the visit

A few days after we had left them in the wilderness, Damien, Danielle, and crew arrived at our home. The G's were beyond happy to be with their cousins again, as they had been counting down the minutes to their arrival all week. We spent the few days they were here hanging out, mostly. The kids swam for hours every day. And there was a lot of Pretty, Pretty, Princess that got played.  Oh, and we busted out Just Dance... a lot.

We wanted to find out what would happen if we put a bunch of ice blocks into the pool. It was as hot as ever outside, and the 98* water in the pool was not offering the desired amount of refreshment. Well, we learned that if you dump upwards of 10 ice blocks into a 13,500 gallon pool the temperature of the water will change not a bit. The ice blocks lasted about 3 minutes before melting away. In retrospect, we should have anticipated that...

We all missed them terribly the second they left. Grant went through all the stages of grieving. He began by asking us why they couldn't stay.

Me: Well, they have been away from home for a while on their trip. They are ready to go back now.
Grant: They have their stuff with them. Why can't they just stay?
Me: You mean, like, live here?
Grant: Yeah. Why can't they live here?
Me: They have school starting soon, and Uncle Damien has his job to get back to, and they have their friends there...
Grant: Why can't we move to Utah then?

Denial gave way to anger. And then he finally accepted their departure and had a good cry about it. We all understood the sentiment! It was a fun finale to our summer break!