Visit From the North

We just wrapped up 2 weeks of fun with a visit from Trent's parents from Calgary. They stayed with us a week, took a break to go on a cruise out of Galveston, then came back for another week.

Some of the visit's highlights:

Blowing and dying eggs for Easter; Ivan had some difficulty using the spoon to keep the empty eggs submerged, so he opted to use his hands. We thought we would have a blue-handed boy for days, but by coincidence, we ended up blowing bubbles outside afterwards, and it cleaned the dye right off.

Did you know that kids will play at a Dairy Queen playscape for 2 hours if you let them? I'm sure Senya and Ivan would agree that grandparents are much more fun than their mom. Here Senya is being a great big sister and trying to help Ivan up onto a ledge that he couldn't make on his own.

Greg and Ivan became fast friends and set up trains to play with. When Greg dared to sneak away to the other room to grab a Kleenex, Ivan was right behind him, calling "Granddad! Granddad!" to come back and play.

Senya watched and read the news online with Granddad to find out what was going on in the world. He was endlessly patient, answering all her questions for over an hour. "What's an earthquake?" "Why are those people sad?" "Do we have earthquakes in Texas?"

Ivan and Senya try out some new trucks with Grandma.

Trying out some new outdoor toys.

We did an embarrassing amount of yardwork when Greg and Wyona were in town. Embarrassing because there was so much to catch up on and embarrassing because houseguests shouldn't really be doing any kind of yardwork. Luckily, the kids loved being outside for days on end, so we got tons done.

Most of the tourist attractions on the agenda were our favorite eating destinations: Rudy's, of course, Chuy's, The Cheesecake Factory, Jardin Corona (our favorite Mexican place), Carino's, dare I go on?

There were also dance lessons in the living room, mango keylime cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, handmade baby blankets, shopping trips to Ross, and many handyman projects completed. What a great time!