Wow did we have fun the after we left the lake and returned to Baliwood. We had the privilege of taking care of Shawni and Dave’s three youngest daughters while they took their 15 and 14 year olds on the trip of a lifetime to India. For the amazing details go to Shawni’s incredible blog posts at 71toes.blogspot.com
Grace, Claire and Lucy were a pure delight! One of my favorite things (that you will already know if you’ve been following this blog) is having our grandchildren all to ourselves without their parents!
We were having so much fun that I took precious few pictures! Here’s a blurry one of Grace and Claire looking at their older brother and sister on an enormous elephant in India. Grace showed me how to Instagram of which I am now a fan! It’s so fun to see what they post AND it’s great they know that I will see whatever they post. Such a nice “heads up” into their lives.
We spent a lot of time outside. It was great to see our backyard used for cartwheels, summersaults, skipping with joy and long talks! (Thanks to Eli who helped me figure out how to insert videos. Not easy! Thanks Eli!)
We enjoyed sunshine and rain and coolness (after the hottest summer ever at Bear Lake). And even double rainbows!
We went shopping for food and even some school clothes one day. The kids weeded the graveled path around the property that leads to creek and the horse barn.
Grace and Claire worked on their own music video which they didn’t finish but you get the idea of these cute drama queens!
We met the Looslis down at City Creek one of the nights and we had a swimming party with that mob! They seem to have quite a lot of fun together! Here we are getting off the elevator. Forgot to get pictures at the pool. I’m not sure the other patrons of the pool loved this party! (Funny Granfather taking the picture in the mirror.)
But afterward we went to the Food Court where the adults had some mighty fine sandwiches and the kids enjoyed Chick Fil-A, right on the very day of the biggest controversy! A walk through the mall afterward was a real experience. The kids started a flash mob by dancing in H&M and had fun taking pictures with the sales assistants and people who were watching them walk by. I think the twins touched every single rock along the way either with their feet or hands…or both! These cousins are pretty well bonded!
One evening when I was cooking dinner, I looked up and was excited to see a beautiful moose walking across our road. When the girls went to the barn, they saw him again as well as his brother. We’ve been seeing them since they were babies. Last winter they looked like teenagers. Now they look like young adults! The girls saw them again prowling around a tree house below the barn where two little girls were perched…terrified. They are truly beautiful creatures!
One of the favorite things for this cute little gaggle of girls was going to the barn to see the horses. The last two days Grandfather even rigged up a swing in the barn that they thought was AWESOME! They can’t wait to share it with the other cousins!
Shawni arrived at the airport from India on Saturday morning and were those girls ever glad to see her! I’m not sure who was happiest though Shawni or Grace, Claire and Lucy.
Shawnii, Dave, Max and Elle flew to LA together. then Max and Elle caught a plane back to AZ, Shawni came to SLC and Dave took off for business in China. Josh picked up Max and Elle at the airport and we were excited to get there and join them.
We got in the car and drove straight back to AZ after a stop at Discount Tires where they found a screw in one of the tires that was about half flat when we walked out that morning to Shawni’s car which had been sitting there for two week without being driven! We were so grateful that they fixed the tire without charge. We were as happy as chipmunks with a fresh supply of water until Shawni turned the key for our long trip ahead and the car was totally dead! Luckily we were at a place full of men who knew how to jump a car that was dead and we started on our merry way!
We stopped only for a little lunch, a little dinner and one potty stop. After we arrived safely at home by 11 p.m. to we realized how lucky we were that the car started each time we turned it off along the way because it stopped again….twice the next day. A nice new battery installed amidst school shopping on Monday was just the right thing to fix things up.
Upon arrival and after the Pothiers being gone from their home for 5 weeks and another happy reunion with Max and Elle who were waiting for us, we unpacked the car and dropped in bed by about 1 a.m. Somehow everyone was up and ready for church by 8 a.m. the next morning! Plus Shawni somehow pulled together a lovely dinner when we got home without even going to the grocery store. That woman is amazing!
It was fun to watch everyone try to get ready for the new school year in 48 hours since school started on Wednesday but they all started….ready or not. I got to be there long enough to see Elle’s new look when she got her braces off on Monday (just as she was about to start high school). That girl is knock-dead gorgeous and the best part is that she’s even more beautiful on the inside!
I left on Monday night and arrived home just in time to greet my darling high school friends who were coming for our “almost annual” slumber party. We were so busy talking and catching up that we totally forgot to take pictures. One friend was in the midst of moving another’s father had recently passed away and another was unable to make it because she was at the hospital preparing for knee surgery. She had just found out that her older sister had brain cancer and wasn’t expected to live long. Life is real and gets even more real as we get older!
It was a lovely time to talk and deal with the bad news as well as the good. Good friends are such treasures!
1 comment:
Oh so glad to see so many of these pictures of what in the world happened while we were gone. Thanks so much for everything, Mom. You are one amazing lady. Love you.
Post a Comment