Grandma and Grandpa Come to Town

Spanning the Labor Day weekend, Grandma and Grandpa came to visit, see the new house, meet Lydia and play with Karina. We put them to work and got a lot accomplished. Some of the projects we tackled around the house:

• Scrape off rust from the outside frame of our front window and paint it with Rustoleum
• Install a ceiling fan in the guest bedroom so it wouldn't be as hot
• Change Lydia's ceiling fan from a sports-themed baseball motif to a more neutral white one
• Install a second light fixture in the master closet to make it brighter
• Fix a problem with Tanja's car (that I created) that caused puddles of water in the floorboards of the back seat
• Try to kill/intimidate/neutralize the ant colony underneath our front yard trees
• Pick out granite for our new countertops that were installed last weekend.

It was quite a busy time and I don't think we could have tackled half as many projects without Grandma and Grandpa helping us, so thanks guys!

Anyway, on with the pictures!  Karina was helping Lydia take some of her first steps and held on tightly to her little hand.

I guess Lydia's not quite ready to walk on her own at two and a half months.

We took a picnic to a nearby park one day, and Karina loved playing around on all the equipment and Grandma was great at helping her do it safely.

Lydia was content to just be passed around to anyone and everyone that smiled at her.

I really like this picture of Lydia with Grandpa.

Karina was quite adventurous climbing around and through all the equipment, and she really liked jumping off of things.

This alphabet floor mat puzzle Grandma brought was a big hit with Karina.

Sunday at church we blessed Lydia. She wore the same beautiful dress that Grandma made for Karina's baby blessing.

This picture turned out really well and we printed it out to hang in our home so that Lydia is now represented in our pictures too.

We also managed to get a few family pictures that turned out well enough.

On Labor Day, we took a break and went to Sandy Point State Park on the Chesapeake Bay. It was fairly crowded, but overall, it was a good time.  Karina was totally rocking her sunglasses and hat as she dug around in the beach sand.

Lydia, on the other hand, had a massive blowout in her diaper and got everything she touched filthy, so we had to clean that up as soon as we arrived. In our rush to get out the door, we forgot to bring a fun little tent with an air mattress that would have been perfect for her to lay down in and take a nap, so we did our best to keep her out of the sun with her hat and an umbrella that I fortunately keep in my car. Once she was cleaned up (as best as we could), she calmed down and we managed at least one good picture of her calmly contemplating life.

Various arrangements of group shots with the Chesapeake Bay and the Bay Bridge in the background:

Grandma and Grandpa left the Tuesday after Labor Day, but we made sure that they got to play with the girls a little more that morning.

Thanks again for coming guys! It was great to have you!