Ryan and Rachelle and our grandchildren, Ida, Alden, and Wilder, (and Alden’s dog, Lilly) started at the Olympic Peninsula in the Pacific Northwest and traveled by car, bus, ferry boat, airplane, train, a rental car, and on foot to visit us at our cabin in Pine, Arizona. It took them over fourteen hours…and they did all this just to see us. Thank you. This means a lot to us.
We didn’t make any real plans for the visit….we just wanted to spend time together, talk, laugh, tell stories, and relax. This was their first time at our home in Arizona. And our first time to have a long visit, days on end, to just hang out with these lovely grandchildren.
Our time together was amazing!
Just as the sun was setting we saw our family walking from their airbnb to our cabin….on the final leg of their long journey to see us.
The first morning together, Ida and I got to fix my famous breakfast—Grandchildren Chocolate Chip Pancakes and scrambled eggs with LOTS of cheese. She is an excellent cook, and much more than a Grandma’s helper…she ended making ALL of the pancakes!
Then Grandpa got to work building model cars with Alden and Wilder. Cars have always been a major interest and love of Wilder, Alden and Grandpa. In fact, Grandpa started teaching them how to build cars a few years ago via FaceTime. But this was a special treat, because they got to sit down together and discuss all their favorite cars as they built their model cars together.
It was a joy to watch my car lovers working on their cars together.
And I got to bring out all my jewelry supplies, because Ida loves to create beautiful things and do crafts as much as I do. So Ida and I went to work making jewelry.
Ida’s first necklace….it’s a piece of art!
It was a hot day, but everyone wanted to see the Anasazi ruins on the top of a BIG hill in Pine.
Grandpa is almost to the top of the hill.
It seems as if nobody knows about this hidden unmarked trail to the ruins. We’ve never seen anyone else on the trail or at the ruins. And as you can see, it is a treasure to have this ancient Anasazi home right in our backyard.
No self respecting boys could resist seeing which of them could leap the furthest.
The boys were not jumping off the top of the ruins…it is a bench that was recently made out of the same type of stones as the ruins.
We had five evenings together, hence five dinners. Rachelle very sweetly assumed that she would be making ALL the dinners. I really appreciated this, but I convinced her that we should share the meal preparation. So she planned three of our dinners and brought a whole suitcase full of food from her home and garden on the airplane!
Here she is making one of her dinners….with the help of Alden and Wilder who peeled the potatoes.
It turned out that it was much more fun to use the knives they carried on their belts than a potato peeler. It appears that a knife is not as efficient, and the peeled potatoes were half size. So they had to go back out and peel (with a potato peeler) the remainder of the five-pound bag of potatoes. But they didn’t complain and seemed to have lots of fun.
We celebrated Ida, Wilder, and Alden’s birthdays, because we are never together on their actual birthdays. They all brought birthday presents for me and Father’s Day presents for Grandpa.
Ida crocheted me a beautiful flower doily in my very favorite colors!
Wilder created a lovely blue and white bird for my birthday. How did he know that Grandpa and I love birds?
And Alden built Grandpa and me very unique sailboats. We had admired the miniature boats that he makes, and he had asked us a few months ago what kind of boats we liked best. Alden plans on going into the Coast Guard, so he can learn more about the sea and gain boating skills. He plans on being a commercial fisherman.
Rachelle gave each of us a jar of the magical cream that she makes with herbs that she collects. It seems to work for about everything…our old dried skin and scalp, aches, and pains. And we found that it also quells the itch of bug bites!
She also gave us each two tubes of her homemade chapstick. She gave us some last year, and we were hoping to get some more, since we had used it all up.
Thank you Rachelle, Ryan, Ida, Alden, and Wilder for the handmade gifts. They are all very special to us!
One morning we all went on a hike that wound through the pine forests to the edge of the Mogollon Rim. It was lovely. We found several shell fossils.
Rachelle had packed us all a picnic lunch. It was the first time we had ever had a picnic in the meadows on the Rim—2,000 feet above our cabin in Pine!
As you can see, there were clouds gathering on the Rim while we were hiking. Rachelle sent the boys outside to peel more potatoes and Ryan out to barbecue hamburgers in the sunshine when we got home….
But before they came in look what happened….thunder, lightning, rain, and hail the size of small ice cubes!
Looks like our Pacific Northwest family brought us some rain—or rather, our first monsoon storm. Grandpa and Ryan had to dry off, but the boys headed out to enjoy the storm. Everyone had a blast!
Another morning, I had just started making breakfast when everyone came over. Ida made us a wonderful egg, bacon, potato, and cheese, omelette.
The model cars are progressing…..
Ida made a beautiful bracelet….
And we went to a hike just a few blocks from our cabin—the Pine-Strawberry Trail. Here is Wilder next to the Century plant that had stabbed his knee a few days earlier. Rachelle had made him a raw potato poultice to decrease the swelling and pain.
We now call this trial the Wilder Century Plant Stabber Trail.
Rachelle and Ida made Pizza with crust that Rachelle had made at their home and transported to Arizona on the airplane. It was the best pizza that we have ever eaten!
Our last day, everyone wanted to go 4-wheel driving. Alden and Wilder had asked if we had any rough roads that we could take them on in our Desert Rat (our TRD Off-Road 4Runner). So all seven of us (and even Lilly) piled into the Desert Rat and headed up to the top of Hardscabble-Mesa Road.
And we found them a great road…so rough that we almost had to turn around, but Grandpa went on, much to the delight of Wilder and Alden. We were having too much fun!
Then Rachelle spotted a small meadow of mullein. She uses this plant to make a tea that cures the onset of any croupy type illness. They even used it in 2020 for covid like symptoms near the start of the pandemic. Rachelle normally buys mullein in the PNW for $40/pound. She was super excited to see endless mullein plants growing wild!
So she (and everyone else) jumped out to gather this special medicinal plant that grows abundantly in burn areas in Arizona.
Unfortunately, this wonderful visit was coming to an end. So all our grandchildren finished working on their cars and jewelry projects. Rachelle made a necklace too. By this time Ida was able to help her mother with the clasp.
Ida played us a beautiful song that she had composed. She is taking violin lessons, but had not played a piano.
All of our grandchildren and Ryan too spent some time playing Grandpa’s new Father’s Day piano. It was so nice to hear beautiful music in our cabin, and see them all having fun.
Ryan decided on our final evening that before dinner and cookies and ice cream that all the kids (and he too) needed to get some exercise. He went out on the road in front of our cabin and made a pinecone obstacle course. And off they went to have some fun with an amazed elk looking on!
The boys with their cars and all their old (and young man) humor. By this time in the visit Alden and Wilder were teasing Grandpa as much as he was joking with them.
The girls with their necklaces and lots of love….
Very early this morning Ryan, Rachelle, Ida, Alden, and Wilder gave us hugs and kisses. As they drove off our grandchildren waved out the open car windows until they turned the corner and were out of sight. We waved back as tears streamed down our cheeks.
We need to plan another time to see these dear grandchildren and Ryan and Rachelle. Then maybe the parting would not be so difficult. But we expect that it would be just as hard to say goodbye.
We love this dear family so very much.
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