50 or 60 hours(if Im counting right) till we see D.

Doesn't sound too long to wait I don't think.

Sundays at grandmas are a lot like Sundays at home.

We slept in, ate some waffles, baths, lunch and off to meetings.

After church we snacked, changed, played and made phone calls, now its time for dinner again.

Grandpa makes delicious BBQ chicken on the grill and without the son in laws here to chide him he microwaves it to finish cooking it so it isnt carcinogen-ated.

Z. over heard mom say we were headed to see great grandmaP and she yelled "Yeah, I love her!" What a gal.

T. ended up with a crayon stolen from Sunday school somewhere and hasnt put it down in hours, not knowing where to put stolen items at grandmas house I guess.

N. lived thru grandma as his Sunday school teacher today and learned about the 3 degrees of glory, I dont think we have gone over that in family home evenings so it was sort of new to him.

S. actually made it thru 2 meetings but freaked out in R.S. when the lady behind me didn't have anything fun in her bag although S. was convinced she had seen something.

I can smell cornbread......bye.

okay just one more

So, this is the typical place we find T right with cousin S., his favorite baby in the world (even loves her more than his own sister) when she is awake. That is a lot since he doesn't think inside voices and quiet toys are something he needs. She loves kids and uses any noise from them as a distraction from sleeping. He thinks she is as wonderful as we do, you should see her sweet smile its heart melting!

2nd try

Here's a little more of the last 2 days.

Grandma A is blessed to live close enough to the M.T.C. , where R. is, that packages can be delivered that very day.

The kids had fun creating pictures and sugary sweets(that R. has kindly asked we stop sending) for her to open.





Sidewalk chalk, dressups, the piano studio and the computer are the most often used items here at grandma A's.





I wonder if they have completely forgotten about their beloved trampoline, N. did say he could still remember what his house looked like so they haven't been away long enough yet.

T.'s funny saying yesterday to Daddy on Skype:"Me want talk you" and then trying desperately to think of something to say, over and over as soon as mom started talking.

Funny saying today while mom was talking to grandma, directing kids to their clothes and washing breakfast off a baby:" Mom me need you........very bad". Mom runs dawn the hall expecting the worst but gets this instead "You on green team, me win yours." Great, mom lost some kind of imaginary game that was very important and wasnt even aware of it. Better than bleeding injuries or broken treasures anyday as far as mom is concerned.

3 more days till we see D.

Still enjoying summer days.

Its busier than I imagined June with the friends and family and toys and swimming.

The days are flying by.

I wish I had time to figure out Blogging and downloading pictures to my liking a little more.



S. unpacking cousins things while they were getting ready to leave on their trip. Yesterday.



Teasing grandma M. Yesterday



T picking cherries with Z. and grandma A. Today.



S. chewing her fingers since she cant chew on anything in the cereal cupboard anymore, thanks to grandpas skills and babyproofers !!
Today.

This may end up as several posts since the computer isn't my friend right now, boy I miss Rooey.

4 days!!

I am so taking advantage of having the kiddies in bed and I am watching a movie.

Its true, no blog tonight just relaxing(and my sister took her laptop that I am used to now so it would have taken me years to do it on my moms) maybe eat some treats and be plain old lazy.

You should try it too.

D.'s back in Switzerland

Counting the days on one hand till we see Donny.



Got some summer weather finally today, broke out the waterballoons.


N: had his bff over to grandmas today. Doesn't get tired of their hours together. Is sad they live 2 hours apart and only get together when its convenient for parents. Didn't beg to swim every 5 minutes with him over(what a relief).


N. and his buddy both are tippytoers. It looks like they are walking but really they are pivoting around not even noticing they are sometimes(friend more than N.) on tiptoe. It makes for some awesomely tough calves!

Z: ties waterballoons like a pro. Wants so bad to have a friend like N.'s down at grandmas house. Had boy toys take over the dollhouse she was allowed to play carefully with. Talked grandma A. into a smoothie that turned into a candybar shake, lucky!



