Just different

My children are very blessed to have all 4 of their grandparents alive and well, along w/ a great-grandparent as a bonus. Doug and I both came from loving homes, but we had fairly different upbringings. He spent the first 15 years of his life in the suburbs in New Jersey as the youngest of 2 children. I grew up in the backwoods of North Carolina as the 5th of 6 children. I've adopted some of Doug's family's way of doing things, and he has taken some of mine. I like to think our children are a nice mix of the two.

These different backgrounds mean my children get very different experiences when they visit their 2 sets of grandparents. I think this is a good thing; it's a blessing that I hope they will appreciate one day. Time spent w/ one set is not better than a visit w/ the other; it's just different.

This past weekend we visited my parents. They still live in the house I was raised in. We arrived on Saturday night, hoping to get a swim in at the pool down the road where I learned to swim (or should I say where my daddy threw me into the deep end). It belongs to a very elderly gentleman that I have known all my life. Unfortunately, there was a lot of lightning and thunder so we just stayed at the house w/ my grandmother (my parents were out of town until the next day). Chloe seemed particularly fond of my Grandmother Louise (her great-grandmother) and we got some cute shots of inter-generational affection. I think I spotted a little puddle of Grandmother-Louise-heart on the couch afterwards:





After church and then lunch on Sunday we headed over to the pool. The children enjoyed their time in the water. Doug and I entertained them by jumping off the diving board and doing amazing feats of somersaults, twists, and flips before slipping gracefully into the water (making little to no splash, of course). Or maybe not. But I did touch my toes before that belly flop. And I think the children were amused.

My parents returned on Sunday afternoon, and we enjoyed a yummy supper w/ them, my grandmother, my brother Sid, his wife Tina, and their crew of 4 young'uns. Noah and Claire had an absolute ball playing w/ their cousins. Chloe liked to follow them around and got totally filthy in the process:





That afternoon we discovered that one of the nanny goats had had twins the day before. They were so little and cute! But very loud if you took them away from their mama:



My nephew Sidney, Noah, and Claire playing together:



Noah, Claire, Sidney, and Chloe playing:



My nephew Lincoln pulling Claire and his sister Rachel in the wagon:





On Monday, Doug and I went whitewater rafting on the French Broad River while my parents looked after the children. (Wasn't that nice of them?) It was in celebration of our 8th wedding anniversary, which is officially next week. We had a good time but got a bit crispy around the edges (i.e. sunburned on our arms and legs). While we were gone the children got to go fishing and played w/ their cousins some more. They also gorged themselves on tomatoes, blueberries, and raisin bread.

On Tuesday we got ready to leave. But first we had to sneak in a little bit of blueberry pickin'. Chloe did pretty well choosing the blue ones and not the green unripe ones.



But why bother when Mama will pick for you?









My mama loaded us up w/ produce before we left, including tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, blueberries, watermelon, okra, green beans, eggplant, pumpkin, and some honey from their bees. She wanted to give us some squash and cucumbers too but we already have a lot of those from our own garden. Mama says she needs to stop planting such a humongous garden every year, but I don't mind it one bit. We'll be eatin' pretty good this week!

For lunch we met Doug's dad (Grandpa Dave) at Olive Garden. This was planned at the last minute so we decided not to tell the children beforehand. I think they were very pleasantly surprised. Grandpa Dave quizzed Noah on what he had done in school the previous week. I'm sure he was dazzled by Noah's extensive knowledge of killer whales. He also gave Doug his birthday present (it's next week, 3 days after our anniversary). We had a nice meal and visit w/ him before we had to head on home. Claire told me in the bathroom at Olive Garden that we needed to come back again w/ Grandma Carol. I'm sure she would agree.

It was a fun weekend for everyone involved.