A large part of Wednesday was spent with my maternal grandparents, who are both 89 years old and still very active.  While they, if asked, would qualify that description of “very active”, the number of activities they are still engaged in exceeds what most retirees do, regardless of age.

Despite all my other activities while I’m here, spending time with my grandparents is the most important thing.  I’m working on a larger project which includes scanning hundreds of photos that my grandmother has organized into albums over the years, as well as capturing audio recordings of them telling stories and sharing memories about those photos.  Realizing that our lives have a finite length, I want to capture this part of our family history while I still have the opportunity.

Of course, before that there was some work to do.  My grandfather was sanding and repainting the door, door frame and screen door from the house into the garage.  Since he doesn’t need to be up on a ladder anymore, after lunch I worked on the top half of the project, eventually working my way down and completing it by mid-afternoon.  Painting isn’t my strong point, but I think I did okay.

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Sometimes two young nieces are quite a lot to handle – witness the trip to the Mexican restaurant – so divide and conquer is a good technique.  The young one goes to day care, giving some quality time with the older niece.  After running errands on Tuesday with my sister and Emily, we stopped at Sheridan’s for some frozen custard.

Frozen custard seems to be a midwestern specialty – a richer form of ice cream.  They also do “concretes” which are frozen custards blended with toppings, kind of like the Dairy Queen Blizzard, but better.

Here’s a special concrete with brownies blended with vanilla custard, topped with hot fudge.  Tasty combination but of course the hot fudge caused the custard to start melting!

Emily and Jenn with frozen custard smiles.

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There has also been quality time with niece number two, Ava.  After the last day of swim lessons, she received a “tatoo”, one of the temporary stickers that adhese to your skin for days at a time.  This one was a tree frog tatoo, significant because her most recent new stuffed plaything is a small brown frog called “coqui”. 

The frog was a gift from my sister and brother-in-law after they took a holiday in Puerto Rico.  It seems “coqui” is what a number of species of small frogs are called there.

This morning, it was off to the tatoo parlor (well, the kitchen) for the application of the new tatoo.  Left side or right side?  Arm or leg?  So many decisions to make when getting such permanent body art!

Left, Ava poses with her new tatoo and coqui. 

After a few days here in Kansas City, I’m heading out today for an overnight trip to Quincy, Illinois to visit Zakiah, also known by many Xangans as ZSA_MD.  This will be a short trip, but one that strengthens the bonds of Xangan community!  Stay tuned for more reporting in the days to come.