Thursday, August 20, 2009

Family, Friends and Five Generations

A couple weeks ago we visited Spokane, where I have grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins from my mom's side of the family. Here is a photo of Greta with her two "first cousins once removed" (my cousins) Mary and David. On this day Greta had the much anticipated 5 Generations Photo taken, and she was treated like quite the celebrity at my Great Grandmother's home! Everyone had cameras, and many, many photos were taken. Unfortunately my camera decided to act up that day, so I didn't actually get any photos...good thing all that paparazzi was there to back me up.
Here are Greta and her Great Grandpa Ronnie. He was so sweet with her and took her out on his deck to admire the flowers every morning. Maybe in a few years he'll let us use the much loved fire pit in his backyard again. We used to have hot dog and marshmallow roasts on it when I was growing up, and I would love for Greta to experience all that fun.
Five Generations: Great Great Grandmother Margaret (Nanny, as we all call her), Great Grandpa Ronnie, Grandma Kathy, Mama Megan, and Baby Greta. It was so beautiful to see Nanny and Greta together. My mom said that when we arrived at Nanny's house she perked right up--she was so excited to meet Greta! She kept saying that Greta was very smart :-) Greta loved gnawing on 98 year old Nanny's knobbly knuckles. We would love for Greta to meet her other Great Great Grandmother, Granny Pearl--on Matthew's side of the family. She will be 100 this year! But she lives in Detroit...a bit far away for us.
Last weekend we visited Tacoma and Seattle. Our good friends Curtis and Julia hosted us at their home in Seattle for a lovely dinner, a reunion with old friends, and a lovely breakfast the next morning. They are great cooks and we always appreciate the scrumptious food they prepare for us! Here is Greta with Lillian--their daughter--who is a little over a year old now. Even though Lillian is so much bigger than Greta she was very gentle and careful with her. She shared her toys and loved grabbing onto Greta's baby feet! These little gals are sure to be great pals in the years ahead.
Every Wednesday a group of new moms and their babies gets together near my neighborhood. I met them at a parent/infant class at the community centre. Sometimes we meet in a park, or a coffee shop, or someone's house--it is always fun for the babies and mamas to socialize. Yesterday we met at Michelle's home and played in the wading pool. Here is Greta with two of her friends: Jesika and Tai. She is one of the youngest babies and can't sit up on her own yet like some of the others. Good thing there was a special seat for her! She loves the water. After this outing Greta was very tired. As soon as I started walking us home she fell asleep! What a busy day we had!

In Tacoma we stayed with Grandma Judy and Grandpa Hans. They gave Greta many new toys that had been donated by another one of Greta's "first cousins once removed"--Amy. She has 4 kids, none of whom are babies anymore, and very thoughtfully mailed many toys to Grandma Judy's house for Greta. We kept half of them there, for when we visit, and took the other half home. Grandma Judy spent a lot of time playing with Greta and taking her outside to see her beautiful yard. Too bad we didn't get any pictures of them together! But here is a photo of Greta with her Aunt Melissa at Jamjuree Restaraunt in Seattle. Grandma Judy took us all out to dinner and ice cream one night--it was a lovely evening. Greta even had a couple licks of ice cream...but then was up most of the night because Mama just HAD to have fudge on her ice cream...Greta's body doesn't like it when Mama eats chocolate. Oops. Sometimes I conveniently ignore that and then pay for it later! Greta, someday you will LOVE chocolate, I'm sure of it.

2 comments:

melissa said...

cute pictures, though i look like i have some kind of skin disease! :)

Judy said...

I love all the pictures of Greta with her family. I know the summer was exhausting with all the travel but we all really loved seeing you and spending time with Greta.