We’ve had Hannah and Kent live here with us for six weeks, then Joel joined us for the last two weeks. Friday we were reunited with Leah and her family (our precious grand babies!) after about 10 weeks, I think.
We loved having Hannah and Kent here. Kent worked from home and Hannah studied and recouped from PT school during the day. I worked, relaxed, did my own thing all day. Scott worked from home then returned to work. Once Joel joined, he too worked from home here.
In the evenings we planned and made meals together, taking turns, and ate together, most nights out on the deck. The kids expanded our repertoire of meals since they all turned out to be adventurous eaters after being fed white mom meals all of their lives. They still appreciated the home cooked mom meals on my night. I did make a sun basket recipe, sweet and sour meatballs and blueberry basil salad that they really liked. Otherwise, I stuck to burgers, spaghetti, and chicken and rice. Hannah and Kent made curry chicken, sobe noodles with spicy peanut sauce, and they and Joel made tacos including homemade guacamole and homemade salsa. Yum. Of course, there were many Pizza Shuttle and Chipotle nights mixed in and also a couple of take out Tap House nights. Unfortunately, the kids are all heavy evening snackers, so we continued to gain weight throughout their time here after blizzard runs, ice cream, popcorn and chip eating during TV time.
We watched a ton of movies and Netflix together in the evenings, the fifth season of Queer Eye, the movie 13th, and more. We did do some work outs together, running stairs (Hannah and Joel and I )some hiking (Kent on his bike and me), and walks. That after our ping pong championship games. Scott, Kent, Joel, Hannah, mom was the order most nights although Hannah won every game one night.
The kids are project oriented people so while they were here, Hannah and Kent completely reorganized and cleaned out all of the kitchen cabinets and the basement, motivating us, motivating Scott, especially to throw and give away years and years of junk. So freeing! Then Joel helped them tackle the attic since a lot of it was their things. I rescued some baby clothes (mine and the kids) that Leah was thrilled with and read some high school and early marriage journals. I have kept journals for most of my life so it is fun to read through some.
After face timing exclusively (other than the distance birthday party) with Leah and the boys, we finally got to see them in person on Friday. I can’t quite express how incredible it was to see them. They were so excited when Hannah and I pulled up. Huge smiles and squeals of joy. They immediately wanted us to play and invited us to their room to build race tracks and play cars. When Hannah, Leah and Henry walked to Mojo’s to get our lunch, Emmet and I played soccer. He had on Joel’s soccer jersey that was way too big for him. While playing, he said, “This is fun, Grandma, you are fun, I like you!” Then he said, “Do you think you could play a little faster?”
Nap time I got to snuggle in Leah’s bed with Emmet. He didn’t sleep but snuggled and then played with my watch. He’s such a sweet, snuggly kid. There’s nothing like it.
After nap time, Dave joined us and we caravaned to Cottonwood Falls to Dave’s parents new second home. My goodness. It is amazing. I loved everything about it. It is huge, grand, remodeled except for the bathrooms which were still awesome, six bedrooms, a full partially finished basement, and huge attic space yet to be finished, a beautiful new eat in kitchen, dining room, living room, sun room, sitting room, butler’s pantry, giant fenced in yard, and large tree covered back patio. So impressive and beautifully and comfortably decorated.
The kids made another delicious taco meal and we ate around the dining room table. /Emmet assigned us all seats and Henry pointed and named us all. I love to hear him say “Grandma” with his adorable little smile.
While we were eating, Henry ran through and tripped on a rug, then picked himself up and showed us his owie knee. I scooped him up and kissed his knee and he was fine. Then he ran through and tripped in exactly the same way. This time, he picked himself up, kissed his own knee and ran off.
Hannah and i got to give the boys their bath and get them ready for bed. Their little precious bodies, bunnsies sticking out of the water when they lay on their tummies made us giggle. I love Emmet’s little muscley arms and Henry’s chunky monkey thighs.
When we got ready to leave, Henry didnt’ want to hug me until I asked Emmet to come give me a hug. Suddenly, Henry opened his arms and leaned into me saying, “Ahhh”. It made my heart sing.
dianegclark 