T: got a hang of the waterballoon filling, probably shouldn't try tying them with his teeth. Loves baby sister and baby cousin. Loves, Loves, Loves!

"what da?" T.'s balloon had a hole in it, took him a sec to figure out what was going on.

S: will not get into a cold pool but for some reason can't get enough of playing in the freezing hose water. Drank at least a gallon of it, some of it thru her nose. Is teaching her sweet cousin new ways to get into trouble and all about "hollering".



I don't know why this video still shot is a bum, sorry. The weird thing is that this frame is like 5 seconds into the video. The rest is much more fun to see.


Regret: staying up reading blogs and F.B. status updates so that when S. decided to repeatedly wake up and stay up I was exhausted.


My biggest wish now that I have sitters around to watch kids while I shower and run errands is to be even lazier and lay on a couch and watch a whole movie. Nothing animated or that could be found on disney channel. Not even wishing to go see Transformers or any other new movies, just a video. I'm sure in the next 2 weeks it will happen, I hope.

Less than a week to go

Its so great to say less than a week till we see D.

Great summer days with the Grandparents.

If I could get the kids to bed at a decent hour I would write down all the funny things they do and say (okay at least some of them) but I got chatting and haircutting, now its late again.

What great kids I have and what great parents D. and I have, we are so blessed!

Z. teaching S. where middle C is. Their singing was just so cute together. Now if we can get Z. to teach her how to use an inside voice we will all be a little happier.


S. has strange ideas of how to pet animals I guess. Notice the "puppy" tongue. All animals (stuffed or otherwise) get that tongue.
N. on his "mission impossible" to break into grandma A's locked trailer to rescue the keys inside.
Grandma M. and T. playing daddys favorite (throw the kid) game in the pool. One problem though, T. won't let go!
N. tried a new green food. Honeydew. Hated it obviously. Don't ask how much he got for it.
Bedtime. Why is it that grandparents are so good at reading stories? I hope to make a good grandparent someday.

One more week!

Only 1 more week till we see D.

It was sad times for us to pull up to daddys truck and not find him inside waiting.

I think we can do one more week though.

Moms day today was driving "home again home again jiggedy jig" then running errands, mowing, eating, cleaning it up, more errands and more eating then "over the river and through the woods to grandmothers house we go".

How does that take up an entire day? Just does.

Older kiddies stayed to play with grandma and grandpaM.

They wore themselves and the grandparents out(except N. who insisted he needed more swimming!).

Picts of the day are from a new home construction area nearby:

Dirt piles are awesome, so are those mountains and sunset clouds. Oh yeah so are the kiddos.

Watching to see where their dirt clods landed.

Spending some time with grandma M and mosquitoes.( Sorry grandma I couldn't tell you had your eyes closed till just now, too tired to upload another).

Regret: Waiting to mow till the lawn dried out. If not I guess the regret would be about mowing or attempting to mow wet grass. Our mower is a mulcher which means that rather than bagging the clippings they are chopped into little bits and spread back down acting as fertilizer or evaporation stoppers or something. Mulching is great unless you want to mow knee length grass. Then it acts as a water and sun block and quickly kills the grass. That can be good I suppose, if you kill the grass you don't have to mow it, right?!

Daddy is in Venice today

Foreign computer, (not literally unless HP is, once you use a Mac PCs seem very backward) excuse any oddities.

Again I dont know the date but we're around 8 days till we see D .

T: started his day with chocolate covered strawberries. Yummy. Was surprised he floated in grandmas pool without a lifejacket. Finally figured out his suit has a built in floatie. Told mom again today that she was "Daddy"so she would play catch(moms have too much mom stuff to do but dads dont).

Guess we should have asked grandma before we posted her cute swim suit on the blog for the world to see. Just cant be helped when youre so cute with the kiddies.

