Day 8+9 of William's visit + more Helen

Saturday - After a good night's sleep we even had time for a nice breakfast. I am glad because Helen loves soft-boiled eggs and they turned out pretty good. William knows the "Burr game" we always have to play with the empty shells. 

If you wonder about William's toast ... I had made it to take a photo for a project and afterwards William decided to eat it.

Helen teaching her class worked out pretty well. I made the tomato pie she had wished for.

The weather was very nice and we could have lunch outside.

The above lunch photo was shared by Helen and there are more of hers mingled into mine. Ha-ha, she loves taking photos of Stella too.

Yes, her beginning-first-grade nephews have computers from the school too.

While Wade and Sarah prepared the hibachi meal Helen and William prepared the dessert. 

William and Papa helped Colin and Owen with their Kiwi (craft) boxes. That's Cooper not supervising. 

OMG, Sarah had made these bruchetta appetizers with homemade pesto. So delicious. Best one I ever had.

Everything prepared. Stella feels neglected I think. But do you see the painting in the background Sarah did in a painting class?

And then the 4 cousins where outside to work up some appetite. 

I don't know how many different dishes were prepared like chicken, beef, and these wonderful veggies.

Oh yes, we can't forget William and Helen's dessert which also was very special.

Too busy eating to take photos. It was so very nice talking and having fun sitting around the table. 

We had to leave soon after dinner because Helen had to pack and it was going to be a short night.

Sunday - I think my alarm clock rang at 3:30 am and Helen's soon after. She and I were quickly ready to leave. James stayed with William who had said good-night to his Mom going to bed in the evening. We were at the airport soon, parked and Helen generated her luggage ticket herself. We were only 4th or 5th in that line and when it was her turn that attendent was very nice and helpful. 

She wanted to go through security right away which I understand since you never know how long it takes. We can report that all went well this time. Helen's 2 flights flew, she got her luggage and was home before lunch. She had taken William's camp trunk and it arrived cracked but the contents were all fine.

I think it was still dark when I arrived back home, went back to bed and had another little snooze. 

Plenty of time before church to call James' brother Stephen to whish him a "Happy Birthday" and their sister Jane after church also "Happy Birthday". James' oldest and youngest siblings both have a birthday on the same day. The chats were as always very nice.

What did we do in the afternoon? To be honest, not sure. Too much excitement lately. Well, of course you can never have too much exciting time with your loved ones.

Day 6+7 of William's visit + Helen's adventure

Thursday - a day of anticipation. Helen surprised us by finding the cheapest plane tickets and visiting us for two full days (Friday and Saturday). Of course she checked with us first whether it was ok to arrive Richmond Airport just after midnight leaving her place late Thursday afternoon with a plane change in Atlanta.    Yes, we were all excited.

In the morning I met Sarah with her boys at her workplace to bring the children to their camp in Henricus. In that time James and William wanted to take a walk around the neighborhood. But it didn't last long. The boy must have grown over night because his toes hit the front in the shoes and hurt. No question. He outgrew that pair.

When I was back we looked into the matter. He really would have liked the same pair. Just bigger. What did we do before google? Who sells these Nikes? The first shop was not a success. But in the second shop we found a Nike pair very similar but 1 1/2 sizes larger. He was happy.

We celebrated by going to Pho Saigon on the way home. He likes pho. We each emptied our large bowls.

I can't quite remember but I think William and I picked up his cousins from camp and brought them to their home. 

Not being very hungry in the evening after a large lunch anyway we just nibbled. Can you believe it? This boy loves raw veggies. He eats them with ranch dressing or hummus but does not like them cooked in his meals. Except for spinach he is right of course that they are much healthier that way.

And then the waiting. William watched the plane on a tracker when it finally (delayed) had taken off. 

There would have been enough lay-over time for Helen to catch the next plane but ...

A delay when you are traveling is not nice but it got worse. Of course when there came one of the sparce announcements it was always a different reason until finally:  her flight got cancelled. A missing / not shown up pilot.

