The End...

...Of the month, and Camp Grandma is closed for the season.

So thankful to my son for entrusting me with his 3 greatest treasures for 10 whole days.  :-)
...We did all the things I had on my list;

Swimming
Hair, nails and makeup (multiple times)
Games
Hide & seek (they love my house for this!)
Made neclaces
Made bracelets
Paper crafts
Played dolls
Read
Watched movies
Played with paints
Listened to e-books
Laughed, giggled, played and hugged.
(And went through more gallons of milk than hubby and I go through in 3 months!)

What a great time it was!

So much fun to get to know them up close and personal, good traits, and some, well not so good...
Learned that the oldest is a bottomless pit  (hungry all the time.)
The youngest has no pit (she won't eat anything.)
And the middle child?  No one really knows how much she consumes, because she sneaks it out of the cupboard and hides somewhere to eat it.  (Evidence: empty fudge-pop wrappers in my bathroom trash.)

My Arilie has wishes to be strong and courageous - has the potential to be a good leader (based on the karate lesson she gave me,)  but she has the tender-est heart, and is the most loving child you'd ever want to meet.  She also makes a wicked fried egg!

Millie, being the middle child, between two who are so dynamic (or maybe dramatic?) Is very soft spoken, patient and understanding - but also has a little wicked streak and loves to tease...

Ellie will be a star some day.  She sings, dances, acts and poses non stop.  Watch out for her, world!
(She's terminally adorable :-) )

My favorite moments were laying with them in bed at night (trying to get them to settle down to sleep.)  So many laughs, loves and hugs - I don't know how I'm going to get through the rest of the summer without them!  (The only thing I won't miss is the constant noise of cartoons! ha ha)

All dolled up and waiting for grandpa for the trip home:

...But now we are home in Utah - going to spend a week here.  Family Reunion on the weekend, and will celebrate birthdays, and hopefully just relax and have some fun.
(And just in time - heat wave in Vegas, will get up in the 120's by next week.)

Good ol' Summertime.
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Good Night Moon...

It's been a busy week here with my 3 little girls visiting.  We've tried to keep them busy and keep them from getting bored, but much of the time, they would just rather stay home and watch cartoons.

We have driven them downtown to see the sights there, we have visited the temple grounds, we have played at the park - we set up a rather large wading pool on the porch,  we have done crafts and lived on otter pops...

I hope they are having a good time.

As for me, I am totally convinced of the wisdom in having children when you are young.
Grandma's tired.  :-)  Grandpa has been at work almost the whole time, so it's just been me.

I don't often get a turn at the computer when they are awake, so I'll have to catch up later...

Right now, I'm going to bed.

Tomorrow we're doing nails and hair, turning them loose with the scrapbook paper, and making cake pops.
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We Are Sewing, Daily Sewing...

Been at the sewing machine all week, making surprises for my grand daughters, who will be arriving tomorrow to spend a week with grandma.

I've made them each a pair of summer jammies to wear down here because it is HOT!
I also included a pillowcases that match the pajamas, and today's project is a pair of doll pajamas that will match theirs.  I also made a random doll outfit for their American Girl dolls (Arilie doesn't have one of those - still thinking what I will do about that...)

Anyway, I hope it will be a fun stay for them - I know I will enjoy the company :-)
 They are at a fun age where it is really interesting just to converse with them,  they NEVER run out of topics, and they all talk at once :-)
Can't wait to show them my herd of baby quail and my bunnies...

In other news - After being here for 6 months, I think I am finally finding my niche.
I finally got made a visiting teacher,  and my partner is a scrapbooker!  The ladies I visit are all school teachers - into reading and genealogy (which I know nothing about, but need to learn.)
They are all very pleasant and fun to visit.  ...And all in their 70's, so I'm the young one here.  Ha ha.

Our ward memberships only arrived last week, against all of our efforts to hurry up the process, so we have been non-people up until now.  It's nice to finally be acknowleged, and able to participate in the activities officially.

Better get busy now, I still have those projects to finish...
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Rush Trip

Last weekend, we were out doing all the odd errands on Wayland's day off, when he got a phone call from home telling him that his mom had another stroke, (she's had a few lately, but this one was a little more intense,) and that they needed him home to talk about her care.

It was rather late in the day, so we made a tentative plan to head up in the morning...
But, on the drive home he kept stewing about it, and by the time we pulled into the garage, he turned to me and said; Ok, I can't take this, we need to leave now.

In about 20 minutes, we were packed and back on the road.

We got home to Utah at about 11:30, and the girls were up waiting for us.  We had a nice little visit and tucked in for the night.

Wayland spent most of the day visiting family, and doing all the little errands they needed help with.
Later that afternoon, they made arrangements with her doctor to bring her home for a family prayer circle...

As many of the family who could be there were there - some by skype and cell phone, but all of her children were represented.  She looked much better than we anticipated, but was having a hard time of it emotionally.

The family made arrangements to move her to a different facility - (closer to one of her daughters) and she is much happier now.

While we were home, I was able to do some of the things I've been missing - like planting flowers...

 Checking out my trees, and just enjoying my shady GREEN back yard!

(The large tree in the center is my baby - I planted it from a seed the same year my youngest was born.  They are both growing up quite nicely. :)


Went shopping with my oldest daughter, and visited the family graves...

Checked out how the new Temple is coming...

Went to breakfast at our traditional spot...

...And took the dog for a run up the canyon (so pretty this time of year!)

We also spent time visiting the grand kids.  School is out now, and they are so excited to come and spend time with us later this month...

All too soon, the weekend was over, and we found ourselves heading back into the sunset (literally.)

It's HOT here.  It's up in the triple digits much of the time now.  It was SO nice to enjoy the cooler temps of home, at least for a little while...

Epilogue - I've been trying to capture an image of these cute little baby quail for weeks now - this particular mother has close to 20 of them swarming around her all the time.  Luckily (for me) they spend a lot of time in front of the window of my craft room - I finally captured them today!

That's all I've got to say.  I have 6 people coming to stay this weekend (family wedding in Southern California,) So I've got to get my projects done and my room cleaned up for company.



Ta!
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