A Grand Start to July

This year’s Elks convention took the tribe to ATL which gave the Grands an opportunity to come visit a bit. We had one chance to get the whole bunch together, which we did, over lunch. We enjoyed time eating and catching up with Daniel and Carrie, Easton and Ashlyn, as well as Grandma and Grandpa. Thankfully we remembered to take a couple of photos because we didn’t get to see Daniel’s bunch again during the week.

The rest of the week, the Grands split time between convention and hanging out with us. We ate a lot of good food and had a couple of fun stops, They brought along a friend, Doug, who was not used to being around children, much less a bunch of them, but he was a good sport and actually found that he rather enjoyed himself. We went bowling, where Grandpa handed out $2 bills for every strike and spare. The children loved this added element to the competition!

We also visited a museum where we saw dinosaurs, gems, minerals and fossils; participated in gem mining and fossil digging; learned about the history of motion thorough bicycles, wagons, cars, and planes as well as NASA. It was a very full afternoon of exploration!

We had a special dinner out at a hibachi house where we celebrated being together and Sonja’s 13th birthday. She got a great song with a volcanic eruption and we all had wonderful food.

We also had some time in the week where we just sat around sharing food and conversation. Porch time is precious!

The week flew by and soon the family flew home. We cherish the time spent together and the memories made.