RealQuicke: nanny & grampy’s visit – a tonic for the troops

First of all – thank you, dear friends and family, for your kind words and calls in response to my post earlier today. Now I know what I need to do whenever I need an infusion of attention and love! ;-) You’ve genuinely bolstered my spirit.

A few weeks ago, Rob’s parents came out to see us, and finally(!) I’m getting it up on the blog.

Rob always calls their visits “a tonic for the troops.” Living out here so far from family, it always feels like a blessed relief to have some backup. This time, they were exhausted as well, having just packed up their home in the Chicago suburbs as they launch their new life as semi-retired jet-setters. They literally handed their keys to their buyer the day before they arrived. And we all know how exhausting packing and moving are!

Still, they produced enough energy to play with the kids 20 hours a day. One of the highlights: a treasure hunt!

It was a big hit. The kids were so excited, thinking very carefully about what the clues could mean and then racing back to show us their discoveries.

Nanny and Grampy had quite a stockpile of coins, divided into multiple hidden jars.

The next day, they all went to the bank and had the coins converted to bills. And then, they headed to the toy store to spend the loot!

Oh, the excitement! Elliot transformed into a Viking with his booty, and Sophie got lots of girly things like fairies and a dress-up game. I’m sure that even more than these awesome gifts, the kids will treasure this memory with their grandparents.

Rob and I got a special gift as well. Ladies and gentlemen, may it be marked in history that for the first time in 6 years, 4 months, and 23 days, Rob and I spent 20 hours together being able to do exactly what we wanted, having complete, uninterrupted conversations, meals, and sleep. Sleep!!!

And we got to stay in a castle. We discovered that our beloved botanical gardens is also now a hotel. Can this place get any better? We’d never been inside the manor house before, and it is just stunning.

We took a walk in the gardens at dusk and resolved that we must not let another 6 years, 4 months, and 23 days pass before we do this sort of thing again. We were deeply refreshed!

We returned to the house to two children who had barely noticed we were gone and two bleary-eyed grandparents who definitely had!

(They were here during the hottest week we’ve had all summer. Sadly, our pool was deflated the whole time. The week before, Sophie had filled it with pail-fulls of dirt and we had to empty the whole thing and scrub it out. With the drought we’d been having, we couldn’t refill it for a while. 3-year-olds!!!)

One night, we played with sparklers Nanny and Grampy had brought.

At one point, I said how nice it was that we could just about manage with a 4 adults to 2 kids ratio. They said, really, 6 adults would be ideal, so 2 adults could always be rotated out to rest! Sounds like a winning plan to me!