Women are like lionesses at the gate of the home. . . . She guards that gate, and things matter to that family if they matter to her. . . . Sisters, you are each like the lioness at the gate. This means that there has to be some prioritizing. I was taught years ago that when our priorities are out of order, we lose power. If we need power and influence to carry out our mission, then our priorities have to be straight.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Trek West - Part 1

I'm behind blogging our "Trek West" trip. We stayed at my parents' house for a week, and I was worried the transition for Shaelyn might be a little hard, especially since she's very stranger-averse right now. Truthfully, the only hard time we had was when I threw my own tantrum. Other than that, Shaelyn had a blast. She was a little nervous about the dogs, but eventually she even got used to them. I think she actually enjoyed being in a new place - it was a new environment to take in with new things to play with! My mom did a great job of tracking down baby toys among her friends for Shaelyn to play with. Since we live so far away and don't visit often, my mom hasn't needed "Grammy's house toys", but I told her she may need to acquire some now that my sister has a baby and lives so close. Shaelyn loved this Leap Frog activity table. I highly recommend it if you have a little one in the 1-to-2-year age range.

My favorite thing - this table and chairs set that was my mother's when she was a little girl. It used to be the "kids' table" my sister and I would eat Thanksgiving dinner on. Talk about a fun heirloom. Here we are enjoying ___?___. Since we don't drink tea, I don't know what our pretend drink should be. Hot chocolate? Lemonade? Grape juice? What do you call it with your little girls (or plan on calling it)?

Unfortunately, I didn't get more pictures of my parents interacting with Shaelyn, partially because she stops whatever cute activity she's engaged in when the camera whips out, and partially because I didn't have enough room on my memory card and I didn't have the necessary equipment to download the pictures off the card. Poorly prepared, I know! But my parents (Grammy and PawPaw to Shaelyn) had a blast playing with her. One night my mom laid out all kinds of goodies for Shaelyn to play with in the kitchen while my mom cooked dinner. My dad (still a little boy at heart), decided it would be fun to build a tower out of all the "toys" my mom had laid out for Shaelyn. He was determined to incorporate all the toys. I was very skeptical and was sure the thing was going to fall over any second, but being the brilliant engineer that he is, he succeeded. This made knocking it over an even more sweet victory!
Oh, how I wish Grammy and PawPaw lived closer!

Cleverly written by shelley