Faces

Sawyer Age 4 (5 in Oct)

 Jeremiah age 3 (4 in Dec) during some intense Wii time

 

Never a dull moment

At bed time last evening, I was thinking how parenting is not for the weak! I love my grandchildren and I am having so much fun with them, but they wear me out! You are on duty around the clock and there is seldom a dull moment. Probably more so, since it's much too hot to play outside.



Last evening and also tonight, Wil comes home from work, long enough to eat and change and then go to a meeting. Neither the boys or I like that too much. It's life and a reminder why parents need a team of people that help them.

Sawyer is unbelievably strong for a little guy. He loves to be a helper. This morning, it didn't take him too long to inform me that he was too hot to keep working.



I had them drive the gaiter to the garden, where we harvested an abundance of cucumbers, zucchini and peppers.



We had some swing time time, gave the chickens fresh water and then back in the house by 10:00.
Let's not forget our afternoon, Anna's cookie snack time on the porch.


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Home front- Day 2

Another day with hot temperatures and mostly indoor playing for the boys. They went with me to the Amish farm to get our milk that we use to make yogurt, so of course Grandma gave in to going to McDonalds.

We worked on the stones around and under the ramp. The boys wanted to help and did what they could. Sawyer moved the heavy bags of stones to the edge of the truck bed for me. I couldn't believe he was strong enough to do that. I praised him and told him that his Daddy said that he was a good helper. He smiled and said, "that's why I'm such a good helper!" Who doesn't enjoy being praised.

After tonight, I decided that I had better pick and choose my bedtime stories. I read a book that had lots of short stories, with almost all if them mentioning Mommy and Daddy. I could tell that Jeremiah was missing his parents. We had decided that tonight Papaw would come in to sing with them after story time, since he remembers more words to the songs. I wasn't out of the room too long when I heard Jeremiah crying. Wil not aware of Jeremiah's state of mind, prayed for Mommy, Daddy and Brennan and then started to sing. When he stopped to ask Jeremiah why he wasn't singing, the flood gates opened up. I went back in and snuggled with him and he was soon ok. He even burst into laughter when Papaw forgot the words to a song and had to hum. Sawyer said that bedtime would be fun if someone sang to them all night long.

These 2 boys are so full of hugs and kisses and through out the day, say, "I love you"!

Brennan, you should know that there were 3 rabbits in our driveway tonight.

It was a relief to hear that Matt, Monica and Brennan arrived safely. I believe they had a 3 hour drive after Jason picked them up.


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And they are off

Today Matt, Monica and Brennan left to visit friends in Morocco.







I took off work to take care of Sawyer and Jeremiah.






I was pleased that we got through the 1st day without any crying for Mommy. Bed time went great. As soon as I started to pray with them, Sawyer made sure I thanked God for the cookies my sister, Anna brought them tonight.

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5/31 Montreal

With encouragement from Nephew Nate, we headed to Montreal yesterday morning. Before we could do that, it meant waking up Isaiah. It's a stressful routine! He would tell me that this is not appropriate and necessary to share:).




Never the less, by the time we got there, he was awake and we had a great day. I have walked a lot in Chicago, but probably never as much as in Montreal. After we parked for the day, we walked up hill towards Mount Royal. After about a bazillion steps, we reached the top. Amazing view!




This was just one of many sets of steps.








We then headed to the old part of town, which happened to be the opposite side of town, at least it felt like it. There a Carriage driver talked us into a tour and it was a relief to our feet and legs. At the suggestion of our driver, Wil went around the back of the carriage so he could sit up front. As he rounded the back of the carriage, a bike rider came flying in between the carriage and the cars, going the wrong the direction, his brakes screamed, hit Wil's hand and camera, and flew off his bike. A second earlier and he would have hit Wil, head on. The biker claimed to be ok, the traffic went on and so did we.












Where the rich and the famous stay.




This was yet. Another suggestion from Nate, which proved to be amazing. The Notre-Dame Basilic
















We ended our day with experiencing a French Restaurant












The dessert was the highlight of the meal. The rest was good but nothing I would go back for. Isaiah thought the Cod was good but took one tiny bite of the cabbage and was done. We chalked it off as an experience.




Leaving town was an experience of it's own.




This foot kept showing up beside me, all the way back to our Lodge. "grandma, can you rub my feet".
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Sterling Pond Hike to Long Trail

This morning Wil and I headed up the mountain, where we hiked up, up and up on Sterling Pond Trail to where it connected to Long Trail. It was a tough trail but such gorgeous scenery. We thought Brennan would have enjoyed the 1st part.
























When we came back to our room, Isaiah was still sound asleep and once again, it was a struggle to wake him up. We drove all the way to Burlington. We had to do some shopping to make the trip worth it!



The evening was spent in front of the TV with phones, computers and books. Plans are to head to Montreal in the morning.
Could we do anymore driving on this trip??
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5/29 rainy day

Today we woke up to a rainy day.



We opted to drive around and do some self tours.
Our 1st stop was at the Cabot Creamery Factory where we took a tour and tasted a lot of cheese. We ended up buying Greek Vanilla Bean Yogurt. awesome stuff!





Our next stop was at the Ben & Jerry Ice Cream Factory. We didn't take the tour. Wil and Isaiah got ice cream.






From there we went to Green Mountain Coffee Visitor Center.



We won't talk about how much sugar we had to put in Isaiah's iced blueberry coffee before it wasn't bitter.


Next stop-Champlain Chocolates.
By then we were getting tired of snacks and were just wanting real food. We bought a scrumptious chocolate granola bar and the headed up to the Trapp Family Lodge.



We were a bit rushed since we kept getting possible tornado warnings. Dinner wasn't served until 5:00 and it was a little before 3:00, so we went to the Deli and had some great food there.



We then went back to our Lodge and at Isaiah the haircut that he requested.


Wil was happy that Isaiah was pleased with the results.

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