly front to back. Dave tried to get her to eat a little but she wouldn't, and ended up spitting her food out. He picked her up and she immediately closed her eyes and fell asleep right on his shoulder at the dinner table. I guess a long afternoon in the pool and skipping your nap is enough to knock out a little 2 yr old! Dave laid her on a bed to sleep for a little bit. We didn't want her to take a full nap since she'd never get to bed at a decent time so we let her sleep for 45 minutes or so.
After cleaning up after supper, Mama Row got Violet and Calvin dressed up and they put on a show for us in the living room. Violet completely rearranged her living room, making "a stage". We looked at family photo albums and got the kids to bed a bit too late.
Mama Row said, "Now wasn't that better than watching TV!?" They were a bit hyper so Dave stayed in their room to keep them quiet, 45 minutes went by, and they finally fell asleep. Mama Row talked to me and voiced her genuine concerns about Violet being in a private school setting, saying she was concerned that she wasn't getting enough diversity, no exposure to others, wouldn't be ready for college, etc...her list went on and on, and said she was so sorry she had to be in that situation. She was making a lot of assumptions. I know she is a huge supporter of public school education and probably took offense last year that we decided to go a different route. It wasn't worth it to me to argue with my grandma so I just told her that I still supported public education as a whole (Cedar Falls schools are very good!) we are very happy with her school and she is learning a lot, and also getting more exposure to the Bible and learning things from a Christian perspective. The topic got changed to what other family members are up to. Dave came back from chaperoning bedtime and Mama Row went to bed.
Sunday we decided to not attend her church as a group and head to Lake Rathbun. She suggested that idea and we went along with it. The idea of taking the kids to an unfamiliar church seemed too hard, and we wanted to enjoy the beach/lake before it got too hot. We packed a cooler full of ice and a large container of water and a few cups. We drove there following Mama Row's car. We drove over the big dam bridge and saw the size of the lake and all the boats before turning around to head towards the sandy beach area. We put sunscreen on the kids, some changed into suits, and walked down towards the beach. Dave, Vanessa, Violet, and Mama Row went in the lake right away to swim. Calvin was a bit more hesitant, and preferred to splash in the water with his feet and use a plastic cup to make a sand castle. I stayed on some towels and kept Eli in the shade.
The visit wrapped up with getting lunch at the marina's restaurant, Louie's. Mama Row was very unimpressed with their lack of healthy things on the kid's menu. But we ate there anyway, and had some good sandwiches, fries, and coleslaw.
We drove back to her place, and had 4 sleeping kids by the time we got there, which was only a 15 minute drive. We contemplated leaving them sleeping in their seats, but we really preferred to bathe them and get them in clean clothes. So we did that...drug them out of their seats, into the bathtub. Dave bathed them while I packed up all our stuff which seemed to be distributed evenly all over every room in the place. We finished up the brownies and ice cream. Mama Row asked us if we wanted any furniture, and offered us the two twin beds. We gladly accepted that offer, and also asked about a coffee table and a blue couch. She is happy to give things to family, we will arrange to pick them all up later. We left after a little while, and made our usual stop at Smokey Row Coffeehouse in Oskaloosa for some iced mochas on the way home. We made a deal with the kids that if they slept in the car, they could watch Curious George. Well...that worked. :) they slept the entire way home. :) They watched a show on the TV at home instead.
It was a great visit. I'm so impressed at Mama Row's health. She is 86 and hosted us with ease and grace as she always has as far back as I can remember. According to the math, she was 55 when I was born! Amazing.
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