What joy in being a grandparent

"Grandchildren are the crown of the elderly..." Proverbs 17:6

We enjoyed having Emeri and Sophia at our home SO MUCH!

They could carry on an "adult" conversation, yet had fun doing "dress up" (thanks for sharing the pictures, Emeri!) and playing games with Papa and I. 

 Too soon it was time to drive them half way to Em's home where they would spend a few more days together before Sophia would go home.

 Rest stop

We met up with my daughter-in-law at the halfway point.

 What a joy this past week was!  Perhaps we can do Japan next year?  We shall see what 2021 brings!

The Rodeo!

We took the grandchildren to the rodeo in our hometown.

 Yee-haw!

 We stopped by the farm first.  On the way, Papa told the girls stories about growing up on the farm.

Indie ran to welcome us.

 Al's brother and wife usually work the rodeo, but this evening they were celebrating a family birthday so we didn't see them.  Too bad!  We did see a few school mates though. 

We like to sit on the east side.  It means looking into the sun - but only for a while.  But we are much closer to the action!

The rodeo began with prayer, 

    the Pledge of Allegiance and 

          The Star Spangled Banner

LOVE!  

Felt like the "old days", when those things were still much respected.

 See how close we are to the action?  

 Those clowns are heros to those cowboys!

 The little kids got to ride sheep.

Barrel racing

He jumped over the bull!

It has been 3 years since Sophia moved to Wisconsin.  As we walked to the car she exclaimed "I had forgotten how fun a rodeo is!"

On the road with twelve year olds, part 2

I woke up before the girls and spent time in the livingroom half of our suite, having my morning devotions and praying for safety as we drive home. The girls slept in the darkened bedroom until 8!  We got all ready and went down for breakfast.  We were the only ones eating there.

 Checking out.

At a stop sign, I turned around to take a picture.  I loved hearing Sophia sing and play her ukelele!

Hey!

Straw is cheaper, grass is free...

Sophia took a picture of Emeri who was watching a dramatic, tear-jerking show.

We flipped a coin (read about that here) to see if we would stop to see Amelia Earhart's house or not.  It was a nope.  I was a little sad about that.   I would like to see it sometime.  When Al and I stopped one other time, it was almost closing time and they said there wasn't enough time to go through it.

We stopped in KC and flipped a coin to see what restaurant to eat at.

Unfortunately, the wait was so long, we just went next door to a place none of us had ever eaten at.  (Perhaps we should have waited)

I decided to take the girls through our old stompin' grounds at Lawrence!  Allen's sister was at work so we couldn't see her, but I showed the girls where we used to live, where Papa went to school - go KU! - and where I worked at the Chancellor's office in Strong Hall.

Flipped a coin again - do we go turnpike south to Cassody or go on 177?  Either way, we get to see the Flint Hills, just a different area.  We got 177.  The girls fell asleep for awhile.  As I was driving through Topeka, I know the angels of the Lord protected us as a U-Haul quickly swerved in front of me; he was tilting back and forth.  Earlier, a pick-up almost rammed into me when he was trying to merge behind me in a construction zone and the semi in front of me slammed on his brakes!  Thank You, Father!!!

 I love the Flint Hill countryside!!

 In Florence, I took the girls to a cemetary where there is a mass grave of approximately 300 Mennonite immigrants who died from smallpox in 1874.

 

We got home just as Papa got off work.  We stayed up until midnight talking!!

On the road with twelve year olds, part 1

When our trip to Japan was cancelled with our two twelve-year-old granddaughters, they decided they still HAD to be together.  I was the one with the time available to do the driving (and I'm always game for a road trip!!), so I took Emeri to Wisconsin to be with her cousin, Sophia.  Then they'd come to my house, and then I'd take them to Emeri's home.  

The family gave their "silly waves" (except Hannah, who was still in bed.)

First stop was Schultz's Cheese Haus along 151.  We've driven by it often but had never stopped.

Emeri had put her billfold on the hood of the car when we took pictures.  As I pulled out back onto 151, I saw it fly up to my windshield!!  I pulled off to the side of the road, put on the hazard lights and Em rescued it!  We were in a construction zone and traffic was going slow also which was good!  We were so glad it didn't fall off on the side road without us knowing, so we gave thanks to the Lord for that!

 Next stop - Sun Prairie for lunch at Noodles and Company.  Have you ever tried their mac and cheese with meatballs???!!!  It was a first for me and oh, yum!!

 We decided that we would do some flipping of coins to make decisions about this trip.

Should we continue on 151 or go through back roads north of Madison?  To my joy!! it was BACKROADS!!  I LOVE backroading!!

Mazomonie

 Stopped at this "ghost town".  Well, there isn't a town there any longer though.  We went in through the little gate and looked at these old gravestones from the late 1800's.

 A Frank Lloyd Wright house!

I took them on the driveway up to the House on the Rocks.  I was willing to take the girls on the tour through the house (Allen and I did that one time-post here) but they thought it was too creepy.

Al and I will have to stop here some time.  It is on my to-do list!

 Leaving Wisconsin.

 The girls had been doing a lot of chatter and how we laughed and giggled!!  The girls said several times that they enjoyed the "no hustle, bustle, hurry and get there, chill drive."  It is the way I LOVE to travel!

I wanted to take them to Sculpture Park in Des Moines.  We had stopped here with Jill's girls when we moved them to Wisconsin.  You can see that post here.  How those girls have grown in 3 years!

"Do you suppose they have a Cheesecake Factory here in Des Moines?"  They did!  We had thought about flipping a coin to see what restaurant to go to, but when we found out there was one and close to our hotel, there was no decision to be made about it!

The restaurant seemed almost empty but because of Covid, the seating was limited and we had to wait for 20 min. outside before they buzzed us.

They wanted us to order by scanning the menu onto my phone but when the waitress asked if I wanted a physical copy, I said "YES!"  I am not the fondest about looking at my small screen.  The laminated menus can be washed off.  

The meals were huge!  I just got an empty plate and took some off the girls' dishes.  We ordered our cheesecakes to go, to eat later at the hotel.  We were too full to eat them there!

Watching HGTV in our suite!  We don't have it on our "poor man's tv" at our house so it is a treat whenever we stop at a hotel.

I love having a suite with a separate living room space since I wake up early and could read there without waking up the girls the next morning.

Eating our desserts after our tummies settled down.

Do you know how to differentiate between desert and dessert?  Sophia once told me that dessert has 2 S's in it and you might want 2nds of the sweet dessert!