GRANDMA KATHY WATCHES GRANDKIDS

I went to CA from April 5-10. Kelly and Chris flew me down to watch their kids while Kelly attended a work conference in Anaheim. Chris, Dylan and Sophie picked me up at the airport. That's when Chris said, "When I picked Dylan up from daycare, they said there is a flu virus going through the daycare." (More on that later) The next morning, I drove Kelly and her work ladies to the airport. Bye bye Kelly

Crystal watched Dylan while I went to the airport. The 2 cousins really enjoy each other now. They are both 2 1/2.

Crystal picked Sophie up at school in the afternoon. Guess which cousin loves Sophie?

That afternoon, April 6th was Max's # 1 birthday! Sophie and Dylan and I went to get Max some birthday gifts at Petco.

There is lots to choose from. We got him some rawhide chewies.

A soccer ball

And rubber bone. He LOVES to chew!!

That evening we went to Addy's school. She received a certificate for her good grades. She got a 3.75. She's in the 9th grade at River Valley High School.

Addy is also playing high school soccer, but I missed her game. It was an "away" game and that was the day Dylan started the flu. Next day, on the way to dropping kids off at school, Dylan threw up. We got home and he seemed OK. We went in the yard and played ball and he shot this big watergun at Max.

Then he threw up some more and played some more. It was weird. Then the big blowout came and that sealed the deal. He had the daycare flu.

Next day he seemed fine. We went to the park with Crystal.

Payton's new swing trick.

What kid doesn't like to swing? Young or old? Then we went back to Crystal's house for pizza dinner. Before we had the pizzas cooked, Addy and Sophie were throwing up, within 5 minutes of each other. We headed home and the rest of the evening was filled with violent throwing up.

The next day Dylan and I went to Payton's last soccer game. At the end of the game, she got her participation trophy.

The team.

The trophy.

The player.

The support team.

These are 4 & 5 year olds, during the game. They all want to get the ball! Watching them play soccer is like watching bees surround the hive or seeing moths drawn to a flame or . . . you get the idea. It's quite entertaining and often humerous. In the center of this picture Payton and her friend Noah, seem to be planning a soccer strategy, but fail to tell the rest of the team.

Later in the afternoon we dyed eggs.

and fingers.

Back at Kelly's house, not much action (except in the bathroom).

That evening, Kelly came home. I had disinfected the house from top to bottom, hoping she wouldn't get sick. And that night, I fell prey to the daycare disease.

Sunday, I laid low, real low. I peeled myself off the couch to color a few eggs, with Kelly's kids.

Kelly baked an early birthday cake for me. It looked good, but I passed on eating it. Crystal came over with some gifts from both families. I got just what I asked for--Walmart gift card and a cool chopper.

They didn't want my germs blowing out the birthday candles, so I had 2 little surrogate-birthday-candle blowers.

Kelly and Dylan took me to the airport. My plane was 2 hours late. Kevin picked me up at the airport and we got home a little after 1:30 AM. Sounds like a crazy couple of days, but it wasn't too bad. The good far outweighed the bad.

Here's some fun videos. I love my grandkids, but they can keep the daycare flu.

While I was at the airport, Crystal called, her family is starting the do the daycare flu. Kelly also started up early the next morning. AWWW

FUN, FAST, WEEKEND

We had a great weekend. Ryan had to come up for work, so we had a fun and fast weekend with them. They arrived Th. night and stayed at Ryan's mom's house.
Friday night, we all met at Ciddici's Pizza (Ryan's favorite). There was a big group of friends and family. Alex and Grandpa Jim are talking over phone technology. Jim just got the Droid X. He loves discovering all the "cool" things that it can do. Alex has the ipod in his hand.

Payton is here with BFF's Annie and Maddie. When she is with her friends, everyone else is "chopped liver".

Grandpa tries to make conversation here and you can just see Payton's expression---"Grandpa, can't you see I am busy with my girlfriends right now."

Owen however was Mr. Friendly. Here he is with Grandma Darla. When he first saw me, he let out a high pitched scream of delight and came running towards me, full steam ahead and yelled, "Grraannddmaaaaaa!!!!"

Cute mom and son pic

On Sat. afternoon, the Smith's moved their gear to our house. We were lucky to have no rain. The trampoline was on Payton's to do list.

Jim and Ryan went on a walk.

Owen went down for a nap and Payton and Grandpa went for a ride on the lawnmower.
Then played "Angry birds" on his new phone.

After Owen woke up, we walked down to the neighbor, about 1/2 mile away. This is Percy, the boar. He's a big boy.

and Sally his mate and their cute offspring. They are about 6 weeks old.

Here's a cute one "hamming it up" for the camera.

Owen liked the baby chicks.

This baby goat wanted a kiss.

This one was cuddly.

and photogenic.

These ones are waiting for Owen to feed them bread (we went through a whole loaf)

This one is named "Spring". They think she is pregnant with triplets. As you probably know, she's only equipped to feed 2 kids. I am trying to talk Jim into letting me have the 3rd baby that will need to be bottle fed, but we don't have a fence or small shed. I told him it could stay in the house, like a puppy, but he didn't buy it.

On Sat. evening Crystal and Ryan went on a date with their local friends. We grandkidsat.

After dinner, we had dessert.

Played hide and seek.

Watched kid shows and had a very happy time as you can see by the smile.

Here's some videos. This is kind of dark, but you can sort of make out the piglets.


At the end of this video, you'll see what Owen thinks of feeding the goats.

This is the baby goat crying for it's mom. After hearing it, you'll discover why baby goats are called "kids".

We had a tramp at our house while the kids were growing up. So Crystal got on it and tried a few of her tricks. She discovered she still has "it"

Payton just jumped and jumped with Crystal and I. I think we will nickname her "kangaroo".

Thanks for the super weekend!!!