It had been way too long since we’d been able to see Grandma and Grandpa Steed. Actually this was their first introduction to Caleb. Once we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Steed’s the boys brought out their rocks to see if Grandpa could identify them. He knew them all-no surprise (of course since we had no idea what they were, he could have told us anything, and we’d have believed him). Grandpa showed the boys his impressive rock and fossil collection. Daniel’s favorite was the “green rock” (malachite and jade.) Liam seemed to like the geodes and shark teeth. They both liked the fossils.
The boys were so excited to get out of the van and stretch their legs. Despite the hot weather they decided to go exploring across the golf course and down some trails by Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Along the way they collected lost golf balls and found some lizards. They also had fun watching all of the humming birds zooming around the yard. Grandpa showed the boys a nest in his Yucca cacti. And they made themselves at home moving dirt around in the back yard. Before bed Grandpa showed us some impressive photos of his explorations. He told us about one of his latest adventures tracking down an outlaws unmarked grave (Grandma did her job keeping him in check so there wouldn’t be any nightmares). The boys were so excited to “help” Grandpa put together their bed. They were also exhausted. They fell asleep quickly and Nathan and I got to play our traditional game of canasta with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma and Nathan made a valiant effort, but Grandpa and I won in the end. After our game ended we went to check on the boys and found Daniel asleep, using Liam’s tummy as a pillow. It was really funny.
The next morning, Grandma treated us to her famous pecan pancakes. She does something just right with cinnamon—it can’t be duplicated. Delicious! (When I’m the “cook”, we usually get eggo waffles, cold cereal, or oatmeal for breakfast. Nathan occasionally treats us to a real, hot breakfast on the weekends. Pretty much the only time I make breakfast is for dinner!) Then we all made our way to the nearby Dinosaur Museum. It was fun having resident experts (Gma and Gpa) with us. They explained everything we were seeing. The museum was really neat. Most of it is casts of dinosaur footprints. It has the longest set of dinosaur footprints that has been found. Liam liked watching a paleontologist cleaning up a fossil. Daniel wanted to take pictures of every fossil in the place-himself. Nathan bought Daniel a Wooly Mammoth and Liam a Brontosaurus from the gift shop which they named Meshack and Baltheshazar.
After the museum we headed to the “Glitter Hole”. It is a natural outcropping of gypsum. When Grandma and Grandpa first discovered it, it was much bigger, but it has been mined down a lot. It was still very sparkly and impressive. It hurt my eyes to look at it without sunglasses. Daniel thought it was like diamonds and filled his pockets with gypsum to bring back with us. They really should make little boys’ pockets smaller. I can’t believe how much he dug out of them. He filled up two cup holders and kept unloading.
After some laughs, lunch, tickles and tears it was time to leave. We all agreed the time was too short. Grandma has been fighting a good fight against cancer and we were all too aware of just how uncertain life can be. But we left so grateful for the happy memories that we’ve made together and the knowledge of our eternal bonds.
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