A Week With Miss Elena and Miss Malea in Dallas - Days 1&2

Let the week begin!  We are so excited to have these two beautiful little girls with us for a few days.  It certainly livens up this quiet house.  Once again we are amazed at the number of toys we have accumulated the past few years and it doesn't take long before the den is covered in bright colors and the girls are happily playing away.

Even the living room gets put into use as a place to do puzzles.  Elena has such a good time doing the Dr. Seuss alphabet puzzle.  She does a great job on it and is patient and methodical at moving the pieces in all directions before giving up on one.  Once she has it completed, she is quite please and we have to talk about all the items in the pictures.

What to do, what to do?  After some discussion, we are off to the Children's Aquarium at Fair Park.  As we are walking up, Elena finds a fountain and runs over to it to check it out.  I give a shout to her to pose and snap a quick picture.  Does she have my love of fountains?  I so hope she does.

As we are entering the Aquarium, a couple of school buses pull up.  Drat -- now we have to be smart in order for the little ones to get  a chance.  As we enter, we make a beeline for the back area and the Stingray tank knowing that the school groups will have to go through a talk with the guides first.  We are the only ones there and so get definite solo time.  Elena is very hesitant to touch -- can you tell?

She gives a quick look at me for approval.  I let her know that it is okay and Grandpa shows how easy it is.

Soon, her little hand is down in the water and tentatively touching the ray.  She is fascinated and giggles now and then.

As the school groups enter, she and Grandpa move around to a different area of the tank and within just a few moments, a few rays come over to her and she pets with no fear, smiling the whole time.

As the area fills with other children, we go to areas that are not as crowded and soon the fish tanks are holding even Malea's attention.

Mister keeps watching one tank in particular and finally I ask what he sees.  There are babies being guarded by adults and it is so very interesting.

Once I point it out to Elena, she sits mesmerized for at least 10 minutes, not wanting to move even a little.  It almost looks like she and the momma have bonded.  Look real close, you can see the babies in the picture as well.

Our next stop is the touch tank out front which is filled with hermit crabs, anemones, and sea urchins.  Elena is very, very hesitant with these, but soon allows Grandpa to pick up a hermit crab and touches it.  It walks away as soon as they put it back down and that makes her smiles.  No chance at touching the others though.

Malea has fun with the "octopus" while just around the corner, there is an actual one in a tank.  We get just a glimpse of it as it moves to another hiding space.  After a couple of hours there, the girls are ready to leave.  It only takes Elena a minute to take off running for the fountain and soon she is playing with a couple of other kids and laughing her head off.  She is soaked in no time.  Do we have towels?  Of course not.

Realizing that we still need to get her to the car, we take off before it starts to cool off.  Once we get to the car, we strip her down to her soaked undies and wrap a blanket around her to head home.  It was a great afternoon and we have tired, hungry girls.

After dinner, it is off to bed and not a sound out of them.


After twelve hours -- yep you read that right -- twelve hours of sleep, we are up and ready to go again. I told you they were tired.  It is time for breakfast, baths, and getting dressed for a trip to the park to play for awhile and then we have an event with Mister's family.  Busy day so let's get going.

While Mister is getting dressed, Malea is helping him to pick out a shirt to wear.  Which one do you think he should choose?  Once hair is finished, we are ready to go.  Now perhaps Gammy should get dressed.

The park that we are going to is the same one we took Elena to two years ago.  I think it will be fun to compare some of the pictures with the ones on here.  The minute we park the car, both girls are ready to play and so are we. It is time to run off some of the energy bottled in these small bodies.

Check out this face - are they having fun together or what?

And then the tables turned:

Back to the slides -- oh this is so much fun.

Grandpa has Malea while Elena and I are sliding and takes the opportunity for a small photo shoot --- WOW!

Too fun!  This picture is a great ending to that set.

Alas, it is soon time to go as we are driving up to Irving to meet up with Mister's family for a Mother's Day luncheon.  It is great to see everyone and meet others that I had not met yet.  The girls are great and very happy for their food.  Elena did think the pizza took a little too long to get there though.

After a great visit, we head back to the house and our two little charges are soon asleep making the ride back very quiet.  Once we are home, we take a little time to play in the front yard before calling it a day.  We are checking out the peach tree and the girls are happily playing alongside.

It has been a wonderful day -- once again though, everyone is beat and not a sound comes from bedrooms.  See ya tomorrow.

