This past couple of weeks I've had a lot of time with grandchildren. Particularly Ori, Effie and Avie. Sara is so sick with her pregnancy, she has "Hyperemesis gravidarum" This is a severe form of morning sickness--nausea and vomiting day and night, dizziness, and dehydration. Basically she can't keep anything down and has to have an IV for nutrition and fluids, so Nick is being Dad, Mom, Cook, Provider, etc. I am trying to help lighten his load by taking the girls a couple of times a week. They absolutely love to come and we have a good time together. Jieun is also expecting and sick, and Dan has to do a lot extra as well. Last week, Caitlyn was recovering from surgery. Ori loves Caitlyn, and she also loves personal attention, so she did Caitlyn's make-up and then proceeded to have her dress in all of her high school formals. Ori and Effie were in the fashion show for the first changing, then they just wanted to work on Caitlyn. Later Ori asked me if I could start an activity for Effie and Avie so that she could have Caitlyn all to herself. I think Caitlyn over-did that day, but she loves them so much she dealt with her extra exhaustion.
She even tried on my wedding dress
The girls love the new swing. Don't tell Roy, but they
like to swing high enough to rip the leaves off the tree.
Avie: Even she loves to come to grandma's. One of
her favorite activities is throwing rocks into our creek.
To keep her from throwing gravel from our path, I
hop down in the creek and provide her with rocks.
When she finished throwing them all in, she'd look at
me and say, "Rock!" meaning she wanted more.
Chocolate pudding. She has to feed herself, of course.
On the weekend Roy and I headed up to Flaming Gorge again--this time with our oldest two grandchildren, Hyeji and Gunnar. We are going to try and pair off the cousins and do some activities with them this summer.
Finn and Ila, dropping Gunnar off to our house
Hyeji was so excited to go to the Gorge with us that she began packing several days in advance. She called and asked if she needed to bring a dress. I said, "Well, we're going to have church, but I'm not sure if we need to dress up or not." Her response, "I guess I should at least bring my scriptures."
As we were leaving, Hyeji told Caitlyn that she was going to help her grandma and grandpa with all the chores. She assured her that she was going to do everything for us. Gunnar said, "Hyeji--you don't have to do that--we're going on vacation!"
We got in the truck and hadn't been gone for two minutes when Caitlyn called and said Hyeji had left her flip flops at our house. Hyeji told us she had other shoes so we thought we could just continue on, but at the gas station we realized that those other shoes she had were packed in her suitcase. She had no shoes in the truck. We turned around and picked her shoes up.
Dutch John was on the cool side--but we heard it was just as cold in Centerville over the weekend. The cold didn't stop us from having a good time. We played Ticket to Ride and Careers, went on lots of nature walks and had some fun fires. Unfortunately, I discovered that s'mores with Ghiradelli dark chocolate are amazing. Usually I can turn s'mores down, but maybe never again--as long as I have good dark chocolate with me.
We didn't use masks in the campground--but Gunnar found it
useful when dealing with the smoke. He loved building log cabin fires
and stirring the coals around
I am ducking down in this picture--I am not that short.
This was a campsite in one of the wilderness campgrounds nearby.
Serious hammocking going on.
For one of our camping meals we had cheeseburgers. They were pre-formed hamburgers from Don's meat. Gunnar told us that usually he wanted to buy burgers because when his mom made them they were really small and skinny, but these were delicious because they were pre-formed. I think they probably had a little higher fat content than the ones Adrienne makes, and they were delicious.
Gunnar and Hyeji eating cheeseburgers
A few more pictures from our camping trip:
S'mores
Hyeji really wanted to stay one more day (partly because it was supposed to be quite a bit warmer), but Gunnar was ready to go because he knew his family was leaving for St. George the next day. Hyeji was also smart enough to figure out that the next time we go to the Gorge, with someone other than her, we will be taking the boat.
While we were busy playing at the Gorge, others were home and made an effort to visit Thomas' grave. We went over Monday evening after we returned.
Cait and Nate at the gravesite
Hyeji, Dojin, Yuna, and Doyeon
We didn't get down to visit my parent's graves or Roy's mom's (in Midway), but we saw that Dave and Phil both got there to take flowers. My mother was always very conscientious to spend Memorial Day remembering all her loved ones that had passed on. We do think about them, but often spend the holiday playing.
I tended for Nick again Tuesday. Late in the day (I didn't realize it was already 5:00, I noticed how tired Avie was and mentioned a nap. She smiled and said, "Happy!"
Thursday I was able (with Sara's permission) to help Dan and Jieun out, too, and have their kids as well. We played outside for hours. They had a ball and loved every minute of finally having cousin time.
Avie and Dojin
Avie, Ori, Hyeji and Doyeon
Avie, Effie and Dojin
The Nick Rasband girls: Avie, Effie and Ori
Hyeji, Avie, Effie and Dojin (don't worry Nick, I reapplied
sunscreen when she took off her shirt).
Avie, Hyeji, Doyeon, Yuna, Effie and Ori
I'm pretty sure that Elise's kids were still at grandma camp (not this grandma!) for the holiday. It looks like they went fishing.
Max
Maverick
Bevy
And still in Georgia, little Harvey on daddy's lap.
On Saturday Roy and I headed to Logan to check in on the Vance family. They were doing great--still doing lots of remodeling. Crista's bed is on the floor in the family room/kitchen area. The girls are happy with their new downstairs bedroom. We read a lot of books together. Greta and Ruby were pretty happy to see us--it's been quite a while.
