Rhode Island Visit

Well, today is the first day of Spring and it is most welcome! It is a beautiful, sunny day outside, so you might wonder why I'm sitting inside at the computer. I just got home late last night from Rhode Island visiting Jenny and family. Since I was away from work for a week, sitting in front of the computer is not so distasteful today! I downloaded all of my pictures of the kiddos and decided to update my blog since I had not posted anything since January. If I get real adventurous, I'll try to download a couple of pics to my blog site today. I'm not promising anything...
The trip to RI was wonderful! The weather was great - sunny and mild, which is usually not the case. In fact, while I was there I talked to Kim a couple of times and was telling her how pretty the weather was and she said I must have taken the sunshine with me b/c it had been raining for a couple of days here. She said, "You know what they say - ain't no sunshine when she's gone!". Anyway, since the weather was so nice, we were able to get out and see the New England countryside. The Cape Cod houses, sailboats, mansions, old rock walls, historic land marks, the wharf, the cliff walk, rocky beaches, etc. The older kids and I made several trips down to the beach which is in walking distance from their house. Jake loves to throw rocks in the water and the girls love looking for shells, crabs and sea glass. In fact, Hannah has a pretty impressive collection of sea glass. Jenny and the kids picked me up from the airport Tuesday at lunchtime and it was so great to see everyone again. We had last seen them in July just before they left Indiana. Jenny had put roast and potatoes on to cook in the crockpot (my favorite - thanks, Jen!) and then the older kids and I watched "The Princess and the Frog" together. They got to stay up late and eat popcorn and I got waited on hand and foot. I reminded them that I was on vacation, afterall. :) Ken kept the kids on Wednesday night so that Jenny and I could go out to a fancy, smancy seafood restaurant in Newport. (Thanks, Ken!) We walked along the wharf and then went inside and were seated at windows overlooking the water just as the sun was about to set. It was beautiful! And the clam chowder was the bomb!
Nathan is a doll! Such a happy child! He was just beginning to sit up when we saw him in July. I enjoyed bonding with him a little bit. He especially enjoyed trying to get my glasses! And he is busy! He gets in to everything! Hannah is so smart and is really growing up. She is almost nine and is very cool. She could answer all of my questions and enjoyed showing me around her domain. She excels in anything she does and is already quite a good swimmer. (I got to see the kids in action on Wednesday at swimming lessons at the local YMCA.) Grace is a little inventor and artist. While I was there, she made a Leprocan trap (It was St Patrick's Day afterall!), created a Robot out of two plastic bowls, duct tape and pipe cleaners and forks, and drew a pretty mean sea gull in the sand at the beach, not to mention the pictures she made for me. She is also the practical joker in the crowd and loves to laugh. Claire is such a sweetie and very affectionate. She is very articulate and has all the details about everything. She never forgets a thing and can recite, word for word, any conversation she has heard. She is also very artistic (she loves to draw, too and is quite good) and smart as a whip. Jacob is a joy. He loves to throw rocks at the beach and we threw in a lot of 'em this week! He also love puzzles (of trucks and tractors and airplanes and trains). He put them together better than I did! He and I bunked together! All four of the older kids are in one room - two twin beds and one bunk bed. The plan was for Jake to sleep on a pallet on the floor and I was to sleep on the bottom bunk. At least that's how we started out the night. By 3:00 AM everynight, Jake was cuddled up next to me! But that's OK! Because I'm Nana and that's what Nana's do. They play and play and cuddle and hug and love the dickens out of those little rascals! Thanks, you guys, for showing me such a wonderful time and sharing your world with me! I love you all to pieces.....