Time Away

Had a great 2 day outing with Pat, Amber & Griff in Columbus, Ohio. The original plan was for Pat & Amber to get a session or two in the temple while we played with Griff. Unfortunately, after plans were in place we learned that the temple was closed this week for maintenance. We then went with Plan B and enjoyed an overnight in Columbus with some interesting dining - Schmidt's Sausage Haus, a German restaurant in The German Village (a restored German community near downtown Columbus). In the evening, we braved 30 degree, windy weather and walked about 10 blocks from our hotel to Buca di Beppo.

Pat, Amber, and Griff took in COSI, a great science, hands-on museum about 3 blocks from our hotel. Gramps & I got in our afternoon snooze. On Friday, Pat's toured the Ohio State campus and Harry & I returned to The German Village. We visited a stained glass shop (Franklin Art Glass), a 32 room bookstore (The Book Loft), and returned to Schmidts for another great German lunch.

Out With the Old - In With the New

Harry's Ranger pickup has served him well for the past 17 years. Finally - an upgrade and he is very happy to be in something a little newer, a little bigger. Getting old seems to make you take up more space than you used to -- why is that?

Field Trips

One of Grandpa's new activities is taking grandkids to some of their Home School Group's field trips. Last week he took Levi & Natalie to Fox Island. Guess what they learned about?

A Sammy Day

We had a one-on-one date with Sam yesterday and it was a good time. It started with a trip to Hobby Lobby to get paint supplies for gourd birdhouse painting. That turned into a "look at all the cool things" trip. Next stop - the grocery where Sam picked out his lunch - watermelon, mac & cheese, and a giant cupcake. Back at the farm, Sam wasn't too excited about helping paint the birdhouse, so Grandpa did the painting. First coats were still wet, so the dolphin stencils Sam picked out at Hobby Lobby will be a project for another day.

Trumpet playing and chess games (according to Sam's rules) were the other big activities for the day.