Granddad is here!

Granddad Owen comes to visit us once or twice a year. Nicholas absolutley loves these visits. He likes to wake Granddad up in the morning, show off his toys to him, and play with him non-stop. This visit was no different. Nicholas even tried "riding horsey" on Grandad's foot like he used to as a toddler but he has gotten too heavy for that ride now.

We welcomed Granddad last night with a trip to one of his favorite restaurants here, Mikado's Hibachi. Yum and Fun all in One. Wow, I just made that up. We always have a great time watching the chef prepare our food right at our table. Nicholas even knows the sequence that they follow and reminded our chef about the onion volcano that he still needed to do!

This morning we needed a little wake up call so we headed to Starbucks. I love to just sit and talk over coffee, even if it is decaf. It's a little hard to relax with Nicholas there who loves to chat with the man next to him who is trying to work on a presentation or something. However, we all had fun.





Nicholas loves their Strawberries and Cream Frappacino. It's a pretty good strawberry milkshake if you haven't tried one before. However, he kept getting "cold headaches" from drinking too fast. When he gets them, he puts his hands on his head and then comes over to me for me to "warm" up his head. I've tried to explain that this doesn't help it go away but there's just no convincing him.



Today we took Granddad out to try his hand at Letterboxing. He is good at figuring out clues and we thought he would like this. He did! Our first clue took us to a cemetery in Argyle. The clues were great and easy to follow. Nicholas followed them well and found his way to a tree stump. He then had to think about which was the left and right sides of the stump in order to know where to look for the hidden letterbox.



He picked up the box and Granddad helped him open it. Inside was the log book and special rubber stamp. We stamped our logbook with their stamp and made a note about the date and location. Then we used our own stamp to stamp their logbook so the owner would know that we had visited their letterbox. We discreetly hid the box back where we had found it. On to the next box which wonderfully was in the same cemetery!

The clues for the next box began at a historical marker and a bell so we took a moment to learn a little about the area and the cemetery.



The clues then directed us to the back of the cemetery behind a gravestone shaped like a podium. The clues suggested that we stand at the podium and "talk" to our audience. Granddad was happy to oblige! Silly Granddad!



We followed the rest of the clues but had trouble with the last one. There were lots of brush around and we just couldnt' figure out which was the "small patch of bushes" where the letterbox was hidden. We looked all over but eventually had to give up.

We headed south for our next letterbox hunt to some property owned by the Corps of Engineers. This location has three letterboxes on it so we were sure to have good luck here.



We had a good time on the hike but the brush was apparently much more grown up than when the box was placed back in January as we soon lost the trail we were following. We made it through the tall brush with Nicholas riding on Granddad's shoulders. It took us a bit but we were able to meet up with the clues later on and Granddad found the old hollow log we were looking for. However, there was no box to be found.

We really didn't mind too much since we were having fun anyway.

Nicholas discoverd some animal tracks and some "whole grain wheat" (that's really what he called it too)...





I found some pretty wildflowers...



And Granddad made friends with a grasshopper!



We had to give up on the last two letterboxes because my pregnant self couldn't stand the heat for much longer. However, from a distance, we did see the tree in the shape of an arch which housed the second letterbox at this site but we didn't go hunting for it.

We got cleaned up and when Stuart got home from work, we headed out to Babe's for dinner for the best chicken in the Metroplex! Nicholas seemed to enjoy flirting with our waitress. She even invited him out on the dance floor with her when the wait staff all danced to The Hokey Pokey!







Here's Nicholas and Daddy picking out songs on the old fashioned juke box.



We rolled our full bellies out the door and headed home - tired, full, but happy. Nicholas wanted to show Granddad how to play Lego Star Wars so the guys stayed up a while goofing off.



But it didn't take long for everyone to find their beds and crash for the night.