Grammie and Papa just left our house after a fun, fun visit and to keep myself from feeling too sad, I decided to blog about our fun adventures.
They got here on New Year's Eve just in time to celebrate Christmas with us. The first thing Kate asked them when she saw them was where her present was. Actually, that might not be true...but she was really excited and she couldn't wait for them to open her presents she was giving to them. My parents got her a camera and she is in heaven! She has used my phone to take pictures for a while and just recently I let her use my little camera when Sawyer is snoozing and she promises to be really careful. So I knew she was going to LOVE it and she does. I will post some of her awesome pictures later. Sawyer got a dump truck that both him and Kate have enjoyed since.
That was just the beginning of their awesome visit. It was especially fun because when we go visit Tucson, Papa is usually working so we don't see him very often. But this week he was off of work and playing with us all day long! It was kind of a bummer because it was unusually freezing outside but we found some things to do. This week we:
- rang in the New Year with hats made by Kate, crackers that you pull apart and get a prize, and poppers. The kids counted down around 9 and we made it to 11. But we got to watch the ball drop live in Times Square so we considered it good!
- ate Sauerkraut for good luck in the New Year on New Year's Day
- watched a lot of football including Ohio State winning the Rose Bowl and OU finally winning their bowl game
- ate yummy breakfasts made by Papa...biscuits and gravy, blueberry pancakes, waffles...yum!
- walked around Hermann Park and tried to feed the overfed ducks
- Papa taught Kate to swing down the slide to get more momentum
(Doesn't Ryan make you laugh in the back of this picture?)
- ate at our McDonald's with the tall play place and Kate showed them how she climbs to the tippy top
- watched Kate become a Sunbeam a church
- everyone helped take down all the Christmas decorations. Kate followed Papa around, helped him bring up the boxes and helped him take off the Christmas lights.
- Kate and Papa cooked in her pretend kitchen. A lot.
- Kate and Papa went on a walk around the apartments and built a secret fort out of sticks and leaves. The rest of us had to go on an adventure to find it when they were done
- wrote letters to Devin for FHE
- celebrated Grammie and Papa's 28the wedding anniversary at Outback
- went to the Children's Museum
- watched Up and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs snuggled up on the couch
- watched The Princess and the Frog at the theater
- Kate took Grammie and Papa to her dancing school and showed them some of her dance moves. But only some of them.
- We got a
babysitter for kids and Ryan and I took Mom and Dad to see the Houston temple. There was a gasoline spill on I-45 and our 45 minute drive took almost 2 hours. We missed all the possible sessions but it was still a great trip. We got to show them the temple, we did a little temple work and then to Gringos for dinner. yum!
- It was too cold to do anything outside towards the end of the week so we went to Chuck E Cheese and basically had the whole place to ourselves and then we headed to Chick fil a and Kate and Sawyer had the play place to themselves. It was our lucky day!
We spent the last morning cleaning up and playing a little bit and then we said goodbye and watched them drive away in the van. We were pretty sad and we had to come upstairs and watch Charlie and Lola to make ourselves feel better. Kate was so sweet, she could see I was sad and she kept kissing my cheeks and snuggling up to me.
Grammie and Papa, we LOVE you! We are so happy that you drove and drove and drove and came to visit us here in Houston! This week has been amazingly fun and we can't wait to see you again!
