Grandma and Grandpa Socci Visit: Part 3

Another day, we took Grandma and Grandpa bowling. 

It's amazing how long ONE game of bowling can take.

Brynnlee showed off her newly acquired skills.

Grandpa bought fries and soda from the snack bar and the kids were in heaven.  But that 's not all we did...

Grandma and Grandpa Socci Visit: Part 2

The first place we took Grandma and Grandpa was to Trafalga.  This is right after Kaleb's mental breakdown upon finding a preying mantis in his bumper boat.  That was comedy.

Grandpa sure was a good sport to squeeze in with Bradley.  He eventually just put him up on his lap.

Then we headed off to some more rides.  Kaleb got brave this time and actually joined Jaden and Bradley.

Don't let his faces fool you.  He had fun.  This was a ride that just went up and down the side of a lighthouse.

Next was a mini Buccaneer.

I love it when the boys are "Best Buddies."  It's rare, but it's beautiful.

Next was the car racing.

Again, pay no attention to the look of terror on Kaleb's face.  It's all a facade.

See? He's just fine!

Next was the Rock Wall.  I told you Kaleb was getting braver.  Check him out!

Bradley rode the Frog Hopper...

And again, Kaleb surprised us with his bravery and actually joined him.

After that, Charles, and I took Jaden, Kaleb, Bradley and Grandpa to play their first game of Laser Tag.  I had forgotten how much fun that is!  We were the blue team.  We got slaughtered.  But we had a blast anyway.

Then we all took a break and ate some Dippin' Dots.  A first for Grandma and Grandpa.

After fueling up, we all played a round of Black Light Miniature Golf, lost Bradley, found Bradley and then headed to the arcade.

Charles and Chuck both swear they kept hitting "Jackpot" on this game, but were getting cheated.  It was true.  I saw it with my own eyes. 

The kids found a game that all 3 of them could play together and be on a team.  It was pretty cute to watch.

Even Charles had to get in there. 

And Grandpa was good to fill in when needed.

Who seems to enjoy the hunting game more, the little boys?...

... or the big boys?

Skeeball was Brynnlee's favorite game.

Grandpa made sure the kids never ran out of coins.  We decided to leave, when Brynnlee had had enough.

They won a few tickets.

It took forever to push them all through the counting machine.

But when we were done, we had a grand total.  

I turned to Sherrie and said we needed 3 more tickets.  She just happened to find exactly 3 more on the ground.  900.  Wow.

After 12 hours of shopping the prize bar with their tickets, the kids came home with their loot.  The older 2 chose a lot of army men and indians.  Bradley loaded up on candy. 

That was a fun day out, but that's not all we did...

Grandma and Grandpa Socci's Visit: Part 1

Grandma and Grandpa Socci came for a visit.  We got to have them all to ourselves for 8 or 9 days.

They brought the dogs, who set up camp in our shed.

They hadn't  even been here an hour when Sherrie got herself this lovely shiner.  I told her it looked like she had the hot smokey eye-shadow look going on.  This was when it looked the coolest.  After that, the color traveled down her face and took on the more traditional look of a blackeye.

How did it happen,  you ask?  Well.  In a nutshell:  Sherrie was holding onto the dog leashes while the guys were unloading the dog stuff from the truck and bringing it into the backyard.  One time when the gate opened, the dogs started going for the open gate, tangled Sherrie up in the leashes, which caused her to trip and fall flat her face.  Luckily she landed on the grass (barely missing the concrete) but she was wearing her glasses.  Ouch.

We hung out and relaxed a bit...

played with the electricity set, and built tree houses and forts with our blocks...

One day while the kids were playing outside, Brynnlee learned how to climb up the slide.  I wasn't there, but this is what I heard.  Charles and Sherrie were taking pictures, while Brynn made it all the way up and onto the deck.

One of the boys was already up on the deck, and got really excited that she had made it up all by herself.  He said, "Good job Brynnlee!" and went forward to  give her a hug.  Well Brynnlee isn't the most affectionate kid on the block and she started stepping backwards towards the rockwall.  That was when the cameras dropped... and so did Brynn.  She fell all the way down to the grass, but miraculously landed on her feet!

Another day, Grandma and Grandpa came home from the store with yo-yos for the boys.  Duncan yo-yos to be exact.  The boys had a lot more fun with those than the cheap prize ones you get at an arcade.

Then there was silly time with Grandpa.

I think Kalebv was pretending like he couldn't hear anyone with those headphones on.  Until...

Almost everyday of their visit, ended up like this.

We spent only a few days hanging out around the house.  Grandma and Grandpa had just endured  a 3-week stay at Great-Grandpa Socci's house where they had spent 99% of the time inside the house doing nothing.  We were determined to get them out of the house and give them a little bit more excitement on this trip.  Sooo....