Papa and Nana E's Visit

We have lived away from our parents for many, many years. Jimmy and I went to the same University right out of high school (3 hours away from our home town) and lived there for 6 years. We moved back to the area we grew up in for just 2 years before transferring to Texas. In total, we have lived away from our parents now for 16 years. In many ways, it's been a positive. In moving away from the comforts of "home", we learned to depend upon one another. We had to establish our way of life and had to figure out what was really important to us. We learned quickly to view our friends as our "2nd families." However, it is also very difficult at times to be so far away. We miss out on a lot of holidays, family events like weddings, funerals, birthdays, etc. When we live over 2,000 miles away we can't just pick up the phone and say "hey Mom and Dad - why don't you come over for dinner" or "hey, let's meet for a cup of coffee!" We miss out on so much life with our families. Most years, we only see our parents, grandparents and extended family 1-2 times per year. It is especially difficult now that we have children. We see how much joy Bryce and Drew bring our parents/their grandparents and in return, how much love the boys receive from all of them. The grandparents are all very special. We are so thankful to have 6 parents that love and cherish their time with our boys and us. And of course, we cherish our time with them and are so thankful they are able to travel to see us. Hopefully, we will all live closer someday.

This past week, my Dad and Shari (Papa and Gammie E) were here for a week. All 3 sets of grandparents have been here in the past 6 weeks!!! The boys are very SPOILED!
Bryce and Drew got lots of good loving from Papa and Gammie (the boys' new word!)






We enjoyed brunch at our favorite lodge and had fun playing at the park.


Jimmy and I spent the day together shopping while the boys stayed with Papa and Gammie. Gotta love FREE babysitting!

The boys thought Dad's "race car" was pretty cool and they had fun running up and down the trailer that Dad hauled it on.




Papa and Gammie bought them their first cowboy hats. Amazingly, out of all the hats at this particular store, they both agreed on the same one. Aren't they cute cowboys?!


We also spent a few days at the condo that we stayed at when Jimmy's parents were here. We had beautiful weather and had lots of fun swimming and shopping.








We have season passes to an amusement park so we took Papa and Gammie on a train ride

And went round and round on some kiddie rides




Thank you Papa and Gammie for driving thousands of miles to see us. We had lots of fun with you. Gammie, we loved it when you patted our backs at bed time and Papa, we love playing chase and hide and seek with you. Please come see us again. We love you, Bryce and Drew.