Grandpa Beard Visit.

We were glad that my father could come up and spend some time with us on Saturday. He has been in Indiana looking after my grandfather as my grandmother is in San Francisco. He really can't be by himself for long so my dad went out to spend some time with him and make sure everything was ok. Were weren't sure if we were going to get to see each other, since things were pretty busy, but were glad that he could sneak away for the day and come visit us. He was only here for a couple of hours but I know the kids loved having him here. We have been very lucky in that this is the third time we have seen him this year. We have been lucky to see him once a year in the past. I guess we will just have to keep coming up with projects to get him out here.

The kids absolutely love it when he is here. He is really like a big kid and loves to play anything with them. Here he is with Maddux playing baseball in the front yard. Not to brag or anything but Maddux can really hit the ball. He hit a couple shots from our front yard over the street. That is probably an 80 foot shot in the air with a nerf ball. If you look at the picture you can see the ball at the top well on its way. He also has a pretty good arm but we need to teach him how to catch. I have a bucket of hard balls that I take him to the park to hit every once in awhile. We haven't been lately as Maddux is now a little hesitant to step in the batters box. I beaned him on the very first pitch the last time we went. Hopefully he will get over it soon. Next Spring will be the first time he will be able to play and I am hoping that they will see him play and let him go straight to coach pitch. I think he hits and throws a little too hard for tee ball. He can't wait to play. He loves being a part of "a team." I just don't know where we are going to find the time to play everything that he wants.

My dad also got a good workout throwing the kids while he was here. I don't know how it started but know every time he comes over they go and lay down in front of the couches and put their arms up for him to grab. He then is suppose to swing them around and throw them on the couch. It is funny because after every throw Nolan will pop up and say "one more time." It is funny because there is never one more. You will have to constantly throw him until your arms are tired and you can't pick him up.

Here are some good aerial shots of the boys flying to the couch. It doesn't like they go that high until you look at the pictures on the camera. What is even more amazing is that no one got hurt and that my dad could throw them as long as he did.

















We did manage to get a couple family pictures with him here. He was here the day after Payton was born but she is so much bigger now. Here he is with his only granddaughters.

We also did get a picture of him with all grand kids. Since these opportunities don't present themselves very often we have to take advantage whenever we can. We even managed to get one semi decent shot with all the kids paying attention.






The last thing that he did right before he left was to dance with the kids. This started in January when we had him working on the house for a couple of months. We would turn the radio on and he would dance all over with them. To this day they still talk about that and every time they hear that grandpa is coming over that is the one thing they want to do. I guess it just isn't the same as dancing with mom or dad because they don't get nearly excited to do that. I guess that is grandpa and their thing. It took Nolan a little while to get in there but eventually he did. He loves to dance but may have been a little intimidated by the bigger kids.


We are so grateful that grandpa was able to find some time to come up and visit us. It would had been a shame if we were that close and didn't get to see each other. We are going to try and get him out here again this winter and promise not to put him to work. He was able to go with us last January to Kalahari for Maddux's birthday and loved it. We are thinking of going them again and since he has a plane ticket that expires in April it may work out for all of us to do that again. I know the kids, as well as Jennie and I, would love to have him out again.