Grandma Time

As an out of state grandmother I have a tendency to idealize my grandchildren. Whenever I am wishing for a grandbaby's kiss or a grandson's sly smile or a granddaughter's high laugh I remember them as perfect  little people.

I just got back from St. Louis to help Erin tend Chris and Meg's children for a week. So we had six kids under 8 years of age. It makes me wonder how my mother did it with her 7 children in 7 years.

Mom and Dad with their first four: Jeanne and Jayne, Roark not quite 4 yet, and Brett.


Erin had at least one activity planned for every day, sometimes two. Getting every one ready and out the door with sunscreen, snacks, water, bathroom runs, shoes on, combed hair and clean faces was quite the production. It just took once to realize my imagined perfect little angels were real kids! They did the same things that used to annoy me when their parents were little.

Like potty mouth. It never gets old fashioned or out of style for little boys (or big boys for that matter, just ask their grandfather to talk about their lower body's functions.) And children still whine. In gratingly high voices. And tattle on each other. And hate to go to bed. Bedtime lasted three hours one night, I was asleep before the they were one night.

But we had so much fun! We went to the zoo, swimming, a bird sanctuary, a butterfly garden, a merry-go-round, playgrounds, played games, watched lots of Batman cartoons and "My Little Pony" cartoons, (who knew that My Little Ponies were popular again?) played with Legos, Star Wars,  fixed meals in a play kitchen, rode bikes and read lots of books.

Swarming on a giant beetle.

I sent this picture to John, he asked how I got them all to sit still long enough for the picture.
I answered "threats and bribery, but in reality they did it for their grandpa.
 I told them I was sending him a picture, and they all sat down at once!

We were tempted to leave some of them locked in the kid sized cage at the bird sanctuary,
 but we came home with everyone 

And of course there were some tears. Maggie missed her mommy.

Molly acted like one of the big kids.


I think the hardest thing for me was being the care giver and not the nurturing grandma. I instinctively fell into the role of disciplinarian. We grandmas have already done that, now we want to spoil. I think one of the best moments of the week is when I sat down to mend the binding on a quilt that I had made for Lily. Suddenly I had the four oldest surrounding me asking me to teach them how to sew. And as a grandma I had time for that. The children hand stitched a purse, and pillows and blankets for their stuffed animals. They were crudely made, but made by my grand children's hands.  I do think they are almost perfect after all.

The Best Family Vacation We Could Ask For

I finally finished the photo book for our fabulous family Mexico beach trip. (Thanks Jayne and Dave.) Here are a few of my favorite photos.

I told every one that they couldn't go home until I got a decent family picture. Who knows when we will all be together again.

We couldn't have asked for better weather, tides, waves and company. Highs were in the eighties with cool mornings and evenings. The tides were extreme because of the full moon and the water splashed up to the fifth step going up the the house. This made a perfect place for the kids to play in the waves right off the steps, contained inside the walls on either side of the house.  Every one boogied boarded, surfed and kayaked until they were too tired, chafed and sun burned to do any more.

 Ian braving the waves.

 

Travis and Maggie taking a surf break.




Travis riding a wave in.



Ezra boogie boarded non stop for hours. The waves finally got too big for him to stand up in.



What is there about sand, a bucket and a shovel?



Lily let me french braid her hair like I used to do Annie's when we were at the beach.

Lest you think only the grand kids had fun, think sea kayaks, surfing kayaks, walks on the beach and the joy of just being there. 


Monica loved her first trip to Casa Alajah. The water is a lot warmer than the chilly Northwest beaches.






Annie got the favorite aunt, daughter and sister  award for bringing sand toys and bubbles.



John and Chris finally got their handcrafted sea kayaks

on the Sea (of Cortez.)



They paddled like a dream.

  

But it doesn't get any better than kayaking wind driven waves.

Every evening the sun set and the moon rose right after dinner. Perfect endings to perfect days.

Because we have the best children and grandchildren we could ever ask for.

Endings and Beginnings

Last week I took mom to the funeral of one of her good friends Carol M.'s husband. Mom taught quilting with Carol, Carol B. and Joy at Mormon Handicraft for years. Joy died a few years ago and Carol and Carol's husbands have both been struggling with age related issues along with dad. When mom heard about Carol's husband's death she said, "That's one out of three."

The only time mom got teary at the funeral was when she started thinking about what she would do for dad's funeral when the time came. I have to admit I got a little teary with her as we mourned dad while others were mourning Carol's husband.

The next day Mom and I drove to Moab for Cade and Taylor's wedding reception. (The sealing was the week before at the Bountiful Temple.)



I love this picture of the Neville men at the temple, just sitting there waiting for something to happen. Notice the next generation is learning early.







Sometimes I think Annie and Mckenna are clones separated by 10 years, they are so much alike.

Brett and Kerri and their family and Stacey, Erin, Danny and their boys and mom and I stayed in two condos up against the slick rock south east of Moab. I love communal family living. There is something about being together 24/7 that is so much fun. We eat, talk, laugh and in this case make a wedding cake, at least Stacey did.



 Mom and I then drove to Cortez to visit Chris and Meg for the last time. They are moving to Kansas City the end of June for a endodonic residency. Then all my grandchildren will be in the Midwest. Sigh. Megan was very gracious inviting mom to her home with no warning and the kids were delightful with her.



I asked for a Mother's Day picture with my grand kids.



It was a wonderful Mother's Day weekend spent with my mother. Life is definitely not static. It seems like nothing stays the same for long. But through it all, the consistency of the gospel and family keeps us headed in the right direction.

