Independence Day Eve

Sunday evening and all is well with my world. I have had a wonderful relaxing day.

My yard man got the lawn mowed after a week of being neglected.  - the yard has been neglected - not the yard man!! :)

I finished all the vacation laundry - except for Andru's things. Got all the bedding and towels washed from our "guests" of the last two weeks.

Had time for a short nap, and did some reading! - Haven't done any of that for a couple of weeks! 

Andru went to his mom's for the night after we ran and got groceries.

We received a gazing ball for a wedding gift that got broken in the last hail storm so we replaced that today. - Didn't put it out though because it was raining again when we got home! Temps dropped and it is beautiful out this evening.

Got the news today that my book club members will be coming for lunch on Thursday! Yea! I miss those girls!

Randy and I decided that we would enjoy some "adult" interaction so we have invited a few couples from church for 4th celebration cook out tomorrow evening.

The year's at the spring,

And day's at the morn;

Morning's at seven;

The hill-side's dew-pearled;

The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn;

God's in his Heaven—

All's right with the world!

 

Robert Browning

Last day of Vacation

We are home. Left Branson, came back through Tulsa and met Tim and Shelley at I-35, delivered their babies :) to them and came home. We got here about 7:00 - we HAD to stop at Brahms and get enough energy to make it home!

The last two weeks have made me tired, but mostly they have been a great blessing. I've not had Riley and Josie with me for longer than one night since Shelley and the kids lived with us for 6 months in 2006. I had the opportunity to get better acquainted with these two little people.

I'm in a new relationship. I have a new step-grandson living with me. Then for two weeks we added two more young people to this mix. I was interested in seeing that the three young people acted like real cousins - or brothers and sister - that have known each other all their lives. There were lots of laughs, some arguments, a few tears and just lots of playing and having fun. They have some similarities in their imaginations which was good for playing pretend - at the same time, just as with everyone, they are each such individuals. 

Josie got homesick the first week then adjusted and did very well. Riley didn't show much homesickness until the last couple of days and he was excited to go see his momma.

Andru defended Josie when Riley was picking on her, he defended Riley if Josie was picking on him (which wasn't as much) and then he did his fair share of picking on them and they on him. Like I said - they acted like siblings or cousins! 

We made some very good memories this week. I tried to take lots of pictures and keep a blog log for them to have. - with just the highlights. 

Randy asked Andru on the way home what his favorite part of our vacation was - he said The Duttons.

Riley and Josie said they liked it all and they couldn't pick a favorite. I figured Riley would pick the roller coaster - since it was his first time to ride. I figured Josie would pick being on stage in Branson - or learning to swim. But they liked everything - which makes Randy and I very happy!

Randy said he just liked watching the kids have fun.

My favorite was being with part of my family and merging these two groups together. 

I've been blessed with wonderful children and grandchildren. Now I'm blessed with a wonderful husband and his family.

Great two weeks! I hope we get to do this again!!

I LOVE MY FAMILY!

 

Life @ Grammy's - Day 6 in Branson

Our last day in Branson, we went to Silver Dollar City. It was a great time.  I rode a roller coaster for the first time in - well, I don't know how many years. Granted it was one for "younger" people, but it was too much for me! Rode in the Tea Cups and realized I can't go round in circles without feeling like I'm going to throw up. But I did enjoy the rides that included water! Today was a hot day and the water was a blessing. So, I went around all afternoon in wet clothes. But if I hadn't  done the water rides, I'd have been walking around wet from sweat! So I think I chose the better wet.

Randy and I both rode things we didn't really want to ride so the kids could ride things they wanted to ride! We kind of took turns doing this!  The kids had fun.

 We enjoyed watching the different crafts that are done here.

This is the Black Smith.

The glass blower

My favorite one was in the wood carving building. They had such gorgeous work in there. There was a lady doing wood burning and years ago, my friend Terry Brown did wood burning and I tried my hand at it and loved it. I did it with magnifying glass and sun, so mine wasn't as intricate as what I saw today but it brought back lots of good memories.

This is my dear husband saying "Let's keep moving."

We had a great day - again! Made it back to the condo in time to swim for a couple of hours!

I had fun. 

Half the time I felt really really old! :)

The rest of the time, these wonderful grandkids helped me feel young!

What a wonderful vacation we've had!