Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Poppy, Nana and Keith come for a visit

For the first two weeks of July, Pete, Jill, and Keith came to visit us.  We always look forward to the times we get to spend with them.  It’s great to be able to share our lives and our amazing Texas friends with extended family.

Weeks out from their arrival the kids began making plans for a whole bunch of different adventures and special days to maximize play time with Poppy, Nana, and Uncle Keith.  From the minute they got here, it was virtual non-stop action.  

Because the timing worked out perfectly for me to travel to NY for Hannah’s wedding, I was only here for half of their visit.  In light of this we thought it would be fun for the children to dictate/narrate their perspective of the times they spent together, so without further ado, here’s (Andrew, Elijah, Lavella, or Jonah).


Elijah: "We're at the Splash Pool and Andrew was attacking me in this game and I was trying to keep the water gun!"
A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


Lavella: "Nana is showing me how to float on my back.  Nana showed me how to hold my breath and keep my tummy up."
A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


Jonah: "And dere's Keith!  And dere's me!  And write about me!  I am sitting with Poppy.  That's Elijah's apple."
A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


Jonah: "I can't learn about it."
A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


Jonah: "Keith give me that and I had a strawberry ice cream and Keith put stuff on it that is chocolate syrup."
A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


Andrew: "We were at a lake and we were looking at bi-valves (those are two shells together), and we're looking at regular shells and fossils."


Elijah: "We had a live clam, and I even got a HUGE one that I found and it was alive! Even Jonah and Lavella got to keep some."
A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


Elijah: "Poppy read us a lot of books!"
A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


Elijah: "And Nana did too!"
A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


Jonah: "That was when me and Lavella were in the 'carwash'!!"


Lavella: "Me and Jonah were turning around the thing and the blue stuff was soft and we got to feel it when no one was looking."


Jonah: "And Daddy was there!!!"

Lavella: "Daddy came to visit us for the weekend!"
A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith

A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith

A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


Elijah: "It was really fun playing 'Clue' with everyone on the last day that Daddy was here!"
A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


A week with Poppy, Nana and Keith


In the months since Greg left for school (January), my strength, endurance and patience have been tested as I've have faced so many challenges parenting and running our house alone.  Our friends here in Texas have been a wonderful support to our family, but it was a welcome relief to have Greg's parents take the load completely off of me for a solid two weeks and let me spend time with friends, grocery shop alone, spend time by myself, etc. Knowing that the children were safe and happy and the household was being cared for was an amazing thing.  Thank you to Pete, Jill and Keith for everything you did.  We had a lot of fun!

For even more pictures of their visit here, click through to the Flickr set.

2 comments:

Greg Darling said...

Wish I could've been there for a longer visit, but it was really fun to all hang out together.  Thank you soooo much for everything you did to help out around the house and taking care of the kids.  We felt very loved.  Love you all!!!

Jill said...

You're welcome. We're so glad to do it. We have to pack a year's worth of memorable moments into a couple of short weeks. We had a great time with the kids swimming, blowing bubbles, reading books, learning about heaven and playing Clue.