Spring with John

John has been building a pergola on our back deck. The old Trek decking  failed due to a manufacture's error and needs to be replaced. Trek will pay for the new decking, but will not pay for the cost of installing it, (mumble, grumble) so John is doing it and of course needs to make it bigger and better, thus the new pergola. We greatly appreciated Thomas's engineering experience, youth and strength. I always worry when John does something big like this since his last heart attack occurred while putting in our sprinkling system, but I can't stop him. He didn't have a heart attack, but he did give me a scare. I was in the kitchen and happen to look up just as I saw John's ladder (the big tall one seen below) give a lurch sideways, and the last beam Thomas and John were trying to span across the posts fall on his shoulder. I raced outside in my stocking feet and supported John's ladder so he wouldn't fall 15 feet onto the deck supports below, as Thomas flew off his ladder and moved it so he could  lift the beam off of John's shoulder. Afterwards Thomas said, "Mom, it was a tender mercy that you happened to look outside when you did. Dad was just about ready to fall."



My new camera has this really cool lighting effect. I love this picture of John and Thomas moving the ladder!

John actually did fall of the ladder as he was finishing the pergola, but as he puts it, it was only four feet, so it wasn't bad, just a banged up knee and some bruising. Sigh.

John has been smoking brisket and pork for the Davis High Invitational Track Meet coaches luncheon since Annie and Thomas ran track, about 15 years, 10 of which haven't had anyone in high school. The track meet was this weekend and I have to admit I am getting a little tired of it. John has to stay up all night to keep the fire going and he is exhausted by time we cut and serve the meat. I suggested that maybe this could be the last year. But John said no, he really likes being able to do something for others. He is a lot nicer that I am. He is also able to get the track team a $1000 grant from Allstate because he volunteers his time and that would go away if we quit.

Besides the track meet John really wanted to go kayaking Saturday afternoon. It was the first warm day we have had this spring and we are going to be busy for the next four weekends. Annie also wanted to get her kayak out on the water so we went out to the Great Salt Lake for a paddle. Even though we were both tired from the meet, it was great to get out.



I feel like I look really squatty bodied in the kayak with my life jacket and hat.



Annie in her new kayak, notice she is color coordinated. and not squatty body

When I started writing this I didn't realize it would be all about John, sometimes that's the way it goes. He is such a huge part of my life right now with the kids gone. I still have visions of finding him laying dead of a heart attack in his shop, office, yard or at the bottom of a ladder. But I can't stop him from doing the things he loves, so I just try and do them with him.

There Is No Such Thing as Bad Weather?

Annie has been thinking about buying some kayaks that John found on KSL.com so she could go paddling with us when we take the tandem kayak out. The only problem was that the lady that owned them lived in Mesquite, Nevada. She finally decided to go get them yesterday because she had Monday and Tuesday off. She asked me if I wanted to take the Tahoe and go with her. She had arranged to meet the lady at a lake near St. George and we could paddle and camp over night and come home the next day.

It sounded like fun and off we went, even though the weather forecast had slowly deteriorated over the weekend. But we brought our cold weather paddling gear and were looking forward to a little get a way, optimistically remembering Roark's axiom: "There is no such thing as bad weather only bad gear."

By the time we reached Salt Lake it was pouring and visibility was pretty bad, but it cleared up by Provo. But the temperature began to drop and it started to sleet as we climbed into Beaver. Sigh. By now the forecast was for rain and snow with a high wind warning in central and northern Utah for Tuesday. Annie called and suggested the lady with the kayaks meet us in St George instead of the lake not trusting our gear to be good enough for high winds and freezing temperatures. Good gear doesn't do much good if you are not smart when you use it.

The kayaks were just what Annie was looking for and she was pretty pleased as we started to load them on the Tahoe. I was a little nervous about loading them without John, but it went slick as a whistle. Until started to rain. And then all we could do was laugh. And we used our cold weather paddling gear for something: to help us stay dry and warm while we finished tying down the kayaks.

Shower Quilt and Late Winter Projects



Brett and Kerri's son Cade is getting married in May and we had the bridal shower last weekend at our home. Way back, when mom was doing showers for her nieces and nephews she couldn't bring herself to play shower games so she decided to make tied quilts for the bride and groom. The quilt was then the shower gift from the aunts. I continued the tradition with my own nieces and nephews. Luckily, since I have over 50 nieces and nephews we are coming to the end of the shower quilts.



Cade and Taylor with the Aunts (we miss you Jayne and Stacey)

I  made a Valentine's table runner and table topper in February and am finally getting around to document them. I like how the string pieced hearts turned out against the diagonally quilted white background.

 John made me the beautiful bench the quilts are on for Valentine's day. It made from a 200 year old maple tree that was cut down in North Ogden. The man John got the wood from speculated that Native Americans may have watered and tended to the tree before the settlers came into the valley. It's a nice idea, but we really have no idea how the tree lived for so long.

Have I Done Any Good?

I have been teaching/heading a quilting group in our ward for the last ten years or so. Our numbers were few last night, spring brings sports, school projects, yard work and other activities that justifiably take precedence over quilting. But one of my dear friends who has been with us from the beginning was there.

She brought a darling little Disappearing Nine patch quilt she made for her grandson to show us. I showed the sisters before Christmas how to made a nine patch quilt quilt block, then cut it up and re sew it back together to make a more complicated finished block and quilt without having to measure cut and sew tiny little fabric patches.

She had also made a little shirt out of one of the fabrics in the quilt for her grandson as well and a cute dress and pinafore for his sister that were well made and adorable.

She told me she told her husband how pleased she was that her stitching skills had improved from where they were before our quilt group started. "I went to bed early Sunday night so I could get up early Monday morning and finish my quilt. I was so excited!" She told me. "You have made me so happy with with your teachings and quilting, thank you."

It is not often that what I do comes back to me so generously expressed. It is nice to know that in a small way I have made a difference in someone's life. And a simple thank you is always welcome.