Welcome Grandpa & Meema

My parents finished up their mission in Hawaii the end of June and have relocated in Blaine, Washington. They made the trip to Salt Lake to get their belongings out of storage & have been working on getting their new home all set up. The end of July finally came & they began to make their rounds to all of us kids. Their first stop was in Atlanta to visit my brother Jason & his family. Then their next stop us to see us down here in Florida. :)

We were sooo excited to see them! The boys especially. They haven't seen Grandpa & Meema in 2 years except for over Skype & FaceTime. They arrived on Sunday afternoon & we spent the evening just catching up. The boys of course didn't leave them alone & had to show them their rooms & toys etc. It was so wonderful to finally have them here.

Rockin out with Grandpa!

Cuddles with Meema are the best!

 The boys insisted on having Meema read them their bedtime stories & put them to bed. It melted my heart watching this. My mom never gets to do this with these two so it was a very tender moment to me.

We stayed up late chatting away after the kids were asleep. It was a perfect Sunday evening together.

Monday morning we went to Sawgrass Recreational Park to go on an air boat ride in the everglades. Yes, we've done this a million times, but it is always fun to do with new people. And who gets sick of seeing alligators? I sure don't. 

 Poor Doug had to miss out on all the fun since he had to be at school in the clinic. He was missed.

 My favorite part is getting to hold the baby alligators. Meema refused to touch them, but Grandpa was game. 

 It was so HOT that we just had to drive to Jaxson's to cool off with some ice cream. :) No one argued on that one.

 {Meema, Grandpa & Gavin}

 {Me, Laura & Liam}

 Our ginormous  ice cream sundaes! Good thing we all shared because we were all in sugar comas afterwards. :)

Trying to capture a cute moment between Grandpa & Liam was not an easy task. But even though they're not perfectly posed, the moment between these two sillies was definitely captured.

Most of the time we just took two cars where ever we went. But since we were meeting Doug for dinner we didn't want to have three cars. I suggested that Laura could sit in the back of my car & she quickly agreed. So out we went to load up. When she realized what I meant by the 'back' of my car she refused saying, "No way!". Grandpa jumped in & said he'd ride back there no problem. Here he is being a good sport bouncing up & down like a child excited to ride in the back. Haha! I love him. I can remember all too well the many squished car rides I had to endure being the youngest. Not the best, but it works. Thanks Granpda for being such a good sport.

After dinner at Pei Wei Doug & Grandpa took the boys back home while us ladies went & had ourselves a little girl time. We went & got manicures & pedicures first.

It's always so fun doing these kinds of things with you momma & sister.

After that we were not ready to go home so we decided to hit up Cheesecake Factory for some dessert & to visit some more. 

Having my mom here has truly been the best. I have such a fulfilled feeling with her around. It really replenished my soul to be near her. :)

Us adults had too much fun after the boys went to bed playing some games.

Building forts with Grandpa is the best!

Okay, doing anything with Grandpa is the best. :) We had a great pool day swimming & splashing around.

Sunbathing beauties.

We got a babysitter so that we could go out & enjoy a nice adult dinner. We originally wanted to go on the Water Taxi to see the million dollar mansions on the canal & eat at 15th Street Fishery, but it started pouring right when we left the house. Boo. So we hit up a new place called the Rustic Inn that we've never tried before, but heard great things about.

 

Mom, dad & Laura

We ordered a huge platter to share! Good thing Doug was hungry because he pretty much finished this off. Haha! It was a little too much work for me. They only gave you a mallet & I really could have used one of those crusher things to break these babies open. Now to be completely honest, we weren't that impressed. Not a lot of flavor & I personally don't like dousing my food in butter to get some flavor. We also heard the corn bread was to die for & it was dry. So all in all, we had a great time together & the atmosphere was fun, but we will not go back.

Gotta love the bibs!

We had such a fabulous time with Meema & Bumpa! We only wish it didn't go by so fast. It definitely wasn't a long enough visit, but they had to head out to Virginia to see Hyrum & his family.

I love this picture of the boys with their grandparents.

Thanks Meema & Grandpa for coming to Florida. We love you!