Grandkids in Utah

The grandkids are here!

The grandkids are here!

Amber flew with the two girls, ages 3 and 2, all by herself on a red-eye flight from Anchorage to Utah.

Yikes.

She survived the event even though the girls only slept the last hour of the last flight.

She is amazing.

Ryan and I waited for her at the airport and saw her coming toward us looking perfectly chipper and happy...

the girls, not so much.

Kaylee was totally snoozing and Isabelle was a zombie.

So tired that she couldn't even react to anything.

Yes, that is Amber with a  double stroller, two carseats and three backpacks...smiling.

Here is a close-up of the girls:

They slept in the car all the way home and by the time we arrived, they were awake and ready to start their day.

Amber, having had no sleep at all, was not feeling the same way. 

When Isabelle walked into the house and saw Grandpa she went right up into his arms and hugged him so tight.  It was the cutest thing ever.

Kaylee and Isabelle both seemed to remember Ryan and were quite comfortable with him right away.

Ryan sure misses having these girls around.

We spent the day playing together while we let Amber sleep for a bit.

We picked apples and washed them in the sink.

We ran around the back yard.

We did some swinging on the swing set.

We watched 5-10 minutes of several movies because after that much time Isabelle always wanted to change it.  Hilarious.

Kaylee eventually zonked out on the couch and Isabelle and I went to the grocery store together.

It was a fun, busy, tiring (how did I do it? I'm so tired now!) day.

I loved it.

Amber is here for her sister's wedding so we might not see a whole lot of them for the first week at least, but we are happy for whatever time we get.

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I took the girls out to swing on the swings.

I put Kaylee in the baby swing and Isabelle sat on a normal swing.

I feel so much more comfortable with the baby swing because the kid can't fall out...but, even though Isabelle does a good job on the regular swing, I feel nervous pushing her too high in case she slips off.

So I was pushing Kaylee pretty high (she is a more of a daredevil at heart than Isabelle anyway)

and I was pushing Isabelle a little less.

Isabelle would say "I want to go higher"

Kaylee (who always wants to do whatever Isabelle does) would immediately say, "Higher!"

So I would push them both a little higher even though Kaylee was already quite high.

Isabelle: "I want to go high like the sky!"

Kaylee: "High! Sky!"

Isabelle: "I want to go high to the leaves"

Kaylee: "High! Leaves!"

Isabelle: "Push me higher"

Kaylee: "Push! High!"

It was really funny that no matter how high Kaylee was already going, she would ask for more if Isabelle did. And she would do so immediately after Isabelle.

Eventually Isabelle was done and wanted to move on to other activities.

This is where Kaylee decided that she didn't need to be like Isabelle after all...she was not done swinging!

Luckily Ryan helped out by swinging with Kaylee for a bit longer while I took Isabelle to the garden to pick tomatoes.

It's pretty cute to see their little personalities blossoming.

Being a grandparent is the best.