Grandpa and Nana Overview

I mentioned that Grandpa and Nana have been in town this week (Ryan's dad and step mom). They have a fifth wheel trailer that they pull all over the country visiting friends and family. They have been doing this for a while now and just bought a house in Texas where they will live during the cold months and will continue traveling during the warm months. This was the first time they have been able to make it here to see us and meet Ben! Since Ben is now giving smiles freely and cooing some, it was a perfect time for them to come. They found a place to park their trailer only a few miles from our house. That enabled them to come over to our place, eat a meal together each day either in or out and visit some places in Wichita while still being able to go back "home" each night. That meant that Ryan could still work a half day each day and then we could play the other half. It has been fabulous.

Checking out Old Town - an historic, open air shopping and dining area in Wichita.

Eating at Old Chicago (a delicious pizza place). I have to train Ben to love Pizza and Ice Cream soon.

Photo-op at the house. We couldn't have planned all the outfits any better if we had tried.

Us at the zoo with the giraffes behind us.
Notice the trend of matching clothes and not once did we intend it that way!

Talking to Nana. Ben gave Nana some of his best smiles and really talked to her a lot.

Showing Grandpa all my tricks. Ben worked really hard to hold his head up for Grandpa.

Grandpa and Nana gave us a very generous housewarming / birthday / anniversary gift of a washer and dryer. The ones we had were the bottom of the line when I graduated high school 9 years ago. The washer leaked a bit and the dryer was starting to get clothes stuck as it tumbled around and it would burn places on our clothes, towels, sheets, etc. I was getting tired of finding ruined items in the dryer. They were both delivered this morning and I took them out for a quick spin! They are fabulous. They both have much bigger capacity than the old ones, so they feel huge to me. The washer has settings I didn't have and the dryer has something called AcuDry - it senses when the clothes are dry so that it doesn't over or under dry your clothes. I wasn't a believer until I tried it. In less than 50 minutes a whole load of jeans were perfectly dry. I am in laundry heaven. Thank you God for such gracious parents / grandparents. We have been tremendously blessed every time someone has come to visit us or sent special things in the mail!!!

And, some cute pictures of Ben just because...

"Mom, I am so over this picture taking business."

"I'm a big kid now!"

"Who is that handsome devil I see? It's me!"