Fun with Grandma

Near the end of January, my mom flew down here to visit us. It was actually right after I flew up there to go to Jolene's funeral. So grateful for those convenient, cheap Allegiant flights! We always do things that are outside the usual while Grandma is visiting.

At dinner tonight Miriam asked me when Grandma is visiting us again. I told the kids that she is coming in a few weeks. They proceeded to tell each other something like this: Grandma always brings us so much food. Her tomatoes are the best. Yeah, she always gives us so much food. We should share our food with her, since she always gives us food. Yeah, we should.  

My mom is a particularly generous person especially with her hard work in her garden. My kids have learned that from an early age.

It was particularly chilly while my mom was visiting us in January. The highs were not really out of the 60s except that Saturday, which we took advantage of by hiking up the little foothill behind our house. It was so pretty to see the sunset up there, and the girls were good little hikers. When I look at the photo I am still surprised to see a family of FIVE! In the words of Eliza, "What the...?" (She says that all the time! Thanks public school!)

Our family of five!

That week was particularly fun for Eliza because she was star of the week at school. She certainly is our little star! She made a poster about herself and was able to bring something in as show-and-tell every day. What a fun thing for an almost-7 year old!

The poor man who Miriam almost took out!

Fun kid airplane!

One afternoon we drove over to Mesa and saw an Air Force Museum. It was surprisingly interesting and well-attended. There were a lot of senior citizens there on a random Wednesday. 

The kids loved it mainly because of the kid airplanes that they could drive around. Unfortunately that meant that they didn't really stay close to me. As a result I had to put an end to the fun when I saw Miriam 'flying' her airplane towards this old man with a walker. She yelled out to him, "Watch out, I'm coming!" Of course, I am across the hanger, and can only yell, "Miriam, STOP!!" Whew, she barely stopped in time! Thank goodness we didn't send that poor old man to the hospital with a broken hip.

We saw some interesting things though. Historical planes and helicopters. Bombers, luxury aircraft, and rescue planes. It is really amazing to think how much technology has changed in the last 100 years. One of the bombers (B-36?) had little guns all over for people to man. Top, bottom, front, back, nose, sides, etc.

She loves those toes!

Baby with army plane. :)

I made the mistake of trying to keep Holly asleep in her car seat while we walked around. All this resulted in was a very tired arm/back and a baby that was cranky to be left in her car seat for so long. Regardless, it was a fun outing.  

I thought the info about this plane was particularly interesting.

One other fun activity we did was have a tea party with the girls! Oh I love having little girls. We made shortbread cookies, cucumber sandwiches, and veggies and fruit. And lots and lots of tea (cider). It was so fun! I love my girls! I am so excited I had another one! They are so fun!

Sometimes I think it is so cool that my husband is so smart. He designs parts of airplane engines! At work one of the helicopters that has their engines was flown so the employees could see it. Wow, it is sure interesting to see this next to the historical planes and helicopters I saw at the museum. Each of the blades on the rotor is 30 feet long! Wowsers!