Another Celebration

Yesterday my parents came to visit and celebrate Merlyn's birthday. My mom made a wonderful dinner for us all. We cut and stacked wood in the morning and early afternoon until they got here, so we worked up quite an appetite. It was nice to have a delicious hot meal waiting that I didn't have to cook, and Bryan did all the cleaning up. (Thanks, Bryan!)

My mom just got a new car, a Volvo convertible. It was such a beautiful day that my parents drove with the top down for the last forty minutes of their trip. The kids liked the car, too:

It got chillier in the evening, but we all wanted a ride in the car, so we bundled everyone up and set off. The girls got to go first, since we thought it would be getting colder by the minute and figured the boys would do better in the cold. Of course, my mom and I (two girls) made that decision!

We all put on our "grandma mittens" that Bryan's grandmother made us. I was also wearing my furry warm hat that my friend Marlene sent me for my birthday a few years ago. My mom was laughing at the girls and at that hat as we drove away.

The ride was actually not too windy or cold. The heated seats helped, too. Merlyn and Berkleigh were very cute the whole time -- they didn't know what to think about a car with no roof.

Carter and Myles waited (im)patiently for their turn for a ride. Can you tell that Myles' favorite color is green? Carter actually put Myles' green scarf on while they waited, but Myles had it on for the ride, so he was even more green.

Finally, it was the boys' turn. Carter was whining that they couldn't go anywhere, since the girls drove to Grandma Faye's house. My dad drove around the barn and then stopped and got out to make Carter think the ride was over. There was a minute of silence, and then we could hear Carter whine, "But we didn't even go anywhere!" I told him he could go for a real ride if he stopped whining. It must have worked, because they drove to the school and around town.

The kids got to stay up late and watch a movie so that Bryan and I could play cards with my parents. We played the boys against the girls and I'm sorry to say that the boys won two games out of three. At least we had fun.

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a visit. Today it's cold and rainy, just like Saturday, so my parents picked the perfect day to visit. All the kids asked if they were spending the night -- they love their grandparents and wish they could see them more often.