Sunday, July 7, 2013

GG

My grandmother is in the Advanced Stages of Alzheimer's disease.  Sadly, she doesn't know who anyone is - including herself most of the time - and that makes for some challenging conversations and some frustrating difficulties, particularly for my angel Grandfather and Mother who are her primary caregivers!  In this 'new phase' of her mind/life, she is no longer the grandmother I grew up with, and I miss that grandma dearly.  But I love this woman we call "Cleo" (calling her "Grandma" confuses and frustrates her since, in her mind she is about 17 years old - not nearly old enough to be a Grandma!).  She is a sweetheart!  She is always so appreciative of the help others render her, and is constantly telling us "thank you" and expressing her gratitude for all that others do for her.   

She tires easily and kept falling asleep while I was talking with her.

Though I am sad that my children don't get to know my Grandma they way I know her, I am grateful they can meet her, and learn of the incredible life she led, and the profound influence she (and my wonderful grandfather!!) have been in my life!

Trip to Oregon - Visits with Friends

While in Oregon, we met up with some of our dear friends from our college (and High School- not pictured) days!  It is always so great to see "old" friends - and always seems like no time has passed since our last visit, except that our children are older!!

We met up with one of my favorite college roommates of all time - seriously!  We both have 3 children (2 girls and 1 boy!) and our youngest girls share the same name!  This lovely lady seriously made my college years SO much fun and she is an amazing woman!  I was sad we had a short visit this time - hopefully next time we'll have longer to catch up!

The 2 "Wiggles" - they posed themselves like this! :)  The last picture we have of these two together, my Wiggles was a newborn!!

 We also enjoyed a lovely visit with some other great friends and got to enjoy their newborn baby!  We were SO glad we got to meet up with them, since they left for Japan (for 3 years!) shortly after our visit!!

Easter 2013

We had quite an eventful Easter in Oregon this year!!

Saturday, we started out with a picnic lunch and an egg hunt at the park with family and friends.  The children enjoyed playing with Grandpa and cousin Ryan while Grandma hid the eggs.

(And Aunt Abbie and Nani, of course!)





Wiggles was pleased as punch to be able to walk Nani all by herself....until Nani spotted a squirrel and pulled Wiggles along the grass for several yards! :S

After lunch, Grandma passed out baskets and the fun began! 

Of course, baskets are also fun as hats!

And they're off to find the eggs!

Wiggles finding an egg!

Angel and Grins working together...


Angel and Ryan doing a little trading....

It was so cute how they all stayed together for the majority of the hunt!





Taking a little break from searching to do some dancing on the stage:

Of course, this girl refused to keep her barrette in her hair, so she has crazy hair, but I loved the dance she was doing, and had to snap a few quick shots!



After all the eggs were found, the kids all sat down to enjoy their spoils!

Some of their eggs contained some water balloons - so a water balloon fight began!


After our egg hunt and water balloon fight, we headed over to "G-G and G-G-Pa's" house for an Easter Carnival.  GG and GGPa live in an Assisted Living center, and when we arrived, the elderly residents were all passing out eggs at their rooms.  They enjoyed seeing all the children, and the children (naturally!) enjoyed receiving the eggs, so it was a win-win situation for all involved!  After collecting eggs, the children got to jump in a bounce house and see and pet a variety of different animals.  It was a lot of fun! 


I believe Wiggles is petting a capybara here.  There were all sorts of unique animals - including snakes, insects, and even an alligator!!

Easter morning, Uncle Micah and Aunt Jenn surprised the children with a super fun egg hunt!

There were some eggs in some pretty tricky places!  Uncle Micah had to help! :)

I love this shot - Grins is literally jumping with excitement!




Aunt Abbie had to come over and help us with some of the more difficult ones!


After the egg hunt, we enjoyed a wonderful brunch with the family.  It was delicious!  Then we headed off to church for a beautiful service.  On the way home from church, we stopped to get some pictures of Grins with Mt. Hood - since he was studying Oregon in school and had done a project about Mt. Hood.  It's difficult to see the mountain in the pictures, since it's white and was such a sunny day, but it's just to the left of his head as you are looking at the picture.


Of course, we had to get a shot of all of our beautiful children! (As well as Izzy, Angel's doll, because Angel was so proud of their matching dresses!)

After church, we enjoyed a delicious dinner with Grandma & Grandpa, and GG and GGPa.  GG is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease and doesn't always do well with pictures - but she was in a fairly good mood this day.


We snapped a quick shot with GGPa too, while the Mr. took GG to the car.  How I love this man!  He is such an inspiration to me!

Funny story I don't want to forget: Grandpa was nibbling on Wiggles ears for fun.  She said "Grandpa, do you love eating ears?" And he said "Yes, they are yummy!"  She then pointed to GGPa's large (hairy) ears and said "Why don't you eat those ones then?"  We all got a good chuckle out of that!

Easter evening - Angel, always the animal lover, enjoys some time with Bella.  Some day I will break down and allow her to have a pet....