Papa and the girls

We got home from our time in Arkansas about 10 minutes before our daughter Mindy and her family arrived from Denver.    Jason was going on a work trip and Mindy and her girls were going to be with us!  Yay!!  Papa and 4 girls!

Kaia is the happiest little girl, but she was sick and not feeling well.  She still often smiled though.  She was sick for a few days.  Look at her red cheeks.

We took turns holding her.

Between times when we were holding her, we continued to keep busy.  We made a trip to Walmart for a few things.

I took Tenley to Drubers.  It was a place I took our 3 children when they were little and have taken the other grandchildren too.  She had donut holes on this morning.

Tenley loves the outdoors and she helped Papa and me with yard work.

And took walks around the lake.

While Papa was at work, Tenley "worked" at his desk.

Papa asked her to pay the bills.

She also helped make cookies for Release Time Bible School.

Toward the middle of the week, Kaia was feeling better.

You can tell she feels better.

We got a family text from Jill and Hannah telling us that they got tattooed!  What??  Would never have guessed that of Jill as she has such a low pain tolerance.  I was not surprised about Hannah.  On the text chain, we were all thinking Jill's was just a fake tattoo.

But it was real!  Jill's says "The Lord's" in Hannah's handwriting.  Taken from Isaiah 44:2-4:

"For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.  They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams.  This one will say 'I am the Lord's', and another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, 'The Lord's', and name himself by the name of Israel."

That was actually a verse I prayed over my 3 children when they were young!  Jill says she can blame me for my prayers that she got a tattoo!  Ha!

Hannah's is an olive branch that she designed.  The 5 leaves represent her family and the 2 olives represent the 2 sets of grandparents!  Makes me feel so joyful and honored!

...to be continued.

Mary Poppins

 I have been able to spend the last 1 1/2 weeks with our grandchildren.  Good for this grandma's soul!  We made a fast trip to Arkansas.

As we were leaving a storm was brewing to the west.  Would it reach our home?  We need the rain sooooo badly!  My neighbor texted me that we got just a sprinkle.  Lord, we need rain. 

These planes look like they are about to collide!

We arrived in Arkansas as the sun was setting.  Our kids and grandkids were not home - they were at the play of Mary Poppins that Emeri's was in.

   (If you look closely at the picture below, you can see that someone remembers that location as one of tragedy and sadness.  I did not notice it when I took the picture.  Father, be their Comfort and their Peace.)

We got settled in at Staci's parents home, who were also at the play.  They are our "hotel" usually when we go see Josh's as they live right next door and her parents are gracious that way.  We even know the garage code to let ourselves in. We went on to bed.  They didn't get to bed until close to midnight.

The next morning, we waited for a text from Josh to say they were awake.  They slept in after the late night.

Our "breakfast guys" cooking up morning fare for us!

A morning workout for Staci.

Morning coffee for Emeri.

Josh is our "computer guy" and helps us with any problems we have.  How grateful we are!!  God has given Josh so many gifts.  Answers to my prayers over the years.  I am so proud!  Not in a prideful way.  I read that one Hebrew translation of pride can mean "over-inflated, swollen, distended like billows about to burst, puffed up."  I am just proud in a way that is joyful and glad that God is using him for His glory at his church and with others!  He is so caring and kind, gentle and willing to be there for others.

Eli and Reggie

We went to the afternoon matinee of Mary Poppins.

They were selling spoonful of sugar cake pops.

I purchased one for me and one for Eli!  And if you look, even Papa has something in his pocket!

I love the story of Mary Poppins!  It was the very first movie I ever saw in the theatres.  Our parents didn't approve of going to the movies back in 1964.  But one weekend, we went home from boarding school with another family who didn't know my parents' views about movies so they took us to see it!  

Later, my parents changed their minds about that and as long as the movies were clean, it was okay.  They even let us purchase the record and I still have it!

The record cover has both English and Japanese on it.

In this play, Emeri played the role of Miss Andrews, who used to be the nanny for Mr. Banks when he was a young boy.  When Mary Poppins leaves, Mrs. Banks hires this "Holy Terror" nanny, not knowing how awful she is.  

Step in time!

Emeri also danced as one of the chimney sweeps (you can see her in the back row).

So proud of you, Emeri!!

That evening Josh passed on the March Madness Graber Challenge trophy to me!

It sits on my mantel!  It makes me laugh because I randomly won that bracket!  I know nothing about those basketball teams!  One year I chose the winner of each category alphabetically.  

On Sunday morning, we attended church.  The worship and the sermon was soooo good!  The sermon was "10 Questions:  Following Jesus in a Post-Christian Culture".

Josh and Staci having communion at the end of the service.

We had lunch at Panera, the only place without a huge line.  We had stopped at a couple other places but the wait was really long!  We love Panera!  

Josh found out that the reason it was so busy in Fayetteville is that there were an extra 40,000 people in town for a marathon and other U of A events.  Josh had to run back to church, Staci and Eli needed to do a little shopping and we took Emeri back to the theatre where she was doing one last performance of Mary Poppins that afternoon.  It was on our way home.

Our Colorado grandbabies were coming for the week and we needed to get home to Kansas!  So off we went!

We took turns driving/napping.  We followed Mindy on Life 360.  It looked like we would beat them to our house just a few minutes before they arrived!  We would have a week with our Colorado grandbabies!