Visit from Grandma Jane and Grandpa Jim

I am finally back - to the blog world that is. I could list all sorts of excuses why I haven't added a post in a while but it all amounts to the fact that I rarely have the patience to sit down and do it.

After recovering from Christmas and the whole New Year's Eve debacle we enjoyed a little bit a down time. I had no Primary stuff going on and the boys and I were able to take a break from all the craziness. I will admit we had several days where we just vegged around the house and did pretty much nothing at all.

At the end of January my parents came to visit us. Since they had been in South Africa since I had Owen, it was the first time I had ever had my parents come and stay at my house. We were excited to have them and were lucky to have great weather while they were here. They came on a Wednesday and as I had expected my mom had me cleaning my windows, painting a kitchen cabinet and fixing our fireplace within a couple of days. It's not that my mom made me do any of this, it is just that she helped me get the motivation to do things I had been meaning to do for a long time. Meanwhile, my dad fixed little things around my house, including my recently crashed computer that he was able to bring back from the dead. He was even nice enough to back up my computer after he fixed it, so if it crashes again at least I won't lose everything.

The boys had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa around. They enjoy it when they aren't stuck at home with just me all day. We spent most of the days playing outside. Here are some pictures of the boys playing in our driveway. Our driveway slopes towards the house so the boys like to push their bikes and cars up to the top and ride all the way down. Jack is just getting the hang of it but Owen is an old pro.


Jack is fearless. So when you put the skates on him, watch out! He won't let you help him at all and it is a miracle he hasn't had to get stitches yet as a result.



Since the weather was so nice we also went to the park several times. Owen is even starting to get a little braver on his bike. He no longer has to get off the bike to go up and down the curbs on the way to the park. Owen is great big brother and always helps Jack down the big slide.


While my parents were visiting Owen discovered his love for "video games." He soon found that Grandpa's iPhone had tons of games on it. All day long he would ask to play on Grandpa's iPhone. Grandpa was even a good sport and played LOTS of Tic-Tac-Toe with Owen, who had no concept of how to play it. Unfortunately, Owen now wants to play on my iPhone all the time. I finally let him until he locked me out of my phone. Somehow, he put a password on my phone so that I couldn't even use it. I cannot figure out how he did this since he would have had to enter the same four digits two times in row. Not to mention he can't read so he wouldn't have had any idea this is what he was supposed to do. Anyway, after living without my phone for two days, I finally got it fixed. No more iPhone for Owen! Here he is playing on my Dad's iPhone.


The highlight of my parents' visit was going to "Wicked" in San Francisco. We went with Robby's parents and his sister and her husband as well. I had heard it was good but had no idea how much I would love it! I am already trying to convince Robby we need to go again as soon as tax season is over. The soundtrack is also in my CD player constantly. We listen to it so much that Owen has even started singing along.

We were sad to see my parents go but we knew they were excited to get home and finish getting settled in their new house. We can't wait to see them again at the beach in June!