A Visit from Grandma and Grandma

So it was just a little bit more than a week after my mom left from her visit in November to when she returned for Eliza's baptism, this time bringing my Grandma with her.

It was so good to see my Grandma and spend this time with her. We wanted to spend a bunch of time with her at Christmas when we were up in Utah, but we were sick so we couldn't be around her.

The last time that Grandma was down here visiting we were supposed to go to the Phoenix Temple open house, but she had her subdural hematoma, which changed their lives forever. It still makes me sick to think about.

Her recovery the last two and half years has been miraculous, but frustrating. She has got a lot of her functioning back, but her eyesight is still not right. Things just don't stay still (or wiggle) when she looks at them. It makes reading very, very difficult. Also, her memory, which used to be like a vault, is now showing signs of dementia. Particularly her irregularity about taking her pills frustrates my mom. They even got her an automatic, electric pill dispenser, but Grandma doesn't trust it and gets into it.

Grandma was feeling well enough though to come to Phoenix, which she swore she would never do again. I think she really wanted to come to Eliza's baptism or maybe my mom just bullied her into it. One way or another I was glad she got out of her house for a week and was interacting with people. I know it must be incredibly lonely since Grandpa passed.

Well, we finally made it with Grandma to the Phoenix Temple 2.5 years after we were supposed to go there. We went on a Sunday afternoon, which was really sweet and peaceful.

Since there wasn't really anyone there, we let the girls play around a bit and had a little picnic snack on the grounds. I was a little worried that the grounds would be locked and closed because it was Sunday, but there was one pedestrian gate open. It could have been because there was a pretty steady stream people headed into the temple, maybe for a meeting of some kind??

Well, we took advantage of it anyway. Holland loved running around like crazy. Super reverent, I know.

The big girls loved all of the flowers!

Also, during the week (it was Spring Break for my kids, so we had all day to play), one day we did a tea party. My mom brought a huge tub of French Vanilla hot chocolate down this time, and I think we used half of it that week. Part of which was for this tea party. We also tried a fun recipe for popcorn cookies, and made delicious mini cucumber sandwiches.

Eliza has this uncanny knack for closing her eyes during the best pictures. :(

Another day we drove around to the other side of South Mountain where we could take the road up to the top of the mountain. There were several little walks to go on, and view points. My girls loved all of the rock scrambling. My grandma didn't really participate in the rock scrambling. :)

Me and my girls at "Hidden Valley."

These crazy girls are my whole world.

Miriam asks to get her picture taken. She is a sweetheart.

Tired after a long walk. Grandma Lucas had made a friend and was talking to him when we got back from our walk. It reminded me of Grandpa Lucas and how he would talk to everyone. He was so friendly and confident talking to strangers. I miss him.

It was fun to see the stone houses and trails that were built by the CCC. 

I really think Grandma had a good time. I was driving the car that she was in, and she kept commenting on all of the wildflowers (which there was a ton of) and all of the cool cacti and ocotillos.

Unfortunately, that day was marred by the pit toilets once again. This time Eliza didn't drop her hat in, but she had a bit of a bowel incident, which resulted in a lot of time holding her over the pit toilet. And I tell ya, I have never been in a pit toilet where there was that strong of a breeze blowing out from the pit, right into our faces. And I really hope to never experience that again! It was so, so much worse that you are imagining, especially because Ellie was having such a bad bowel experience. If she ever needs evidence of her mother's love, she should remember the time that I held her over the pit toilet because she was too scared to sit on it, and we had to breathe those noxious fumes for minutes on end. Only a mother's love would allow that to happen...

Another day Eliza and Miriam made the charms from the kit that Eliza got for her birthday. They baked up to be so teeny tiny!

The charms before baking

The charms after baking!

One of my favorite memories from this visit is Grandma and Eliza doing her tiling book. It is something from school that Eliza does whenever she thinks of it and has extra time. It is a brain teaser where you have to organize the number tiles to it adds up to the same number in the variety of directions depending on what shape it is.

This was about the sweetest thing that I have ever seen. Grandma used to love puzzles and brain teasers. Eliza loves it too. They were both so enthusiastic about it. The really tender part was that Grandma would forget what number they were adding to, or what columns and lines they had added and checked already. So she would make Eliza add up the column or line again and again. And I have to say, Eliza never got impatient or frustrated with Grandma. She just would do it again and again. Always loving and seeming to enjoy the time together. I have never been so proud of her. What an angel that girl is!

Group photos at the Phoenix temple!

We took the group photos at the temple with the tripod, but because the remote for the camera apparently ran out of battery, we had to do the timer/run method. There are issues that come with this method and not being able to see what the camera sees. Like Eliza showing her necklace to the camera. The hair in my mom's face. Crazy eyes and looking away. Oh well! Still fun!

Here in this video Eliza and Miri girl are telling us about our visit to South Mountain.