Visitors from the Valley

Yay. Nothing we like better than visitors. R.B. surprised us with a visit this weekend with his four cute kids. Stacie stayed home to get a little R&R of her own. We missed her, but I know at that stage of life I would have killed for a weekend of peace in my own home. Hopefully they will visit again soon and she will come too. R.B. did such a wonderful job taking care of the kids and making sure they were warm enough etc. He is great Daddy. The first order of business was to get them fed. They got here around 11:00 and were starving of course. We went to a little restaurant called Bulk Foods restaurant and store. A local family owns and operates it and they have really good food. As we were looking at the menu to order (this was our first time there) R.B. and I both noticed something very touching on the back side. At the bottom back side was a line that read:

Unemployed, Children, Broke
(and then four items were listed) $1.50.

This is a small town and the downturn in the economy has hit pretty hard here. It was nice to see this family who is struggling themselves reach out to help others in their way. The other nice thing is that for the most part I am sure that their clientele would not take advantage of this unless they really were unemployed, broke or ordering for a child. We ate our fill there and went back to the cabin. As we were thinking of something we could do with the kids, my friend Leigh called. She mentioned they had two sleds we could borrow and that there was a hill not far away that a lot of people used for this fun. We went by and picked up the sleds and went in search of this hill. There were indeed several families there and had made some good runs down the hill. There was a dirt/gravel road at the end of this hill, so we had to “catch” the kids as there was an occasional car or truck coming that way. I, not having any snow appropriate shoes at this time elected to watch from the truck.







Is Carson thinking “Huuuummmmm, do I really want to go again?” Megan, Austin and Rylan getting set to go again. They couldn't get enough.



The kids were having a great time, and kept sledding down and trudging back up the hill for quite a while. When it was finally time to go, there had to be a snow fight by the truck. Had to be. R.B. and Grumpy needed little excuse to join in when the kids starting throwing handfuls of snow at them. “not in the face” was the only real rule. So it began. Went on for a while, and then I thought, I better roll up this window. Did so in the nick of time.




See? I'm no dummy.

Now that the kids were all wet and cold we decided to go to Bison Ranch to explore a little. We were going to feed the horses there some carrots, but when we went to ask permission were told the Ranch horses were gone for the winter and the horses left there were privately owned. They didn't need carrots that day, so we thanked them and left to explore else where. Upon driving around we spotted an Ice Cream Parlor as part of an establishment called “The Coffeehouse”. Ice Cream goes right along with being wet and cold from sledding and snowfighting, right? In we went to get the kids some ice cream. Grumpy and I passed on the treat, but R.B. got them each a cone.




Tummies filled again we went back to the cabin for some down time. R.B. was clever and generous enough to bring a loaner TV with him. He got it set up and working and so the rest of the afternoon looked like this…




Megan preferred listening to TV and drawing. They brought a couple of games, so there was game playing too. I am a total dud when it comes to games. I didn't play them growing up, and don't really enjoy them, so Grumpy is the hero here. He is always happy (and patient enough) to play games with the kids. I love this about him. After a while, he decided to run out some wiggles with them and so they bundled up again and went for a walk to the runway and the lodge/playground up the road a bit. I used this opportunity to run to the little market here and get stuff for some “pigs in a blanket” and s'mores for later that night. The kids rolled their pigs in the croissant blankets and we baked them to perfection. They really liked them and ate them all. That was always my favorite lunch day when I was little.



No hotdogs for R.B. and Grumpy. They had the last of the Italian Sandwiches. I should mention that our refrigerator here freezes everything on the bottom shelf, and in the drawers most of the time. The leftovers from Christmas Eve enjoyed a long life since they were semi frozen most of the time while here. After some more TV time and dinner settled Grumpy went out and started a fire in the fire pit to get ready for s'mores. When there was enough coals, R.B. bundled them up again, and out we went to enjoy sticky marshmallows, and then some delicious s'mores. The kids all told a story or two, even Carson. He had quite the stories to tell. He really likes guns. (pretend of course). What imaginations they all have. After we had consumed enough chocolate and sugar back in the cabin and pajama time. They stayed up a while watching “Hocus Pocus” (? In January?) on one of the cable stations and then it was time for bed. We all stayed up and talked for a while. I felt so bad for R.B. His back was really hurting from something he had done earlier in the week. Loading and unloading toy haulers for the dunes, riding at the dunes, putting up bins of Christmas decorations, who knows? Something didn't go right and his back was really giving him problems. He never complained, but I know how bad that can feel. We eventually all went to bed and I hope got some sleep.

Grumpy made breakfast for the crew Sunday morning and they loaded up to leave. What a fun weekend. I loved seeing them and making a great memory with them. Let's do it again soon.