S: definitely does not like being away from her own bed. Went from hating the pool and the water to actually splashing her feet(and accidentally her face) in for fun.

Z: is the dancing queen today. Made up her own Jazz moves for an hour or so in grandmas livingroom. Actually let mom do her hair before the pool and after.

N: thinks he needs to swim every second or he will die. Was actually very patient waiting for the adults to finally be ready. Finds the media at grandma M's entertaining enough he doesn't need to eat or sleep or ever attend school again.

Dont worry D., N. is doing your job of teasing your mommy very well, in the pool especially! You see that big open laugh? Its after splashing grandma. Very much like his dad.

If I Knew what day it was I would know exactly how long till we see D .

The important thing is that we are having so much fun we dont even know the date, not so much that we forgot about daddy.

We camped with gma A. and "grumpa" in A.F.

It was beautiful and awesome.

Just driving up the canyon was enough to remind me we love the mountains!

Sleeping in a trailer is a plus when near cold rivers and on rainy nights, although all of us but babes has stuck it out in a tent before.

We were in the same campground that, years before, had a foot of snow in June for our sleeping enjoyment (Mik was there, just ask him).

Nothing quite so harsh this time.

First thing N. did was fall in the river while trying to cross. So much for bringing 1pr shoes and 1pr pants. He only fell in 2 more times till he was cautious.

Z. and T. took their shoes off before venturing in. Mom thought rolling their pants up would help them stay dry. Haa Haa.

S. seemed to think she needed to get in too, Everyone else was! One little feel of the freezing water on her hands was enough to stop her, also enough to keep her cold at camp for several hours.

The little ones at camp on their chairs. S. never gave up climbing onto and falling off of hers. How do kids live to be adults or even teens?!

Day 2 of camping was wet. Not from the river but the downpour of rain. Once in a while the sun peeked out and we enjoyed a game with cousins, otherwise we were stuck under canopys or inside the campers. Sierra was content to be held by mom all day, just dont ask mom about that part and you'll think it was fun.

Movie time in the van. Thankgoodness for vehicle dvd players and 12 hours of cartoon episodes. I think there were 7 of them in there while it was pouring. Sorry cousins who are headless, just couldnt get them all in there.

Die hards on day 3 of rain. All we needed were the treats grandma provided in abundance and blankets which, if you know my mom, were also in abundance.

AFTER showers and church we ventured to a drier but not much warmer spot, our gma and gmpa M.'s Their house was warmer but not the frozen treats.

N. proves he is a true Merrill and chomps down his icecream, following his moms own heart he prefers the staining variety(chocolate!).

Z. answered that she would like "all" when asked what kind she wanted. Have you ever put 5 types of icecream on a cone(and that was 3 less than were available, D. do you miss us more now?) ? I think she licked the bowl clean!

While she can't talk, she's a vanilla girl. Anyone who has cleaned up chocolate off of a baby knows exactly why.

Taking his preferences after Daddy. He had a Rootbeer float and then had 2 bowls of vanilla.

Pict of the day: Grandma helping T. into a bat costume and showing him in the mirror. He thinks he is a bat. He tried to sleep with it on. I wouldn't be surprised to see him in it first thing tomorrow.

12 days till we see D .

We packed into the van and headed down to see the grandmas.

Having so many helpers makes for quick packing but we ended up without a few things like shoes and with a few extras like stuffed animals and scout camp memorabilia.

Kids and I are stoked to camp in grandma A.'s camper for a few days up the canyon, we hoped it would be tonight but grandpa got home too late to tow it up.

S. knows just where to find the treats(thanks to Daddy) in grandma A's piano studio. I cant blame her, chocolate is just so tasty.

N. wants to go swimming at grandma M's pool with his new snorkel mask. The neighbors cat is used to him wearing glasses, not swim wear.

Heigh Ho Heigh Ho. Its off to play we go.