Greta and Ruby danced for us.
Crista and Bridget
We had takeout from Herm's, visited for a few hours and then left to come home. When we were leaving, Greta said, "Grandpa and grandma, you have to come back and visit us Real Soon."
On Saturday Dojin found a container of Xylitol gum (sugar free). He "ate" the whole package--30 gm. He ended up looking very pale, both lips and face, and vomited up all the gum. He also had diarrhea, and (as you can imagine), an upset stomach. Dan said he looked it up on-line, and figured he'd be okay. We saw him this morning when we took something by to drop of at their home. He was drinking a soda water and said it was for his stomach. Caitlyn said, "I guess you won't be chewing gum anymore." He said, "I'll eat one gum--not 5 gums." I think he learned his lesson.
This was taken in the hospital of baby Harvey, Elise and Andy
Greta
For Mother's Day, Matt had Caitlyn come up and take Crista out for the day. They went to lunch (with the girls), on a bike ride, then Caitlyn took care of the kids while Matt and Crista went to dinner. I think it was the Vance's first concession with social distancing.
Bridget
Crista and Caitlyn
Cait, Bridget, Ruby and Greta
Roy and I were able to escape last weekend to Flaming Gorge. We took our trailer up, and we will leave it there for the summer. Nate and Cait (or Natelyn, as they've been called lately), went up with us. It was so nice to have things feel sort of normal for a change. It was still a little chilly, maybe 10 degrees cooler than in Centerville, but it was sunny and great for walking and hanging outside. The campground is private, so though they aren't planning on making any concessions for social distancing this summer, this particular weekend was very light on campers.
Roy and Catharine
Outside of the trailer. Don't worry--Nate slept in a tent and Caitlyn slept in the trailer--the hammocks were for daytime relaxation.
At the viewpoint of our traditional hike-- Nate and Cait
This was previous to our little vacation. Nate's a big biker, so Caitlyn's working on it.
We saw a small group of 5 or 6 of these big horn sheep
Perfect reading opportunity
We celebrated Mother's Day and Roy's birthday at the Gorge. It made it hard for our kids to visit, but they still remembered us. Below is a beautiful pillow hand embroidered for me by Jieun:
While things were going well for us at the Gorge, things weren't going so great for the Howells. Jordan was in a car accident. Thankfully, Jordan was all right, but the car didn't fare so well. This has been a hard year for Jordan and Jennie as both of their incomes were reduced for a month or so with the Stay Home Stay Safe orders. They're both back to work now, but the car was a set back they didn't need. It was a bummer to have it happen just a couple of days before Jennie's 25th birthday.
Also for Roy's birthday, we used his"buy one get one free" meal at Tuchanos. It's so sad to see these restaurants that are usually overflowing with people, just trying to get a few customers to get back in business. When we arrived there was a couple just finishing up with their dinner, and one other couple arrived before we left. The service was completely different, too. They served family style instead of the usual salad buffet and bringing meats directly to the table.
Note the empty restaurant
With no school, some of my grand kids have been taking advantage and camping outside. Dan's kids have been sleeping on their deck. Yuna had a few bug bites as a consequence.
In the following picture it looks like the camping has been moved indoors.
Doyeon finished her schoolwork early one day. Time for rejoicing!
I believe this was home church last week.
Caitlyn took this picture. We had Nate to dinner last Sunday.
With Sara being pregnant, she's not willing to break down on social distancing just yet. so we haven't seen much of them lately. We're ready for things to get back to normal, but we're wondering what the new normal will be like. Things are probably never going to be exactly like they have been in the past. We did get a couple of pictures from Nick showing a new game on the trampoline. Nick says the girls will only play outside if he goes outside and plays with them. This makes it very hard to get all his work done.
Nick's girls got new bikes. They couldn't leave Avie out--even though she has no clue how to pedal hers.
Caitlyn had the joy of having a Covid.19 test this past week (Sara and Jordan have previously had the experience--Sara's was chosen at random to be tested, and Jordan had to be tested for work) in preparation for her tonsillectomy that happened on the 15th. Though much easier than her double jaw surgery, she still had a hard day due to nausea from the anesthesia. She also gets super emotional from the drugs. She's much better today (the 16th).
An update on Henry, Mark and Katherine's son: He has had several blood transfusions and chemotherapy. Unfortunately, both he and Mark were exposed to the Covid.19 virus from one of their roommates. This is from Nan's letter:
"Henry is doing well with his treatments for leukemia. He was moved to Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and he likes it
much better. He had his own room for a little while but a roommate was added and the poor little boy whimpered and
cried all the time. Mark had to squeeze close to Henry to make room for the dozens of people who were attending to
the little boy. In the morning, Mark asked to be moved because they were unable to get any sleep. They were moved to
another room with an older boy. It was much more pleasant but they were soon moved again to a private, sealed, and
quarantined room because the mother of the very sick little boy tested positive for Covid. It was really sad because she
wasn’t allowed to be with her son and she requested another test.
Last evening, we received some good news. Both Henry and Mark tested negative for Covid. It may be too early to tell
but Henry will finish his steroids on Friday and he will have another chemotherapy treatment on Saturday and then if all
goes as planned, he will go home for about a week. Sadly, he is beginning to lose his hair."