Montana Time - Days 6, 7, and heading home Day 8

Tuesday:  It's official, we are stuck in Billings.  The flights filled up from the cancellation and we will have to watch it daily for awhile, but it looks like Thursday before we will have a chance to leave.  Drat.  Now we have to rethink the situation and figure out what to do without totally upsetting Hyrum and Zyra.  They just keep talking about the plane --- it is breaking my heart.

Grandpa takes them out for a walk while I rest for awhile.  I think I did a bit too much the past couple of days and am feeling it today.  Rather than walking, I just need to rest my hips a bit.  So, on their bikes and away they go.

It doesn't take them long to get things going and soon they are having fun and Hyrum is trying new moves.  Awesome.

Once the return, I play carefully with them out back for awhile making them chase me while on their bikes to work on the sharper turns.  After about 3 rounds, I am caught by Hyrum.  And . . . back to bed.

Later in the evening, we make a quick trip over to Rhiana's to see Elena's new "art room" which is her Mommy's gift to her for her birthday and she is getting it on her true day.  Rhiana did such a great job on it and it is a kids dream.  Chalkboard walls, easels, desks, supplies, PERFECT!

Soon, they are off to dance class and Mister and I take a small "alone" time break and stop in at Angry Hanks and Carters for a couple of drinks.  It is here that the decision is made to take the girls back with us instead of Hyrum and Zyra.  We had planned on having H&Z for a week before trading them with Elena and Malea, but now we are running out of days and can't risk not getting back to get the girls.  Dang -- now to figure out how to get the other two for their time.

Wednesday:  Today is spent watching kids and relaxing a bit -- no too much and we put the cameras away for awhile.  We are tired, lol.  And to prove it, Grandpa takes Zyra in for a nap and we don't see either of them for quite awhile.  Meanwhile, Hyrum and I learn about bees and play games together for quite awhile before I, too, need a nap.  I snuggle up with Hyrum on the sofa and wrap my arms around him while I let him play a video game for a few minutes of shut-eye.  The rest of the day is spent just playing out back with the two of them and letting Becca have some "alone" time with her friends.  So glad we get the chance to help out like this now and then.  Then we head over to Rhiana's for the evening and to spend the night so that we can leave early in the morning with her girls.  So far, the flights look good.

Thursday:  We are up early and off to the airport with out two precious girls in tow.  Everyone has their fingers crossed, but this time I have explained EVERYTHING to Elena and she knows that they might not let us on the plane.  It turns out well though and we all get on and are on our way to Denver.  Yay!  Elena gets a window seat and keeps looking out the window saying, "this is so fun" over and over.  I cannot help but smile.  We manage to all sit together on this flight and it doesn't take long before both girls are sound asleep.  Dang, I was hoping they would hold off until the next flight since it is longer.  Oh well.  They wake up just as we arrive in Denver.  Here we go.

Elena notifies us that she is hungry.  Well, that makes sense and the two of us go off in search of food.  We locate a spot and she picks out fresh fruit, milk, and a scone for us to share with Malea and Grandpa.  Sounds good.

Our layover doesn't take too long and soon we are called for seats to Dallas.  Whew -- that was easy and away we go.  This time we have two seats together and Grandpa is across the aisle and back on seat.  We'll see how this goes.  We settle in and as soon as we are in the air, Elena wants to color for awhile.  

Malea falls asleep again rather quickly and I am just crossing my fingers that it will last the whole flight.  It doesn't, but she does pretty good until the last 15 minutes and she is just done by then.  Can't say as I blame her.  Once we are off the plane and she can move around, her smiles return and she is letting me chase her all over while we wait for luggage and Grandpa goes to get the car.  Soon we are on our way and once in the house, toys are found and the girls are happily playing away while we fall in a heap.  Look out Dallas, here come the girls.

Montana Time - Cancelled Flight - Day Five

The parties are over and we have the day to spend before our flight this afternoon.  Becca needs to take Hyrum over to the school and get him registered for Kindergarten this fall and I go along as another set of ears.  Hyrum seems to like the school and we have him all signed up in no time.  It is so amazing to me that these little people are starting school.  It seemed that we had houses full of little ones for such a short time -- how did they grow up so quickly?

One of Zyra's gifts for her birthday was this outdoor water/sand toy and she and her brother spend a great deal of the morning out on the deck watching water move from one place to the next.  After a short time, I move the whole thing so that they are not standing in the sun so much.  The umbrella really only protects the toy itself.

Becca and I get the kids all packed and down for naps.  Then it is time to head to the airport.  After a quick good-bye with Mom and Dad, they are excited to head out.  We arrive at the airport, unload, and Grandpa goes to turn in the rental car.  Once he is back, we go into the terminal and get in line only to discover that the flight has been cancelled.  What??  Oh dang -- this flight was a sure thing and now we have no idea when we will get to leave.  These poor kids now have to go back home AGAIN from an airport without getting on a plane.  Ugh.

