Grammy and Jop

The house is clean, quiet and empty for the first time in weeks, and while I'm enjoying the peace today, I'm really missing the family and friends that have filled our home with a little noise and disorder and lots of love. 

We just had a really really great week with Drew's mom and little brother Jacob. It was so much fun to have them here and to have Drew home, too. Lilly was in heaven!

Lilly warmed right up to Grandma Wilson (who came bearing gifts) and decided to call her "Gammy." 

She's always loved Jacob and started calling him something that sounded like "Jop."

The day after they arrived they headed to San Antonio to visit Drew's brother and family. We joined them at the hotel later that afternoon. 

We spent the evening with Lilly's cool Great-Grandpa Wayne and his beautiful wife Annette. Jennifer is adopted and Wayne is her biological father who she met as an adult. Drew hadn't seen him for a long time and we had never met, so we had a good time getting to know one another and introducing Lilly. Wayne is an awesome musician and a natural at fixing up cars, both skills that Drew has inherited to some degree!

We took some pictures with their 2 Corvettes that we drove to dinner. Drew got to drive the black one and he was loving it.

Lilly and I took a turn, too, but just a pretend one.

Jacob showed off his climbing skills.

And we got a private performance from Wayne Harper a.k.a. Grandpa!

He even let Jacob play with his (really nice, new, very expensive) guitar.

The next morning Jacob came with us to the San Antonio Children's Museum, and we all had a blast.

The ball area was a favorite. . .

Lilly didn't want to leave the kid-sized HEB. She was really excited to be the one pushing the cart instead of sitting in it.

Jacob milked a cow,

but Lilly was too scared to even touch it.

More fun. . .

We got to stand inside a human-sized bubble at the "Bubble Ranch."

I couldn't get mine very high because Lilly kept popping it when it got to eye level.

Cool:

I drove a bulldozer.

Lilly found a slide.

We flew an airplane and manned the control tower.

Lilly playing a serious Draughts (Checkers) game in the Victorian area.

What's this thing?

Back at home, we had fun playing around the house and at the park. 

Lilly is getting really good at Hide and Seek:

We broke in our new grill, and Lilly chowed down on this corn on the cob.

Grandma asked her to make some funny faces and show her teeth and Lilly obliged.

Lilly enjoyed getting rides to the park and around the block in her bike trailer.

Saturday morning I worked 4 hours doing first aid at a soccer tournament, which ended up meaning that I got paid to read a book while everyone else did laundry and played with Lilly at home.

Saturday night we made homemade pizza and then went out for frozen yogurt.

Lilly's is the bowl with tons of "balls" and a little yogurt. She LOVES those popping boba.

Sunday night we went to see the bats, and we took some pictures while we waited.

They started a little late and when they did start to fly out from under the bridge, a train came by and introduced chaos into their usually very ordered exit. A power outage caused the lights and rails that block cars from the track to malfunction temporarily, and as a result the train had to come to a stop and kept blasting it's horns. The bats did not appreciate it. . .

But we got to see a train up close!

Lilly was a little too tired to get excited about it, but I know, in her heart, she was!

Monday morning we went to an indoor inflatables place and worked off the brownies we ate on Sunday.

I have never seen Lilly so energized and excited. She just ran around like a crazy person and jumped, jumped, jumped.

For our last dinner together, we headed to Chuy's for some yummy tex-mex. (I love you creamy jalapeno sauce!) Then we finished off the trip with some sweet bowling. I didn't bowl a hambone this time, but I did get a turkey!

Lilly couldn't bowl, but she had a lot of fun running around and acting silly.

Whew. If you made it this far, CONGRATULATIONS!!! That was a lot of fun to cram into one post!

We miss you Grammy and Jop!