Grandma and Grandpa Come to Visit

Grandma Mar and Grandpa Jim made plans to come visit us.  Their trip would overlap the kid's spring break and fortuitously fell on the first week that Chris could select for one of his four "rolling temporary layoff" weeks.

Grandma has visited us twice since our move to WI.  She came in December just a few months after we moved so that she could drive down with us to IN to see Chris hooded at this PhD graduation.

About 6 months later, she and Grandpa Al (Chris' paternal grandfather), came when he was called as bishop of our ward.  These were sweet visits with sweet memories.

Sadly, Chris' father was not able to attend either event due to ill health. But they planned a trip to come-the both of them!  We were super excited.  We started to pray that Grandpa Jim's health would allow him to make the trip and feel well enough while here to participate in any chosen activities.

Time flew by, (or as much as it does while having morning sickness:) and the week prior to their departure was upon us.  We waited on pins and needles to hear how the days passed for him.

The day before they were to fly it wasn't sounding good.

Early the morning of, though,  we got a text that they were getting on the plane!! They were both coming!!

The visit that followed was not a hustle and bustle kind of trip. But it was fun to show Grandpa where we lived.  We went a couple of places, worked on a project, watched a BYU game and everyone got a little rest in between turns wrangling kids.

I was not stellar about taking pictures.  I felt pretty well the first few days of their visit and then things went downhill with bouts of morning sickness and an awful headache that lasted for three days. So what I did manage to take is here, in no particular order of actual events:)

Grandma was so good as to sew our family sashes.  (The boys, especially Noah, wanted to participate in scouts.  He will join the church troop when he turns 8.  Until then we decided to make our own goal system and have the kids work towards earning patches based on those goals.  In typical Leah fashion, the material sat in a corner of my kitchen for months, waiting for me to borrow a sewing machine and get busy.) Grandma saved the day (or the month?  or the half year?) by taking on the measuring, cutting, and sewing of four sashes.  (I will include more pictures of the finished product in another post.) The kids were fascinated with the machine and even got to help sew!!

We were able to borrow a key to a friend's house.  Why borrow a key to a friend's house?  So we can have a huge party and make a huge mess and not have to clean it up?  Well, it crossed our minds but really they have cable and Grandpa didn't want to miss this BYU game:)   We did invite John and Karisa and kids so it was a little bit of a party!

We visited the Franklin Library, that has a big tree with a reading nook in it.  We didn't get to use it since the reading buddy dog was doing his thing with a little boy in the nook. But Grandma and Sage found a rocking chair and made good use of it.

We visited the Domes.  I think Grandma and Grandpa were especially appreciative of the opportunity to shed their coats, get out of the wind and warm up in these biospheres.  (I got a new camera and had to play. I have a lot to learn:)

We went to Grant Park beach and froze.  Well, the kids dug in the sand and threw rocks too.

You know you live in WI when you wear snow boots to the beach in April:)

We also visited Chris' work and enjoyed the museum. Sorry, no pictures, I was sick.

Grandpa spent some time working on a to-do list and seemed to enjoy the feeling of getting some things  checked off. 

Grandma got up with the boys at their regular early hour and spent hours reading and playing with them.  I don't know what all went on since I slept through it but I know it gave the boys the opportunity to get to know grandma better and vice versa.

Grandma and Grandpa also took the boys out for some one on one time and enjoyed a treat at McDonald's.

I had two doctors appointments during their visit.  One planned and one surprise.  At the surprise visit, scheduled because I had started spotting, I found out that I had a complete previa.  (4 weeks later I went back for another ultrasound and had a partial previa.  Four weeks after that, just a week or so ago, I had another ultrasound and found I am previa free!)

We would have found it even more difficult to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa at the end of their visit if we didn't know that we would get to see them again in just a few months. We have never lived super close to family but feel it makes our family visits all the sweeter since we know the bitter of distance.

Thanks for making the effort to visit Grandma and Grandpa!  We love you!