Andrew and his family arrived on Monday. Tuesday, we went to lunch with my mom. We attempted to eat at the new "In-n-Out burger" but seeing the line out the door and down the sidewalk changed our minds about that quickly. Thank goodness none of us are groupies of In-n-Out. No hamburger is worth standing in that kind of line. Later that night, we all went to dinner at the Bombay House... Indian food. I've never been converted to Indian food, but decided I would try it one more time. At least I would know the company was good. I found that the food was okay at best. They still haven't made a convert of me... just not into those flavors.
On Wednesday, Andrew and I were able to spend some time together. We stopped at the chocolate cottage for some sweetness, then made our way down south to Los Hermanos. Now that is some food I can sink my teeth into. We had a great time together that afternoon, then I headed up to my moms house for the evening.
Thursday my mom and I went to Thanksgiving dinner at Natalie's brother's house. Todd was in charge of cooking this year since his sister-in-law, Michelle, was about 8.5 months pregnant. He did a great job with dinner. My donation was green beans with roasted almonds and our infamous garlic rolls. YUMMMM...
After dinner, Todd challenged me to a game of chess. I agreed kind of half heartedly. After all, I still remember the good old days when Todd would throw the board rather than lose. I won the first game. Quite frankly, that surprised both of us, but Todd was especially flabbergasted. That led to game 2 which I also won. Finally beaten, Todd turned to playing checkers with his 5 year old nephew. His ego was once again bouyed up when he won that game.
Friday was family picture day. We met at memory grove for the event. When we first got there, my mom and I were talking to my nephew, Stone (age 5). Stone had a stick that he had found - he's always loved sticks - and was tapping it on the ground. The conversation went something like this:
Mom (to Stone): do you know that grandma loves you?
Stone: when I do this (hitting the stick on the ground) that means stop.
Mom: Can't I say I love you?
Stone: No
Me: Can I say I love ya, love ya, love ya?
At that point Stones whole face lit up and he came over and gave me a big hug. For some reason he loved hearing that phrase, so I said it again and gave him a big squeeze. He smiled ear to ear every time I said it. I ended up saying it over and over while we were doing pictures, and it never failed to produce the same response.
I quickly became the "silly aunt" during the picture ordeal, trying to get kids to smile. I would stand behind the photographer and make faces, jump up and down, pretend to pick my nose, what ever it took. I got some great smiles out of the kids. I can't wait to see the pictures. Alec (age 11) decided that there was just enough snow on the ground to torment Aunt Deedee. He was constantly throwing snow at me or trying to shove it down the back of my shirt. Aunt Deedee (age ... well, old and out of shape) didn't have a chance in Hades of catching him and giving him what he deserved. Occasionally I did get a good shot and nailed him with a hand full of snow. Lexie (age 9) kept bringing me snow so I could trick Alec and throw it at him when he was unawares.
Finally Andrew got into the picture.
He started making these huge snowballs and chasing Alec down. The look on Alecs face was classic the first time Andrew pulled out a snowball that was about 4 inches in diameter and nailed him with it. After that, the fight was on. It was great to watch the two of them go after each other.
After pictures, we conveined at the Olive Garden for lunch. Later in the afternoon, Andrew took his kids to the park and I went over with them. Katie (age 2.9) loves to swing. She would sit on a swing all day if she had her choice. I pushed Kate on the swing while Andrew played on different toys with Stone. Kate talked the entire time she was swinging. Her voice sounds kindof like a munchkin from the Wizard of Oz. It's adorable. She told me about what she was going to do for her birthday party (in January), and who would be invited. She said "there will be presents and I will open them and inside there will be blue rocks, but we don't eat the blue rocks, we just look at them."
Friday night we went to dinner at P.F.Changs, then met up at mom's house for games. We played sharades with the kids, then Black Magic. The most interesting part of the night was watching Andrew and Delise get into a discussion on politics. Andrew is VERY conservative, and Delise is mostly liberal and loves President Obama. Now, when Delise has an opinion, she gets very passionate about it, and her voice will often reverberate off the walls. Not that she's yelling, per se, she just tends to project well. Andrew, on the other hand, never raised his voice. He kept the same tone, the entire time. He never reacted to a jab from Delise, even when she was attacking his character. I'm not sure I've ever witnessed such self control - especially during a political discussion.
Saturday, I had a little free time in the morning, then Natalie, Lexie, and I went to get pedicures. The place we went even had a smaller massage chair for kids. It was really cool. Lexie leaned over to me at one point and said "I feel so special." It was cute and I had a good time visiting with them. Lexie kept begging me to never get married because then I wouldn't be the "fun aunt" anymore. I told her that I would still be fun, but she insisted that I should stay single forever. Later that night, I babysat all of the kids while their parents went on dates. Alec made a "person" out of pillows. He even sat my laptop on the pillow man's lap and strung my headphones from the laptop to the pillow head. It was cool. He kept trying to convince people that it was him, though, and he just couldn't find someone dumb enough to fall for it. Stone spent most of the night spelling words on his magna-doodle. He is a great speller. Sarah said that he has pretty much taught himself how to read and spell. He even knows about silent letters. He'll sound things out and if he gets it wrong and you tell him how a word is really spelled, he will remember it. Kate mostly played with her dolls all night, and Lexie helped me with the kids and we made fresh apple juice. I thought it would be a bigger hit with the little kids to see how apple juice is made, but they weren't that interested. Lexie and Alec spent the night at my house.
Sunday we woke up and I made Danish Pancakes for Alec and Lexie. It reminded me of when I was young. Grandma Robinson always made Danish Pancakes for us when we visited. Todd and Natalie picked them up after breakfast and headed back to St. George. Later that night I met Andrew and his family at mom's house to say a final goodbye. Of course, Stone and I did the whole "I love ya, love ya, love ya" thing again. This time Katie came up to me, put her arms around me and said "I whya, whya, whya." It was adorable. After our goodbyes, I headed out to go the the Messiah sing-a-long with Tammy and Chris Warner. Tammy was one of my mission companions. We had a great time at the Messiah. It never ceases to amaze me that I can be brought to tears by beautiful music. Such was the case on Sunday. Even when the orchestra was playing the opening number, I was so touched by the beauty of that music that I started to cry. I looked over to find that Tammy had the exact same reaction. I'm so thankful that all those many years ago at Dixie College, I was introduced to Handel's Messiah and had the opportunity to sing in it with my concert choir group. To this day, it stands as one of my all time favorites.
So, sad as I am to see everyone go home and life returns to "normal" (whatever that is), I am really thankful for the time we spent together as a family this week. I love my family to peices. I'm especially glad that I had so much time to spend with the kids. They grow up so fast. It really makes me want to be better at staying in touch with them. THE END.
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