A winter visit with the Reynolds

A complicated bunch of reasons got us up here near the North Pole (OE) where Amanda and Eric's family took us in. What made the dentist visits and frigid weather tolerable were the grandchildren. Below Emma and Lily cheerfully begin their morning trek to the end of the street--beyond that last house you can see--to catch the school bus.

Their footsteps in the snow made me sadder than they did them. These girls have become part of the sturdy folk who live up here.

This is them bundled up with their parkas and snow boots on

Here I am with our very kinetic 2 year old granddaughter Macy. She is a delight. Had we not visited, we would have never known two of her special behaviors. 1) She unties your shoes, like she has been assigned to do it. She swoops up to you and squats, rapidly uniting both shoes. I must have had to retie my shoes two dozen time during our visit. Eric says the best remedy is leave them untied. 2) She rushes to the chair you have been sitting on, climbs up and declares "My chair!" I enjoyed this game but had to be careful not to sit on her.

Gramma had games she played with Carson. 1) Carson loves her iPhone and asked to "play with it" every time he saw Gramma. 2) Below, Carson helps Gramma take her meds. For some time he has made consistent efforts to care for this Grandmother

Carson attends a fun pre school three times a week. Here he is ready for "Cowboy Day"

On our last night at the Reynolds, we had Family Home Evening. For the refreshments Gramma and I got an ice cream cake decorated in a Hawaiian motif, complete with "slippas"

To express our gratitude for their kind hospitality, we had the lady write "Mahalo" on the cake. We taught the grandkids that that word means "thank you" in Hawaiian.

Macy loved the ice cream cake...

...as did Becca. Note the segment of decoration which represented lava pouring down the side of a volcano. Very creative

The Auswanderers are very glad to be back in Mesa in our Bigfoot home. But the very kind Reynolds made our winter visit as comfortable and happy as they could. Mahalo planty to all six of them