Grandparents' Visit, Part Two: Jii & Baachan

 Jii and Baachan were with us for one week in May and also one week in June while they were visiting the West. I think being around Ramona and Mika for that long really wore them out, but hopefully they had fun. I know the girls did!

Downtown Loveland

Walking under the Colorado state flag

My parents were the patient guests at Ramona's multiple picnic parties

Ramona making cookies with Baachan

Ramona rolling out playdough pizza with Jii

Cottage time in the backyard

 Among the many items my parents brought over from Illinois was a little outfit which apparently belonged to me when I was a baby. It had been a gift from my grandfather in Japan, and my mother had carefully kept it all these years. Mika wore it to church one of the Sundays Jii and Baachan were here.

"Shabondama tonda . . ."

While my dad was around, I arranged a "playdate"with my friend and violinist Carita, who has a mini-library of sightread-able orchestra music. We played trio-style with me on the cello for most of it, then tried out a violin duet with piano accompaniment. My dad seemed a little uncomfortable about playing the fiddle at first, and was overly apologetic about every missed note, but I am pretty sure by the end he didn't resent me for scheduling a little music time.

 On the last day of their visit, we all made it over to Estes Park for a picnic and a walk around the lake.

 While on our walk, Forest got a scare from Ramona's proximity to a deer right next to the trail. His reaction scared Ramona more than the actual deer, and for a while she was rather upset . . .

 . . . as you can see in the picture below.

 From the trail we could see smoke billowing up North from the High Park Fire before we heard about it on the news. (At the time we didn't realize the fire would end up being one of the worst in Colorado history).

 Despite the smoke, I was glad we had a chance to let my parents enjoy some Colorado scenery while they were here, and provide some sense of recreation amidst being swamped by the demands of little voices and little hands. Visiting young grandchildren (at least ours) isn't exactly a vacation.

Thanks for making the trip, Jii and Baachan!