Life in a Northern Town

Entertaining Grampa

My dad came to visit this weekend with my half sister and two step nephews. We had a lot of fun, although the weekend was quite exhausting--I am just now recovering! We camped at Pine Creek Friday night, then enjoyed Livingston's Summerfest on Saturday (even though it was close to 100 degrees outside). Our nephew Mason caught a really big cutthroat trout in the Lagoon while we took Addie and my sister Erin to the wading pool to cool off. Saturday night we went to a barbecue in Cokedale, then watched movies in Melins' basement (it was so hot at our house). Sunday was a busy day with my teaching two classes and hosting dinner for 10 right after church (crock pot rost and potatoes--delicious!).

While I was cooking, Addie was playing babies with my dad. She brought out a yarn doll that has no facial features. My dad sais, "Addie, where are this baby's eyes?" Addie pointed to her own eye, then thought for a minute. Dad asked her again and she pointed at her bedroom. Intrigued, Dad told her to go get them. Well, turns out she had seen him dump his change into his suitcase earlier, so she went and dug out a penny and brought it to grandpa, happily announcing, "Eyes!" Dad thought this was so clever, he came and told me about it in the kitchen. We laughed, and then I remembered something--when we made snowmen last winter, I would always give her pennies for the eyes. She remembered! What a smartypants.

Since dad left Monday morning, we've mostly been trying to clean up, get laundry done, etc., and stay cool. We are having a terrible heatwave--I can't sleep until it cools off around 1am. We celebrated Dad Melin's birthday (7/22) by giving him a personalized ceramic popcorn bowl decorated with the hand and foot prints of his grandkids. My Young Women went up to camp on Tuesday morning--they'll be there until Friday, and I am going up for the afternoon today. I did meals on wheels this week, too, and Addie is big enough to carry in the drinks now--that was a hit with the ol'folks. I feel bad for them because many of them don't have air conditioning (or even a cooler like we have), so they have to sit there sweltering. I made sure everyone at least had a fan and a beverage when I delivered their lunches. We did get a little tiny rain storm last night and some clouds today, so we'll keep praying for relief!