Road Trip 2.2 begins tomorrow

We have had a great time seeing our grandchildren and family.  And as a bonus, we got to see my old friends Mark and Peggy Swerdlik, who were in town for the same conference Emily brought her family for.

In our whirlwind 19-day vacation from our vacation we first stopped in Fort Collins to see my mother, Kathy, Bill, and Tonia. 

 

One of our excursions was to Greeley to see the home where my cousins lived in the 1950s.  I have such fond memories of those times, playing in their yard and in their home and with my cousins on the top floor, reading comic books. My uncle Homer built the house, which is why it is still the best looking one on the block. 

Then Mark and Peggy arrived, and we spent the day sightseeing on Whidbey Island.  Peggy wanted to see some eagles, so we went to Ebey's Landing, and the eagles showed up just for her.  Thanks, eagles!
 

After doing fun things like taxes and shipping orders for Vintage-toys for the next couple of days, we headed into Seattle to see the Seattle and Atlanta families.

We took Ian and Adam to downtown Seattle to the hotel where Emily, Sean, Sebastian, and Soren were staying.  We all went swimming at the hotel.

Then, the next day, we drove back downtown and picked up Soren and Sebastian and brought them out to the island to stay with us for two-three days.  It is something we have been able to do with Ian and Adam on several occasions, and so it was special for us to be able to do that with these two boys also.

They helped Vicky make my valentine's day cake.  

Since both of the boys had colds, we got to remember back to the olden days where we didn't sleep because children were coughing or needing comfort.  But we didn't mind--in fact, it was awfully nice to be reminded of those days with our own children, and to be able to make them feel better during the night.  One of these days Emily and Sean are going to get to sleep.  I'll bet they can't wait.  Emily, Sean--it's really nice. 

It is interesting to watch our grandchildren grow, and see their various strengths starting to emerge.  One of Soren's strengths is that he is a gentle and patient older brother.  Another is his interest in books.  After a poor night's sleep, Sebastian fell asleep in my arms, and since he hadn't slept the night before, I decided to just hold him since he could breathe better in an upright position.  So, Vicky took Soren into another room and read to him for two hours!  He loved it.

And so did I.

If I hadn't drunk so much coffee, he could have had a longer nap.

Soren, as has Jules and Emily, Ian, Adam, Stella, and Marina, liked the doll house I made for Jules in 1976.  I had constructed it to be sturdy enough to stand on, and it has held up very well all of these years.  I don't know how sad I am going to feel when the last grandchild is too old to want to play with it--try to hold on long enough for great grandchildren I guess.  That'd be nice for a lot of reasons.

Sebastian loved Jack.  Kept saying "Jack, Jack" (or actually "Ack, Ack").

We watched "Cars" over two nights.  Soren liked it.  Here's a good example of how patient he is with Sebastian, as Sebastian would often just sort of throw himself over him, and Soren just let him do what he wanted.  It was so sweet.

After three days and two nights at our home, we drove the boys back to Seattle.  I retrieved Sean and Emily from the hotel, and we all went to Jessica and Jules' home for a couple of days.


When I got back with Sean and Emily, I found Vicky had taken the boys to the park.  Three active boys!  Good thing she's in such great shape.

On Saturday we all went to the Museum of Flight.  It was "model" day, and I got to build a model with Adam.

He did really well at it, so I bought a bunch of model airplane kits and will have them at our house for when they visit.

It was great to have both kids and their families together.

For the two nights we were in Seattle we stayed at Bill and Alicia's, in their guest house.  They are always very generous.  Sunday morning we had breakfast with them and Silvermoon.  Doug and Susan had been invited, but they were out of town. Bill, Alicia, and Silvermoon did all of the work for the breakfast--we brought bread.  Freeloaders, huh?

We have plans for taking all six of the grandchildren camping this summer (not all at the same time, yee-gads!).  We hope it works out.  

Back home Sunday night, with one day to prepare to leave.

Road Trip 2.2 will be California.  We are excited to be back to Joshua Tree, Death Valley, etc.