Grandchildren!!!

 

I guess it's close to cliché', but I don't know if there is anything more precious than grandchildren. I am fortunate enough to have four of them to love...with another on the way (so exciting).

Jesse is 20 years old and the most wonderful young man. He came out to help me build a new summer sleeping platform this spring. We had lots of fun, got the job done, and shared many great conversations.

Jesse and a couple of other young bachelors realized a rite of passage when they moved into their own rental house earlier this month. When Moriah and I went for a visit to Albuquerque last week, Jesse invited us to a barbeque in his own backyard. It was delicious! I can't believe how quickly time flies. It seems just a short while back that he was standing on a chair in my kitchen, helping me to cook!

Matthew, my second grandboy is 15 1/2. His grades in school are excellent (straight A's at the end of his freshman year), but his true loves in life are playing sports and fishing. 

Matthew participates in track and wrestling, but football is where his heart is. His self-discipline is amazing to me.

Matt would rather be fishing for bass than doing almost anything else. We enjoy fishing together and he teaches me something new every time we go out. Sweetly, he thought we should document my big catch of the day just to prove I wasn't skunked!

Canyon is six years old and is constantly adding new skills and levels of understanding to his world. He proudly graduated from kindergarten in May, able to read simple books and add and subtract numbers.

He's always creating and engineering something. He worked for two evenings on the "Overflow Creek" dam (the water that briefly runs down a slope when my tank overfills).

He practiced snorkeling the last few days so he can try it out when he goes to Hawaii this summer.

Trek Blue is a happy 4 year old boy with the most amazing imagination. He tells me incredible stories and I realize he isn't sure himself where reality ends and fantasy begins sometimes.

While Canyon was trying to get his dam to hold water, Trek offered his assistance in the form of "Mighty Mud"- a superhero who could bring handful after handful of wet dirt to the engineer.

This little boy LOVES dogs and other animals. He was so tickled that Aiko wanted to take a nap on his lap. And he snuck treats and bones into his bed at my house one night to lure one of the dogs to sleep with him. Mocha was glad to oblige and slept at the foot of his bed all night.

These four boys, from four to twenty, are such joys in my life! We are all excited that another baby will be joining our family around mid-January of next year. Canyon and Trek are thrilled at the thought of a baby in their home. They sort of think they'd like a girl. I guess all of us would be tickled with that, but loving these guys as much as I do, I really can't imagine it will make a difference in the end.