After we call for Becca to come back and pick us all up, we find a park near their house and play with the kids for awhile hoping to have them forget that they didn't get to fly today.  The sad part is that it is not looking promising for quite a few days.  Goodness.  It is hard to even get smiles out of them at the park.  Why is the plane broke Gammy?

We work at it pretty hard though and pretty soon, smiles begin to show up.

I can't stop laughing at Zyra insisting on sitting in the seat backwards.  Way too funny.

Although I am sad that we didn't get to fly today, it is fun to have time with family and now we have at least one if not two more days.  Live in the moment!!

Montana Time - Zyra 3rd Bday Party - Day Four

Crawling out of bed after two little ones awaken us, we are up and running.  There is a party to finish preparing for ya know.  Miss Zyra has requested a "My Little Pony" party and mom is doing all she can to meet that request.  She even had a pony coming over to play, but it got sick and had to cancel -- so sad.  Matt gives some space as he takes the kids and dogs to the river for awhile.  Grandpa gets to work putting Zyra's gift together and I march upstairs to help Becca as much as I can.





She is already hard at work putting out all the treats she has prepared ahead of time and finishing the cake.

I think it turns out great and that her ideas were perfect.  I really could learn a thing or two from her in having tons of materials available to work with.  She just starts pulling items from her cabinet and soon we have a finished product that will be perfect for the party.  Back into the fridge it goes since it has a whipped cream frosting.

Everything is finished and it is time to get dressed.  Becca discovers that the security tag on her new top was not removed and so while she finishes with the kids, Mister and I make a quick run into town to have it taken off.  We are back in 1/2 an hour and things are all go again.  Everything looks amazing and Matt is still zooming around finishing things.  He has been a whirlwind today -- everywhere we looked, he was busy.  Not sure where all that energy came from after a late night last night.  Whew.

It is party time --- complete with a chocolate fountain.

When the pony plans fell apart, a store run was made and this giant ball purchased.  It is great!  The kids crawl around inside and are pushed around tumbling all over the place.  It is also an instant hit along with the trampoline, especially for the boys who are still girlied out from yesterday.  Are you wondering what I see as Mister is taking this picture of me taking a picture?  Look.

The two smallest soon locate places to play that are not quite as busy where they won't get trampled by the older kids.

It always surprises me that they can just find things to amuse themselves and soon we are looking for them.  I also wish I could do this squat for more than a couple of minutes.  Ah, youth.  We never truly realize what we have until it is gone -- even something as simple as squatting.

The older boys have retreated downstairs to the video games and pop up occasionally for a run in the ball or a jump on the tramp.  I think I am running low on energy as I sit down often and miss some of the side activities.



Soon it is candle time.  Becca lites the candles and Zyra promptly blows them out before we can even get the first note out to sing.  We start over and Matt has to hold her back while we sing both the American and Brazilian versions of "Happy Birthday to You".  At last she gets to blow out her candles and have a piece of cake.

Becca has also cooked up a storm as usual and the food is delicious.  I am totally stuffed and wanting to just sit and visit.  My niece, Jill, and her husband, Brock, are here for the event and so we are able to sit out on the patio for a quick visit before it is time to move into the living room to open gifts.  Zyra is so cute with the cards -- she loves them and wants to open each one.  She then stands and reads them -- at least what she thinks they say.  Goodness -- so cute.

Grandpa had found a gift for Zyra several months ago and stored it out back until this trip.  Yep, we checked the box on the plane and brought it with us.

We watch as she takes all the furniture from her gift bag and Daddy keeps asking her what she is going to do with it.  Once she finds the house, it doesn't take long to put everything inside.  Yay Grandpa.

The party breaks up shortly after that and while I am outside saying good-bye to Amanda and kids, Matt has armed the kids with wooden skewers from the table and let them go to down on the balloons.  They make very short work of this task and soon the arch is gone.

It has been a great day and after the mess is cleaned up, we sit down and breathe for a few minutes while Matt goes from room to room organizing the house again.  He reminds me so much of myself as he counts pieces to games and toys and puts everything back in it's proper place.

As I snuggle with Zyra after the party and have her try on the outfit I made her, Grandpa snaps this oh so cute picture of us.  Love it.

Where is Hyrum in all of this???  Well, he went downstairs with a friend and was seldom seen today.  Crowds are just not his thing --- also reminds me of his dad.  Well, if he follows true to form, he will one day be Mister Gladhander just like Daddy.