Granny came to visit

 

My Mom came and we loved having her here. On her first full day here we took her to eat at Bay Gull’s and we walked down on the docks in Center Harbor to look at Lake Winnipesauke. It was a relatively warm day until we got down by the water and the wind kicked up and it was cold. But, still beautiful.

The kids were aching to go swimming.

Elena still had a high bili count so we spent our days relaxing in the sun room and soaking up the rays. My Mom cleaned all the screens and the girls and I cleaned the windows and after that, the sun room was much sunnier!

Cody worked his buns off the entire time my Mom was here, building shelves in the garage, organizing his office, running errands, you name it, he did it!!

It was so nice having my Mom to jammie kids, read stories, tuck kids in bed, clean the house, make the food, clean the house, make the food, and clean the house some more.

Lacey does not like being left in the house. This is the addition Cody built to make our stairs interior, Lacey stands at the door and talks to whoever is outside, pleading for them to come get her.

We did our best to make my Mom feel like a local. Eating at the local dinners and taking her to all the antique stores that were open.

My Dad bough Kevin his first BB Gun. Once my Mom and I got our color on, my Mom gave a gun safety lesson.

Kevin and Julia were all ears and very attentive. Lacey, she isn’t content until she’s helping or holding the baby.

Unbeknownst to me, the big kids let Lacey outside during a rainstorm and then shut the door.  She played on the front deck for quite awhile and stood under the run off. She wasn’t too happy when I hauled her back in the house. But she sure had fun.

We blessed Elena on Sunday. It was a beautiful blessing and she looked oh so cute in her dress. I have better pictures on my camera. They’ll be coming soon. She slept through the whole thing and Cody said when they finished she had a big smile on her face. Love this girl!

I also love this girl who is terrified of nursery, but usually falls asleep during church so we no longer take her. When she sees the nursery leader, who is the greatest lady, she gets frantic and starts crying. Not to mention a few weeks ago, Lacey threw up all over the nursery leader because she was crying so hard.

We went to the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial in Vermont. Kevin and Julia took tons of pictures and so these are from their view.

In this picture Cody is standing on the original hearth from Joseph’s home.

And here is Lacey in the same place.

Outside there is a huge monument where the home once stood, leading up to it are these beautiful rock walls. SO PRETTY!

My Mom and Lacey in front of the monument. Lacey is looking away with a big grin on her face because she is being a tease.

Afterwards we ate at a little Diner in Vermont.

the kids ate so well and were super excited that we let them order dessert.

Cody and I went on two dates while my Mom was here. One to dinner and then we went on a ride on the Harley. It was a wee bit chilly, OK, a LOT chilly, so we didn’t last long. We went and got hot chocolate and then headed back home.

To which we found my Mom reading stories to the kids in the library.

And a wide awake baby.

Cody is a great dad. Each day he spent time playing with each of the kids or let them help him on whatever project he was working on.

Tuesday came much to fast and we were all sad to send Granny back home.

Everyone slept on the way to the airport and everyone cried on the way home. It was awful. Lacey was the worst. She cried for Granny for a good 10 minutes straight and then asked for Granny to hold her or “Granny buckle?” Meaning she wanted my Mom to unbuckle her and the worst of all, Once I had hauled all the kids in the house Lacey went ballistic, sobbing and trying to open the door and crying, “granny, I hold you, I hold you!” I was tempted to join her. It was rather scary to send Cody back to work and my Mom home on the same day. Thankfully it was a short day for Cody and he come home with groceries, day two even went really well. Day 3, that’s a whole new story. It started by me finding a tick, we all knew it’d go down hill fast. I searched each kid and have several times since, we killed 5, YES, 5 big ol black spiders in the house. EWWW! and the top it all off, my big kids were so sweet and went out exploring without telling me. I of course imagined the worst with water all around us, but found them about 1/2 an hour later about 1/4 of a mile up the street in the woods. You can imagine their shock to find their Mom hauling a brand new baby, with Lacey toddling behind, with a voice of fear screaming their names, and once I saw them I started sobbing. (thank you weird hormones!) I think they are afraid to even step out of the house today for fear of how their mother will react. and they are VERY aware of the suffering they will experience if they EVER go beyond the boundaries again.

I think I lost a good year off of my life yesterday. Thank you dear children.

Despite it all, we are so blessed and we know it. We have much to be grateful for and I spend my days counting my blessings.