A week or so with each set of grandchildren Back to home page Below are some photos with a narrative in the captions beneath each photo. Click on a smaller image below to see a larger version of the picture. When viewing a larger picture, clicking "Next" allows you to look at the larger pictures one at a time. Even the larger versions of these images are not of sufficient resolution for a quality print. If you would like a higher resolution printable picture, please let me know.

In this picture we are meeting the children after not seeing them for about three months. Samantha is glad to see us, while Kate is getting used to the visitors.

Samantha is showing off her pink Texas boots.

Kate is four months old.

Samantha is three and a half years old.

A giggling baby.

Three monkeys, one a lot more cute than the other two, in my opinion.

Little Miss Sunshine.

Kate is the center-piece in the middle of the meal table while we eat. Thus she is the focus of our conversation.

The extended family is eating a picnic lunch in the park.

Samantha liked the swings.

And the slide too.

Kate was sound asleep during the miniature golf game.

Late in the afternoon, Samantha wanted Grandaddy to push her on the swing again.

Four cousins in a restaurant.

Four cousins in a chair.

We went for a walk along the river one afternoon. At this point everyone had a walking stick.

Samantha is interested in the vegetables being grown in the community garden in the rich flood-plain soil.

At the State Fair one must have a corny dog.

In the livestock barns Samantha enjoyed seeing lots of different kinds of farm animals. Here she is looking at two new-born lambs.

These are two miniature horses. She also saw full-size horses of several varieties, pigs, chickens, ducks, goats and cattle.

Kate was awake for the cattle barn.

Samantha is excited before the ferris wheel starts turning. After that we rode bumper boats.

Then it was time for the carousel.

While she is waiting for the airplane ride to start, she is looking tired. But she enjoyed the ride.

The air is a bit cooler in the evening so she has her pink hooded sweatshirt on, for her last ride (it's a dragon I think).

We spent a week with the other family of grandchildren and their other grandparents. The resort hotel is in the center of this picture, on the northwest coast of Rhodes, Greece.

Angelina, age six, is all dressed up after being the flower girl at a wedding.

Evan, age two, didn't go to the wedding.

Oliver, ten months old, also got his picture taken with Angelina.

Angelina's grandmother has just handed her a water gun. She is figuring out how to spray water, and not aiming it at anyone -- yet!

She seems to have sprayed her brother's face.

Evan finds a bucket of water.

And decides the palm tree and the weeds around it need watering.

Angelina spent a lot of time in the pool. Here she is getting ready to jump into the water.

And here she is landing in the water.

Here she is taking a breath of air before demonstrating her swimming.

She is kicking energetically but had not yet learned to coordinate feet and hand strokes at the same time.

Angelina has good reason for smiling broadly. She learned a lot playing and experimenting in that pool.

At the evening meal, everyone looks tired from a day at the pool.

It's not just the children that look tired.

We were all tired.

We went to see a castle the next day. Angelina is standing on a wall overlooking a park in what was in medieval times the outer moat, outside of the town walls.

While crossing the bridge to the town wall gate, Even stood still for a moment.

Within the walled town are streets full of shops and restaurants, but dominated by the palace restored in the early twentieth century.

While touring the palace one of the highlights for the children were the large wood chests, which they said were treasure chests.

As the family emerged from the town wall gate, everyone looked tired.

When we found a playground across the street it certainly rejuvenated Evan for a while.

The next day it was back to the pool.

Evan is looking apprehensive. He was confident in the wading pool, but this is the big pool. Perhaps he is remembering having slipped underwater twice in previous days and being yanked out by a parent or grandparent.

Angelina had become very comfortable in the water. She kept trying different things.

After this picture, Angelina swam, dog paddle style, out to a point deeper than she intended. She put her feet down and it was too deep for her to stand. I was sitting at the edge of the pool about ten feet away. When I saw her situation, I was ready to jump in, totally forgetting that I had a rather badly twisted ankle, but I paused to see what Angelina would do with the situation. She simply resumed dog paddling energetically, took a big gulp of air and held her breath, turned around and paddled back toward the steps. On the way she took another gulp of air and continued holding her breath and paddling. When she stood up I congratulated her on her great swimming! Only then did I realize that had I leapt to her rescue, I would surely have set back my ankle recovery. I'm grateful that I had paused a moment to let her confidence in the water become so evident.

I love her beaming pride in all she had learned in that pool.

Over in the shade, Oliver is still looking sleepy after a long nap.

The family came out to say good-bye as we departed. They went home a few days later. Back to home page