FINALLY ... HOME!

There really isn't any way that I can put into words how happy I am to have my El Paso family FINALLY HOME in Grand Rapids after more than six+ years (that's over two thousand days!). They arrived in the early morning hours of Thursday, August 8. They drove straight through from El Paso and were exhausted. I didn't get together with them until the following day ~ and then we just decided to make a sleepover out of our reunion. We had so much fun. The children had never seen my beach house ~ I was so excited to share it with them. We took a quick tour (and because it's SO tiny, it took about 2 minutes!) and then got right into playing ...

LEGOS! I've had this bin of LEGOS for years and years ... much of what is in the bin is leftover from Dylan and his brothers (!), and these kids really built very cool spaceships out of all the parts they could find. 

This is Chris's finished spaceship

These kids are amazing builders. It was wonderful to sit and visit with them while they were building. But after awhile, I wandered into the main room of my little house and sat down at the piano and played a little tune. The kids had been so excited to see the toys in the spare room, they never noticed my piano until ... I started playing it. 

But then everyone wanted a turn playing the piano. They loved all the sounds that this instrument can make with just the push of a button! Emma especially was thrilled with the music she could make. I loved watching her enjoy herself at the keyboard. And doesn't she have perfect fingers and hands for playing? 

And look at Matthew's happy smile! He loved playing as well. I had to remind the boys that pianos are played with fingerTIPS not their entire bodies! But they listened and did very well.

Christopher especially enjoyed the headphones and recording his musical creation so that we could listen to it later.  

Since it was Friday, the children were able to stay the night. We rolled out the sleeping bags (no pictures were taken at this point, I'm not sure why!) and started the bedtime routine at about 9:30 pm. I was thinking that I had sufficiently worn them out so that by perhaps 11:00 they would be sleeping. But I was entirely wrong! These guys never fell asleep until 1:30 in the morning.  Yikes.

The next day, I took them over to Townsend Park to explore the creek. I told them stories about when their dad was a little kid how we used to go "hunting" for frogs and crayfish in this very same place.

All three of the children LOVED this place -- I KNEW they would! It's such a beautiful and peaceful place to play and enjoy God's wonderful creation.  

 We've been to Townsend Park several times together now. I purchased some nets so that we could catch some critters. We've met lots of other children in the process, who have helped us with their expertise in catching crayfish.

 Matthew caught our very first fish ... a tiny little scavenger fish. We put him in our bucket and watched him for quite awhile. Chris and Emma caught a bunch of water bugs, but we didn't have any luck whatsoever catching any crayfish the first few times we visited the creek. 

 But that doesn't mean we didn't have a good time trying ...

Look how happy the children are! I am so thankful to have them close to me. I love being their grandma so much.