At least a couple of hours standing still in a long line, almost at the end of it if your seat was in the back of the plane. Very unfriendly and unhelpful staff at the gate counter, not really trying to find a good alternative flight for you, especially not with another airline. Finally she was scheduled for a flight to Washington Dulles Airport (not further to Richmond) and waitlisted for the same but a bit earlier. It was after midnight by now and they gave her vouchers for a bottom-grade hotel miles away without a shuttle and vouchers for food but everything at Atlanta Airport was closed by now. She wandered around in the airport (no sleeping) until she finally could board flight. At least it was the earlier where she was standby. 

Of course William could not fall sleep with us doing the texting and telephoning with Helen until there was finally a decision what was going to happen. James and I did not get much sleep either.

Friday - Early in the morning we had already one visitor on our door (actually side window): Freddy!

And then the three of us were on our way. I-95 is famous for having bad traffic especially around Fredericksburg and of course it lived up to its reputation. On top of it several times the rain came down so hard that it was hard to see and of course that slowed everything down even more. But we were very happy when we got the text 'landed" and we were on our way home.  

All Helen wanted was have a shower, get the "after-trip-arrival" soup which I had prepared and have a short nap. The cousins (nephews) were eager to come. It was a bit difficult to keep the 4 quiet but they had fun. We mainly played "hide the thimble". It was their idea. In plain sight. It was my mother's thimble.

When it got a bit too noisy we decided to take the help of the TV in our bedroom.

When we thought it would be ok for her to wake up they were actually waiting on the stairs. How sweet is that?

When Helen came down refreshed there was a big HELLO of course. And all were eager to go for at least a little walk in the neighborhood. It had rained very recently and the puddles were tempting. No problem.

Sarah came after work too to great her sister and be with her. We did Chinese take-out. We had enlarged the table and it was so nice to be around a table like that after too long of time. When Sarah had to leave with her boys they gave Helen a great big hug. 

It was not quite the full day Helen had hoped for but we counted our blessings that at least we had this nice time. 

We had to sort out who sleeps where and also where/how Helen can set up to teach her class Saturday morning.

And after some chatting we all fell into bed.

Day 5 of William's visit

Wednesday - This morning we did not have to wake William. Wade could take his boys to camp Henricus. We will see them though when we pick them up and bring home.

I had promised William that he could sleep in this morning to catch up on his sleep. And he did just that. If he did fall asleep when he thought he did he slept 12 hours. 

So it was brunch time. He likes pancakes so I tried something new. I found a recipe for individual "dutch babies". I put blueberry into one and some into the other but also diced apple. Dutch babies are a kind of baked pancakes. I will put the recipy into the cookbook I volunteered to help with for our church's anniversary. 

Because I thought it was a bit too much batter for my dishes I put 1 Tbsp into each of the muffin form. 

I really like the bitesize bits.

Today's weather was not exactly very pleasent. It rained almost the whole day and it also was a bit chilly. Where has the summer gone again? William likes museums and places like that. He wanted to try the VMHC = Virginia Museum of History & Culture. A good place to go when the weather is like this. 

As we always do with our grandchildren, we let them wander and just toddle behind. William doesn't talk much but he studies everything and takes his time to take things in. 

There seemed to be a totally new part of the exhibitions. There was so much about Space and very well done. 

This was fun. This seemed to be about the moon-walk. William did a quite good immitation even though he still had to deal with gravity. He tried to teach Papa.  VIDEO:       (0:38 minutes)

When we had IOL (information over load) we decided it was time to go home. We can come back any time since we have a membership. Free parking but the scanning is not that easy from the car, especially when it is raining.

No way we could go outside or even just go for a short walk in the neighborhood. But we had fun anyway. After a nice lunch William wanted to play cards with us. Well, he won!

Wade was able to pick his boys up from the camp so we stayed home the rest of the day.

Nothing else to report about our day except it was good. Thank the Lord.