A Weekend with Grandpa and Abuelita

Last weekend, we had stake conference and saw it as a good excuse to go visit Grandpa and Abuelita (I also had to speak in stake conference which was a first for me). Anyway, we met Grandpa and Abuelita at I-Hop for a yummy dinner on Friday night, and then went to their house that evening. That night there was a big snow storm (oh, how I can't wait for Spring! All this snow, cold, and gray skies could make even Jack Frost long for warm weather, blue skies, and sunshine). Despite the drab weather, we had a wonderful time. We enjoyed Abuelita's yummy treats and delicious meals (Chris always tells me that she can only cook about five things--that is a big joke. She might make five delicious things per meal--if you have a meal at Michael's parents' house you can plan on a tasty main dish, a vegetable with some delicious seasoning sprinkled on the top, an aesthetically and tummy pleasin' salad, some type of bread, and either fruit or some kind of delectable dessert. She also makes the best Reuben sandwiches or any kind of sandwich for that matter that I've ever tasted). The boys are always so excited to see their grandparents and vice versa. They love to read stories and rattle off Spanish with their Abuelita (she of course thinks that this Spanish thing is a complete waste of time--haha). She loves how much they are learning and is so pleased that they talk in Spanish to her. They love to watch sports with Grandpa and spent part of the time watching the 2005 Mudhen's championship game rerun with Grandpa. The boys love to play in the basement with all of the toys that are down there. We really need to go up there more often. We feel so blessed to be only 80 miles away!

Along with the snow came the potential for snowman building. After the snowfall subsided, Michael, Alden, and Thobe headed outside and built a very friendly snowman. Alden had two pairs of gloves on his hands, a hat on his head, and his hood from his coat on too. Thobe, as you can see in the picture had no gloves (he can't keep them on), no hat, no hood, and was lucky to have his coat on his body. Cold doesn't bother him, I guess. He didn't complain at least. They had such a fun time. After the three balls were carefully assembled, the hunt for snowman parts began. Over and over, the doorbell rang, and Alden, on his father's errand, came looking for important components for their snowman.

"Our snowman needs a hat, our snowman needs a nose, our snowman needs eyes."

They wanted radishes for the eyes, but unfortunately, those were already used in the salad, so Michael was resourceful and found briquettes ("two eyes made out of coal"--I must admit that the radishes were probably more creative). After the snowman was complete, we all got our shoes on and admired their work. Hyrum was the most impressed and kept pointing at the snowman saying, "What's that?" over and over again.

I'm so grateful that my kids have such an incredible dad. Michael is always doing stuff like that with the boys. They love to do things with him, and it's not hard to imagine why. I really love him for a lot of reasons, but I really love him so much for being such a great dad to our boys. He's really incredible!

We were also so grateful to Kathy and Bob Deck who watched the kids while we went to stake conference on Saturday night. The kids had such a great time! Thanks, Bob and Kathy!