It's Always Fun When Grandma Comes

Today was the sad day we had to say goodbye to Grandma Tanner. My mom came out last week and we had a fabulous time with her!
Jacob and Caleb were so excited to see her and spend every minute with her that they could. And believe me, it was every minute! We had to convince Caleb that 5 am was a time for sleeping, not playing with Grandma!
We spent the week doing lots of different things. We did some sight-seeing and took Grandma to see Valley Forge, and also went to dinner at Geno's who we believe has the best cheesesteaks around. We would have done more sight-seeing of the city, but she's seen most of the downtown sights & Jeff needed the car a few of the days. Plus a few of the days were cold! We had so much fun though! Some of the boys' favorite activities were going on walks together, finding treasures, making fun pictures with the leaves we collected, feeding the ducks, going to the library and reading tons and tons of books! They also loved having a trip to McDonalds and the great local dollar store to pick out any prize they wanted. They were pretty much in heaven.
Mom loved spending time with Jacob, Caleb, and Matthew. I think they were ready to adopt her as their new mommy! It was fun for her to get to hold and help with Matthew. This is the first time she's been able to see him. And it was great for me! I remember one morning after a night of not much sleep, I looked at the clock and was worried that I wasn't going to make it on time for Jacob's preschool. When I came out of my room, my mom had fed the boys & gotten them all bathed, dressed and ready to go. I was so grateful! I could have really gotten used to having her around! I changed a whole lot less diapers and had a few of those guilt-free naps.
We really enjoyed having mom here and I was glad that we were able to do some fun things together as well. One afternoon we hit a few stores together and found some fun things. And one night we even were lucky enough to get to go out just the two of us. Jeff watched the boys while we stopped at the grocery store and Kohls for a little late-night shopping together. Of course we had lots of late night heart-to-hearts and even did a few movie nights at home. (We love Redbox!)
On Friday night Mom watched the boys while Jeff and I went out on a date together. We went to a hockey game, the Philadelphia Phantoms. We drove down to Jeff's hospital and parked, then took the Subway to the game. It was pretty fun and it ended up being exciting, we tied in the last 2 minutes of the game & won in overtime. It was so much fun to go out together and not even have to worry about the boys at home. They had fun watching a movie and of course reading all their new library books with grandma.
Sunday was fun taking Mom to church. She loved the ward and meeting lots of the wonderful people. It's a little different experience than your typical Idaho wards, and she had a great time. Monday we just enjoyed our last day together and made the most of the time we had. I took her to the airport at 4:45am this morning, so it didn't really count as a real day, but at least she and I had a little more time to spend together one on one.
I'm sure Dad, Lacey & Cole will be excited to have Mom back; they've been missing her I'm sure. But we're sure grateful for the week that we were able to spend with her. Thanks Mom! We love you!