While the Cat's Away….

Caveat!! This post does not contain the witty prose you might usually find on this blog. With Melinda gallivanting across France, Devin was left to document the Easter Holidays along with Grandpa and Grandma Osterhout's visit. This also meant far fewer pictures were taken since Devin's hands seemed to always be full and yes, you can take that literally.


Luckily, Clara spotted her grandparents waiting on the sidewalk as we crossed the 3rd floor catwalk [notice the late arrival. Another example of our family without Melinda]. After driving home the back way through the Dales, we relaxed at home with a few games.  Grandma worked hard to keep herself awake that first day and had a pretty quick transition.

First, there was no trick photography involved here. Clara happened to throw the boomerang at exactly the same time I was taking a picture of Jonas and Nell. Second, Jonas was not in a time out. He chose to put himself inside the bookshelf cupboard. What one will do to get some time away from the girls….

The next day was General Conference so we took advantage of the beautiful weather between sessions and walked around town.

With a stop at Valley Gardens for a swing and a shake.

The next morning, Dad wasn't feeling good, so we took Mom to York. Halfway there, I realized I'd forgotten a bottle, so the first stop was Boots. Then Costa for warm milk and Nando's to introduce Mom to a taste of South Africa. With lunch taken care of, we headed to Clifford's tower, the Minster and a short walk along the city wall.

 

Snow was forecast for Tuesday, so we thought we'd attempt our day trip to Hadrian's Wall and enjoy the snow from the comfort of the car. Apparently, we didn't take the snow forecast seriously enough. As we neared the border of Scotland, the weather got even worse and by the time we got close to the wall, there was a pretty steady horizontal snow fall and it didn't let up the entire time we were there. We stopped at a Roman Army Museum thinking we could learn more from the comfort of a heated building. Half way through the film teaching us everything we needed to know about Hadrian's wall, the power went out!! So...back to the snow to learn a bit more about the real Hadrian's wall. The photo below is from a scenic vantage requiring a run up a grassy hill spotted with sheep and baby lambs. I made the run alone, which was probably for the best, since I was also alone when I almost wiped out on the way down the snow-covered grassy hill…next time, don't run, even if it's pelting snow in your face. The picture I don't have [need to get from my folks] is of the tiny lambs wearing plastic rain coats. Yep, the weather was that bad.

Lesson learned: Hadrian's wall, impressive as it is, probably wasn't the dream posting of the Roman army.

I'm pretty sure it took us a day to recover from the road trip, so Thursday we headed to Fountains Abbey since Thursday was supposed to be the nicest day. After a dad-quality picnic (plenty of Hob Nobs and Caramel Digestive Biscuits), we set Grandma and Grandpa loose on the ruins.

And don't ask who taught Clara to drink from a bottle like this. It looks like she's trying to eat the bottle….this is when a tele-photo lens comes in handy.

 

And in case you're worried we didn't give Grandpa and Grandma any time to relax, I'll only briefly mention the day trip to Harewood House and the Royal Armoury in Leeds, and instead dwell on the quality time they spent with the family. The kids absolutely loved having them here. Nell quickly warmed up, Jonas regularly requested Grandma read him bed-time stories and Clara enjoyed figuring out Wii games with Grandpa.

PS. Thanks again Grandpa and Grandma for all the help and for providing a really fun distraction to the kids who had never spent this much time away from their Mum (other than Clara this past summer)