As the summer flew by on wings, we had many visitors pass through our doors. Among our visitors were several families of grandchildren. We had one batch of grandchildren running in and out for almost a month.
We picked up Jaci and Karen in Iowa the 10th of June. They got a ride from PA with Rob's cousin. We also met up with our youngest daughter, Amanda and her husband Nate. We brought the four of them and their luggage, back to Idaho with us, in our 5 passenger car. What didn't fit on the roof, fit in the car, miraculously!! We were sardined in the car for 25 hours and still loved each other when we got home. There were several times we wanted to throw Mr. Bop-it out the window and once we threatened Karen if she didn't stop giggling we would exchange her for a suitcase on the roof. Amanda and Nate stayed with us for about 2 weeks, then they flew back to PA. Jaci and Karen stayed until their parents came out the last day of June.
We spent the next several weeks filling each hour with memories! Jaci made us her famous soft pretzels, (which we devoured immediately!) swept floors and was grandpas right hand man. Karen was my girl Friday! She washed the floors, cleaned the bathrooms, even scrubbing the dreaded outhouse!! We even got a chance to go rock hunting with a professional rock hound. He told us to fill our pockets with marbles and every time we found a rock we were supposed to put a marble in its place. When we lost all our marbles we were rock hounds. Jaci is now a confirmed rock hound!!
I thought life couldn't get any sweeter and then their parents and younger siblings arrived. The two little girls had never been to "I-de-ho" before so they were super excited to see where we lived. They reminded me of twins even though they are 15 months apart. They did everything together, even getting in trouble together.
The parents said they were only here 5 minutes when the first catastrophic event happened but I think they were here a little longer than that. We have a french door with a sliding screen that opens onto the deck. One little girl was inside and wanted to go out, she didn't see the screen was shut and tried to walk right through it. Her dad and grandpa were both in the room and both had some things to say that brought on the tears. It took the two men a few minutes to smooth out the wrinkles in the door and get it sliding again. They both sat down on the couch and continued their conversation while the mom comforted the little girl. Suddenly there was another clatter at the screen door. The other little girl, completely oblivious to what had just happened, was outside and wanted to come in, only she didn't walk through the door, she ran through it. I don't think I ever saw two men get off a couch so fast. I thought their words were a little harsh but I was just the grandmother, who knew nothing about fixing screen doors!! Now we had another little girl in tears. The mother was ready to pack her children up and head back to PA. The grandmother was also in tears because the very day she had been looking forward to for weeks, was falling apart before her eyes!! Meanwhile the men took the screen door off the track and worked for about a half hour to get all the wrinkles smoothed out. The little girls remembered to open the screen door after that and we have a memory that, even now, we can look back on and laugh!! And the screen door?? It works better now than it did before the little girls ran through it!
One highlight they got to experience was the July 4th parade and porcupine race. It was a fun day!!
Our time together went fast, way too fast! It was their last evening, July 14th, we had eaten supper and the family was carrying their suitcases to the car when the older girls came running in, "Grandma, there's something wrong with Joseph." I went out to look at the cat, he would disappear for 3 or 4 days at a time since his pal, the dog, died. Now that I think of it Joseph and Judge were never apart. Where the one was, the other wasn't far away. There was definitely something wrong with Joseph, he already looked like he was on his way out. Jesse walked over and said, "He looks dehydrated to me!" Which triggered Jaci's memory, when she mowed the lawn she dumped out his water dish and never refilled it. So now we had another girl in tears...thanks Jess!! There was no way that caused his so called dehydration, we have water troughs for the cattle and the cat can reach them, he has lived here all his life so he knows where the best waterholes are! After telling all this to Jaci, I went back in the house. This wasn't the send off I was hoping to give these girls, we have enough tears at our partings without crying over a cat yet!! Jaci continued to work with Joseph, making him a bed in the old doghouse, she also got him up to eat and drink before the family headed east for PA. The girls were all in tears as their van drove away, but I still wasn't sure if it was for me or the cat. Jaci texted me several times to see how Joseph was doing. The next morning I dreaded telling her that Joseph didn't make it. She took the news pretty well and that made me feel a whole lot better too!!
I had about 3 weeks to get ready for the next family's arrival....
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