Tuesday evening they walked in the door and four of the five kids immediately said hello and were ready for hugs. Neta, suprisingly hung back at my side and needed ten minutes to analyze the situation before welcoming the newcomers into her territory.
Wednesday we hooked up with Patrice and JT at Holiday Park. Big and little kids played all over the playground. We crawled up the "spider web" as we call it. It's one of our favorite climbing spots.
After climbing the web and making the littler ones on it nervous because we would shake the whole thing, we decided to move to the playground that was more age appropriate for the toddlers with us. The second we were at it's opening, we KIDS started a game of tag. Neta kept a pretty close tag on me, so I didn't get to run as much as I would have liked, but did get to run a little from Patrice. I was at how well Stephanie can run in flip flops.
We had a picnic lunch where the mosquitos feasted on Stephanie while we ate our sandwiches. Then we headed to Patrice's house for more play and dinner. Kids, my little ones, had fun playing in the sprinklers and baby pool with cousin Jayden and then on a race car PlayStation game.
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| (Jayden's stratigically placed tool box is hiding a diaper, in case you were wondering.) |
We headed home around eight and shortly after that sent kids to bed. Grant, Stephanie and I stayed up until one talking. It was great to visit with the little, I mean younger brother. It was wonderful to get to know Stephanie better as well. I'd only seen her at their wedding and how much visiting can out of state in-laws do on a three day visit for a wedding? Grant got a great one and I can tell that they will be extremely happy.
Steph made the comment that people say she and Grant are happy because they are newlyweds and the honeymoon will soon end. Her response to that is that no, it's teh gospel principles that they are living that makes them happy. There is some newlywed simple life joys (no kids to cramp your style) but I think even with kids, they are going to be one of the happy ever after families. I would love to be closer to watch them grow together.
Thursday we went to the Children's Museum, which is a must whenever someone comes to Indy for a visit. We started off at the Rock Stars, Cars and Guitars exhibit so Grant could see the MJ Captain EO suit and we ended up all putting on dress ups and dancing along with the dancing video they had playing. Afterward we went to Dinosphere. Patrice and Grant did a anniversary photo of their Dinosphere picture from about five years ago when they came with Mom and Dad before Grant's mission. I'll have to put on the original picture (it's on the desktop) so you can see what a great picture it was; my dad takes some good ones.
We had lunch and then went home shortly there after. Reads went home to give Jayden a nap. Stephanie and Grant took a nap with Nate and Neta while I took Xela and Aurora to piano, with Graigry as my sidekick. We stopped by the library while we waited out the hour.
Reads came back for hawaiian haystacks for dinner and I was suprised to see Eric home early. I didnt' think he was going to get home until late Thursday night, but he was home become I went to Mutual. Stephanie and Grant packed up to spend the next two nights at the Reads.
Friday we went to the IMA 100 Acre exhibit. Everything in this exhibit is outdoors. The kids were able to climb on the Funny Bones sculpture of a skeleton and they climbed on some of the "benches."
The other sculpture I wanted to see was the basketball one; I can't remember it's official name. Xela started to climb on it and we were told we weren't to climb, so after a moment to ponder, we decided to play Sharks and Minos. This game of tag was fun and kept us entertained until I was the shark and smacked my head on one of the arches. For the next week I had random headaches. When I go with the young women next week, I'm bringing a ball to have a calm sort of a basketball game. No more tag for me.
It got hot quick so we headed to the Canal for lunch with Eric at work. After about 20 minutes on the canal, we were even hotter and Jayden was ready for a nap so we wen to the state museum and waited in the shade while the kids played by the bronze elephants.
We parted ways until after naps and then rejoined at the Scott zoo for a cookout and swimming. Stephanie helped Nate learn how to jump into the water, or just stick his face in the water without fear (you've probably seen the video of him repeatedly jumping into the pool this week). Nate fell in love with his Aunt Stephanie.
Everyone had gone swimming Thursday while I was at mutual so I was glad that I got to go swimming with the family on Friday night. JT and Grant had fun throwing the big girls. JT threw Graigry once and Graigry just flew. Graigry didn't want to be thrown anymore, but Xela and Ro were all over it.
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| READY!! |
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| FIRE ONE!! |
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| FIRE TWO!! |
Saturday was departure date for the Utah bound couple and I, not wanting to say goodbye yet, decided we'd join them one more day and go to Nauvoo with them, which was their next stop. I asked Grant if we'd be crashing his party if we joined them and he said no, so while they were with Patrice Friday night, we packed the suitcases, the cooler and the car for a weekend trip to Nauvoo.
To shorten this blog, I will continue the Nauvoo trip on a separate posting. It was SOOO great to hang out with Grant and Stephanie. I love my family more than words can express and it's always good to be with them. I'm looking forward to when the parents come into town.
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