Don't let the fact that I am blogging from my hospital bed make you think that this has not been a summer of tremendous fun! I had planned to be surrounded by one grandchild, and instead have been blessed with many more. Zoe came out for her seven week stay and we had a blast. I'm so grateful that 1) Allison and Chris let her stay that long; 2) that Zoe was happy and not homesick for seven weeks; and 3) that Rob and Erin were here to take over for the weeks when I was sick, or Zoe would have spent a lot of time on grandma's bed. This picture is how I will most remember this summer - watching the kids swinging in the backyard. I think that they had a truly idyllic kid experience - in and out of the shady backyard all day, bare feet, always someone to play with, swings, slides, make believe, sprinklers to run in, hide and seek in the plum trees, bubbles, kids to visit with over the fence, popsicles. Of course, I'm leaving out all the squabbles, but that's part of it, too.
The first thing we did this summer was go to Snowbird. Everyone came to spend our swan song there - we have since sold our timeshare - and it was becoming a tight squeeze for our growing family. It was fun to get the large room, the Pinnacle, with the kitchen bar and washer/dryer. We made good use of both. The kids wanted to swim. And swim. And later ...swim. Never mind that it was foggy and snowing outside. That's all they wanted to do.
In between swimming, we bribed them with no end of crafts - we painted suncatchers, made wooden models, colored pictures, made animal magnets, alligator sticker scenes and log cabin with moose, racoons, and other wildlife alongside. We also had a birthday party for Holly, played games, watched movies, ate great food. And the men played games after the kids went to sleep.
We also had a slumber party at our house. Erin was the selfless soul who camped out with the kids. I don't think anyone got any sleep. Morgan is almost old enough to stay with the group - and then things will get lively - her energy output alone equals the rest of the group together!
Ethan manged to climb up in the tree and that was it for Zoe - she had to do it. She put on her hated long jeans and her (gasp) sneakers and tried over and over and finally made it into the tree. It remained a big deal for a couple of weeks - she'd climb up and read a book in the branches. But eventually it just wasn't worth the long pnats and the shoes.
Robert, Zoe and I went to the Quirrh Temple Open House. We went early on a Thursday morning and had virtually the entire temple to ourselves. It was beautiful and very peaceful - a great way to see a temple.
It was fun to watch Rob and Erin do FHE each week. Zoe was so enthralled with it that if something happened to push it to Tuesday...,well, there had better be a darn good reason for it. Holly and Sam have been taught so well by their parents that Holly has an amazing knowledge of the scripture stories. Sam probably does too, but he squirrels around so much that it's hard to tell. Max sttend FHE, but as you can see, he doesn't pay attention.
On one of the only days I felt well enough to go somewhere by myself, Zoe and I spent the day at Temple Square. We saw everything - the grounds, fountains, monuments, visitors centers, buildings, cafes, and distribution. It was a beautiful, cool day - temperature in the 70's, we wore Sunday dress, and it was just a special day. Here in the photo she came to see where her parents' wedding reception was. We went into the tabernacle amd sat on the benches and listened to the pin drop and marveled that the pioneers could make such a huge, wonderful building. Then we went straight to the Conference Center and even though I've been there many times, coming from the tab, we were just blown away with the size of the auditorium. We took the tour through the center, seeing the artwork and history. Zoe was amazed that there were trees and grass growing on the roof. I scared the tour guide when I suddenly slid off the wheelchair to just "lay down on this couch for a little while." We had a fun day.
Talk about the desert blossoming as a rose - these Church gardeners can almost make Salt Lake look like Victoria.
The parade float that consumed our lives for three weeks. Rob did most of the work and suffered most of the pain, but Zoe got the glamor:
Putting Zoe on the float was just a ploy to coax her parents into letting her stay longer - and it worked! Zoe was here from Snowbird to the 24th of July, a full seven weeks, but she was off on a plane home to mom and dad by six AM the next morning.Now that they've found an answer to my falling down/passing out problems, I hope to be up and doing more with the grandkids again. I need to hurry - there's a whole bunch of birthday overnights coming up!
