Grandparents

These tomatoes have nothing to do with grandparents but, not long ago, we harvested them in our tiny ghetto garden that I planted this year.  There are not many (compared to what I used to harvest in the valley), but they were delicious!  SO sweet.  And, even sweeter, is that Ruby and Owen got exactly what I wanted them to out of the whole experience.  They would walk out the door in the morning and ask if we could harvest any tomatoes.  They loved picking the few that we got, and eating them in the summer sun.  Done- a success in my eyes.

Grandpa visited over Labor Day weekend.  Grandpa has visited a few other times and I have never included his participation in our lives on the blog.  It just felt too complicated, and he doesn't read it anyway, so I rationalized away my feelings of disease with that.  But, as many of you know, feelings buried alive never die, and so, I never felt good leaving these visits out, despite their often awkward and uncomfortable nature.  Although it usually seems like it, this blog is not just a history of the good and easy times, but of our lives- all of it.  Some of you know about the complicated and painful family history on my side, and if you don't, I will just say that reestablishing a relationship with my dad has been one of the most difficult things for me and, like all things that you have to try really hard at, an awesome experience for growth and understanding.  

So anyway, after seven or eight years of virtually no contact, we now visit occasionally.  And, it can be pleasant.  So there, I did it.  Now, on to details.  We rode the Heber train, which was the highlight.  Ruby and Owen participated in activities on board.  Owen told a joke into the microphone (Why did the chicken cross the road?) and Ruby recited a poem her Aunt Mindy taught her (I'm a peach, I'm a plum, I'm as nice as they come!), they danced in the aisles, and devoured the live fiddle music.  They mostly loved watching the scenes go by out the window. 

We also visited the Park City Farmer's Market where Ruby and Owen tore the husk off of an ear of corn and ate almost every single kernel off of it- raw.  This is my favorite way to eat corn actually, but I didn't think 2 year olds would get into it.  It must have been THAT good.  

Grandpa left for Steamboat and only hours later Nana and Papa rolled into town to stay with us for a few nights on their way back to Ohio from Idaho.  They timed it just right so that they could watch Chip finish the Mid-mountain Marathon on Saturday morning.  We painted a few big signs to hold up for dad when he crossed the finish line, but as you can see in the picture below, we struggled to execute that very well.  It didn't matter, Chip did awesome anyway!  He came in 5th in his age group, which is huge considering he is in the most challenging age group and the first handful of people are probably "professional" runners...or at least can focus on their running infinitely more than Chip...who did this on top of working full and over time, raising 2 year old twins, and helping me maintain a household.  I hardly noticed he was training.  I am telling you, his natural talents are endless.  I hope Ruby and Owen get that.

Stefan and Chip did a few runs together and, on a whim (maybe two weeks before the race), Stefan decided he should and could run the marathon too.  And, he did.  Love that.  

Then, Nana and Papa were off for their trek home, and we on to preparing for our big family road trip.  Yahoo!

Started with a random and will end with a random cute one that Chip took.