I so enjoy watching the boys encounter enough rich experiences in this relatively "short" 7 weeks to fill several normal years. It seems they're soaking up every moment as much as they can too. Ian did ask me the other day why everything we see is led by one park ranger or another. I guess it's the great National Park tour...Yellowstone, Devil's Tower, Wind Cave, the Badlands... We're planning on doing our very best to get to the Mammoth Dig site in Hot Springs on our way back. I don't believe they have park rangers there; however I'm guessing they wouldn't be nearly as nonchalant about one of the boys puking on a display :). That's one of those situations that will become funnier as the years pass. Although, since I was able to enjoy Wind Cave without carrying a vomit covered 40 pound child, I think it's pretty darn funny right now.
It's also been wonderful for the boys (and us adults) to share many of these great experiences with their cousins and the grandparents they don't get to see as often. My parents met us in West Yellowstone and then yesterday we toured the Badlands with my parents, sister, brother-in-law and their three children. The boys have spent a total of four hiking trips with my dad in the sand canyons down at their place as well. You know they're having fun when Brendon groused a little about coming into town, even though that's where his cousin, Rylan, who is only a year younger lives. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with my dad after our tromp through the rougher areas around their place while he and I picked cheatgrass (google this and you find numerous articles about how invasive and nasty the stuff is) out of shoes and socks. He chatted for quite a while about the "Jones" place and the family who lived there. I get my chattiness from my mother and the opposites attract adage fits them just fine. My dad usually says what needs to be said and that's about it. Catching him in a chatty mood is always a fun treat, similar to free courtside tickets for a Kings game.
It's been good to spend some time with my one remaining grandparent as well. My Grandma Margaret has had a lot of changes this year. Grandpa Ervin died shortly after Christmas (they were married 61 years), she had to go to assisted living shortly afterward as she can't drive (she and Grandpa had owned that house 60 years) and then a couple of months ago her beloved cat, Cappy, had to be put to sleep. In the past couple of weeks she has started an emotional recovery and we're seeing the Grandma we haven't seen in a couple of years resurfacing. She spent a good year or two in constant worry about when and how Grandpa would die and then there was the stress of what she should do and where she would live. She's just now starting to feel those fears and worries subside. She still has her weepy moments. Sunday would have been her and Grandpa's 62 anniversary and that was a hard day for her. However, she is suddenly starting to enjoy going out for ice cream and sitting and watching people (two of her favorite things) and the spunky, boisterous Grandma I've always known is rising to surface again. She got rid of the loveseat she loathed and bought a cushy recliner this week (she paid $60 for the loveseat 10 years ago and got $50 for it as a trade in on her new chair; they even came and got it from her room...hmmm, maybe it's in my genes?). We've also gone out for ice cream twice. Tomorrow Ian and are planning on joining her for bingo. It's Ian's new favorite game and Grandma really seems to enjoy watching him and talking to him (both the boys actually, but Ian interacted with her the most as Brendon was immersed in a Garfield book the bulk of our visit..go figure).
Okay, I need to put Ian to bed and start heading Brendon in that direction as well. We're heading down to the ranch tomorrow (and the land of technology black out), so I probably won't blog for a while again.
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