From New York to Memorial Day

For the third time in a month I got to go to the Big Apple!  How lucky am I?  First was to help when Jacobson popped into the world while Kristi’s Mom and Dad were stuck in Guam with the  volcanic ash and couldn’t get there to help (I was so excited…sorry Susan) and the next was on our way to Dubai. 
Then it just happened that we were scheduled to see six publishers in NY about a new book on the very same weekend that Noah and Kristi decided to go to Paris and meet Tal and Anita at the French Open for a few days. It was a perfect time to be there to take care of McKay and Lyla while they went, so we came and they went.  We had a BALL with the kids and the publishers!
We made cookies (note McKay’s great job of “licking the paddle”). 

We are always so happy to have our darling grandchildren to take to the newest great kid movies.  I’m not sure who wanted to go to the new Shrek movie most…them or us. Secretly I think it was me. You gotta love that Shrek!    Anyway we had a ball, even though we lost the shoe that Lyla is holding in the process.

I have to say that McKay was pretty excited too!   

Those wonderful NYC Eyres are thinking about moving to CA!  They are going to miss their terrific neighborhood and their 480 square feet!
Here are McKay and Lyla’s little custom made bunk beds with their little approximately 6X7 bedroom. 

And the view out their back windows will be missed especially in the spring with those baby green leaves!

Their neighborhood is a delight. McKay knows everyone, and if there’s someone he doesn’t know, he quickly introduces himself and becomes fast friends within minutes.  We went to the ward street carnival just a couple of blocks away and had a lot of fun watching everyone greet McKay and Lyla like they were part of their family.  When the Stake President’s wife asked McKay if he was going to kindergarten next year.  He said, very quickly and very matter-of-factly: “Yes, but I already know everything!”  He is right!
The meetings with the publishers were so fun and several will be bidding for the book this week so we’ll see what happens in that. 
We left just a few hours before Noah, Kristi and little Cubby arrived.  A babysitter covered for us while we went to the airport.  What a delight to be with grandchildren without their parents!  No offense intended to the parents but that’s when you really get to know them!
Next it was back to Baliwood and a wild scramble to get the “yard” and “parking lot” ready for meeting we are having there for the Harvard Club on June 15th. More about that later.
I packed the car full of flowers for the graves for Memorial Day and headed for Logan where Grandma and I had a lovely time paying our respects to the dearly departed.  We gathered Iris and Tulips at Dan’s house to put on Grampa and Grandma Swenson’s graves. It was especially sweet to be there with Grandma since she has spent so much of the past few years writing their history which has just this week been published.
Grandma was so cute at the graves as she was flooded with memories of such good times gone by! Here she is at her parents’ graves, sitting on the bench lovingly dedicated to her famous sister May and of course at the grave of our beloved Grampa Dean:



Of course she wants to join him ASAP but in the mean time, we’ve got to plan some really fun stuff to keep her happy and occupied! 
Next: on to Bear Lake.  It’s always fun to see that gorgeous blue at the beginning of summer!  It continues to be a different color about every ten minutes.  Note the navy blue around the edges!


I stopped at Aunt Wanda’s grave. Too bad that they don’t have her most current last name but I’m sure (I think) she understands. 

By the time I got to Bloomington Cemetery, it was so cold and blustery that I could barely stand to get out of the carm struggle to the graves and then try not to notice that the flowers had already blown over by the time I drove away.  I’m sure Grandma Hazel enjoyed her “fake flowers” but I didn’t get a picture. You’ll just have to imagine that in your minds! 
The weather was not great, but I spent a couple of days measuring things, thinking colors and figuring out how to transform the tennis house in 18 days when the first renters arrive. Don’t worry family, I took pictures of the before. You’ll have to wait to get here for the after.

In the meantime Charity arrived with a gaggle of good friends from Provo and it was a delight to have them for the weekend! We had a fun dinner and concert with them last night and then they came up this afternoon to say goodbye and sing a couple of fun songs for us (and Grandma and Kevan who had just arrived to enjoy dinner with us). Note that Charity is now a blonde!




If you want to know what Charity has been up to for the past year (almost) take a look at her spectacular post on her blog called Ode to a House Part 2!  Those kids have had so much fun in Elder Hugh B. Brown’s old house in Provo!  Look at it here http://drippingwithpassion.blogspot.com/
This was a weekend to remember!