Adventures with the Grandparents in Two Parts

My parents divorced when I was 8 years old. Two years later, both of my parents were remarried within 20 days of each other. August 1994 gave me two new parents, two brothers, and a sister.  Two more little sisters joined the crew over the next couple of years. These days we are a complicated jumble, but the important part is that we all love each other. There is history there, of course, but I know every single member of my family absolutely has my back. They'd bail me out of jail for sure (which is a good thing because occasionally I watch that show Lockup on msnbc and I know those chicks in the lady prison would EAT. ME. ALIVE. They scare the bejeezus out of me.) I'd bail them out, too, but they probably wouldn't want me to because then I'd blab it all over the internet. Memories, people!

People occasionally ask me if I'm glad my parents split up. Honestly, I don't think that's a very useful question, and there's simply no way for me to make sense of an answer for it. What I do know is that I don't want my family without every single person in it. If surviving divorce as a child gets me here, then so be it. 

So the point of that whole discussion is to illustrate how lucky I am to have the big, jolly family that I do. I believe that as a parent, one of the most beautiful gifts I can give my babies is to surround them with people who love them. Neither Paddy and I have extended families that fit the typical mold, but our children are blessed with love and support on both sides.

Over the last couple of weeks, Bug and Mister Baggins have had the opportunity to spend some quality time with both sets of grandparents on my side of the family.

Part One goes out to Bunk and Grammy Lu. Holla!

Bug has learned to pretend. There's probably something developmentally significant about this that I should recall from all those classes I had to take as an undergrad, but all I know is that it's pretty much the cutest thing in the land. 

During a recent visit to their home, Bug and Grammy played store. Grammy Lu pretended to scan boxes of Jello and CrystaLight about 100 million times in a row, and never once suggested maybe she add a little brocolli to her diet.

After a couple of rounds, Bug decided to try her hand at working the Barbie Register. It took me back my sophomore year of high school when I toiled away at the register at the sporting goods store near my house under the not-so-watchful eye of my Yogi Bear-shaped boss. It's lucky Scott and I made it out alive, what with all the sacrificing of virginal brides and channeling evil spirits that was happening in the back room.

Bug labeled each item one of two prices: either eighteen cents (a favorite amount you may remember from this post) or one hundred dollars. I mean, I love pudding, but...

Baggins is a dude. Dudes don't shop.

A week or so later, Grammy Lu was kind enough to get us in to see the circus. (That's right. We went to the circus on a Friday night. I'm such a parent right now.)

Bug was in heaven with all the "ballerinas" (luckily she didn't notice they were twirling while hanging FROM THEIR HAIR) and was ecstatic over the elephants. She was elated the entire time. I, on the other hand, was naive enough to believe the PETA volunteer outside the venue was handing out genuine information about the circus, and spent the intermission perusing animal rights propaganda. IN COLOR! And GLOSSY! They've upped the ante for sure.

Part Two is a shout-out to PopPop and Nana. Heeeey! Oooooh!

We spent a couple of weekends in September down at Utah Lake playing around on some toys. We all had a great time, including Mister Baggins, otherwise known as Floating Baby Head on Life Jacket.

That smiley picture came after many minutes of screaming. I bet it's hard to wear a life jacket twice your size.

The Buggy-girl, on the other hand, actually loves wearing her life jacket.

I have a new absolute favorite water activity: paddle boarding! I can't tell you how much fun we had, and I bet it would be even more awesome in a body of water not green and murky like Utah Lake. I want one of these a LOT.

I was insanely jealous that Bug wasn't as interested in hopping on with me as she was with MJ. Can you believe how brave she is?!

I tried kayaking for the first time, too. It was fun with the Schmoops, but not as fantastic as the paddle boards. Kayaking is so much work! We are terrible at rowing in sync so we kept knocking paddles in mid air. At one point we tried to execute a turn, and I'm pretty sure I was paddling backwards at the same time and on the same side he was paddling forward. We have some work to do.

What a fun way to wrap up the summer. Thank you, family!