Troyer visit

From August 1 - 11, we had Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Virgil staying with us. I should just make a Picasa album to put all these photos, but I wanted to write some things, too, so this post might get split up into a couple parts. (Note: I didn't end up splitting this up, so sorry that this is a long post!)

This visit was the last time we will be seeing Steve's parents until next June. I have mentioned before that they were going to Honduras and won't be back until Mark and Katie's wedding next summer. We tried to have both a fun and relaxing visit before they left the country. Here are some highlights from our time together.

We had some really hot weather while they were here, but we still managed to spend a lot of time outside enjoying the new deck. Here we are eating breakfast one morning.



Evan watched as Steve did some work on the deck. Virg and Steve finished up a bunch of miscellaneous stuff on the deck together.



As part of the library summer reading program, Anya chose a free ride on the trolley for her second prize. We went immediately from claiming her coupon at the library to City Park to board the trolley. We got on the last ride of the day, so we didn't get to get off downtown and do anything because we needed to ride it back to our cars at the park. But it was a fun ride down beautiful Mountain Avenue in Fort Collins. I totally felt like a tourist and not like I lived here.



We played at City Park for a little bit after our trolley ride.





Evan getting some snuggle time with Grandpa. It was really fun to have him here for so long. Usually just Kathy gets to stay for an extended visit and we don't get to spend as much time with Grandpa, too.





We went to the Larimer County Fair one evening. It is kind of a lame fair, but we still got to visit the little petting zoo and walk through the animal barns.





On what we thought would be one of the cooler days, we went for a morning hike to Horsetooth Rock. It was extremely hot. Anya did great walking for a good part of the hike up and Steve carried Evan. Then we switched to Steve carrying Anya and I carried Evan. It was hard work! We eventually left Virgil and Kathy to continue on by themselves to the top. Steve and I have done this hike several times ourselves, so we didn't feel the need to reach "the teeth" this time. Steve had to get back to work for a meeting and I was happy to accompany him back down the mountain since it was tough lugging those kids up the mountain. We made Anya walk a good part of the way down the mountain and Steve carried Evan. Anya did amazingly well even though she was slipping and dragging me down the trail for most of it. By the time we let Anya ride again, Evan had fallen asleep on Steve's back, so we decided not to disturb him. I ended up carrying Anya down on my back the rest of the way. It was quite a load. She was definitely heavier than Evan, but much easier to carry since she wasn't flopping around all over the place.









Kathy had her birthday while at our house and we decided to go down to Denver to visit the Butterfly Pavilion. It was a pretty cool place and Anya and Evan enjoyed looking at everything. Steve already posted some of his amazing photos of butterflies, so I'll give you some of the people shots he didn't share.



Anya got a chance (and took it!) to touch a starfish!



And here is Evan touching something else I can't remember what it is.



Both of them were pretty intrigued by the butterflies.



After looking at the butterflies, we went to a kid area where the highlight was definitely climbing in/on this honeycomb-like structure.





One of the main events for Kathy and me was to work on some sewing projects. My goal was to start (and complete) a knotted flannel comforter for Anya's bed. We bought the fabric a couple visits ago, but just now got a chance to start putting it together. Here is a picture to show the frame contraption we set up to make it easier to do the knots. I unfortunately don't have a shot to show the finished product, but it looks pretty cool, I think. And I am much more confident in my new sewing abilities after completing this. Hopefully I can keep up my skills by making something else soon so I don't forget how to do everything!



Another thing we worked on was to finish up these two "play blankets" you see me working on below. This a project with a long history. It originally started as one queen-sized quilt my mom was going to make for their bed as part of a quilt sampler class. She was taking the class sometime back in the 80's as you can guess by the lovely peach and seafoam green fabric choices. She finished the quilt to the point of all the blocks being put together and all the in between and border pieces cut out, but never got any further. Several years ago now...perhaps seven?...my mom asked Kathy if she knew of a place where she could give the quilt pieces to for somebody to put together and sell for charity. Kathy said she could probably find a place for it and so my mom passed it on to her. In the last year or so, Kathy told me that she couldn't bear to give up something that my mom had worked so hard on and so she still had all the pieces. She said that if it was okay with me, she would put together the pieces and then see what I thought about keeping it for some use. The huge queen size quilt was a bit much of peach and green, so she suggested splitting it into two smaller quilts for Anya and Evan to just use as play blankets. We thought this would be a neat project for them as something that was worked on by both their grandmas. So, Kathy went ahead and made two blankets - quilted one and knotted the other one. They are still slightly ugly in color and not our style (both grandmas agree, by the way), but I definitely think it is neat that they both made them. Our project this visit was to sew the binding and I got to practice my pinning and sewing skills to help finish them up.



Kathy also made a pillow for Evan out of an old wall hanging Steve got as a gift from his Aunt Linda when he was a baby. Evan loves it.



In addition to going to the Butterfly Pavilion, we were lucky enough to be able to celebrate Kathy's birthday at home with her before she left. Here is Anya helping (and Evan trying) to make some birthday brownies.



We had a fun birthday dessert party on the back porch. Anya helped put on the sprinkles and picked out the flowers for grandma.





Anya is showing off her flower clip from a friend's birthday party. She is also sporting a beautiful mosquito bite on her forehead.



On the last day of Virg and Kathy's visit, we received some more visitors! Steve's Schrock Grandparents were making a road trip out west and stopped in to see us all for the afternoon. We enjoyed getting a chance to visit with them, too.







Our visit wouldn't have been complete without some group photos for posterity.



It's hard to believe the time we have all been preparing for is here. Grandma and Grandpa left for Honduras from our house. It was an emotional good-bye. We are excited for them, but sad for us. We wish you a wonderful experience! And we'll try our best to keep our blogs frequently updated for you (and everyone else, too!). Please send us friendly reminders if we aren't keeping up our end of the bargain! We love you and miss you already.