Visiting Grandpa & Grandma Kirchen

I’m grateful that Kyle got off work early today. After we toured the Symantec building we got in the van and headed south to visit my grandparents. The drive to their house wasn’t a long one, maybe a couple of hours, and I recognized their property before we turned onto their street. We turned into their driveway and parked by the garage. Grandpa and Grandma came out of the house as we were unloading the kids from the van. It wasn’t long before the kids discovered a couple of cows in one of the pastures. Dinah couldn’t be kept away and she and Lydia ended up roaming the pasture, while we warned them to mind where they were walking so they don’t step in any surprises. We were invited in the house and Grandma gave the kids some lemonade. Then we went out back. The kids were of course attracted to the pool.

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Last time I was at their place they had a pond. But right now it is all dried up.

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See the bridge behind Jeremy? That’s where the pond was. That bit of land would stick up out of the middle of the pond. We used to go down to the pond to try to catch frogs. 🙂

After we shooed the kids out of and away from the pool, walked to the other side of the yard. Here one of the kids discovered an acorn on the ground, so they all began hunting for more.

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Just a side note, Dinah’s skirt is not wet because she peed her pants, it’s wet because wading her feet in the pool was not enough. She just HAD to try to get more of herself in the water. That is why we made the kids get their feet out of the pool and put their shoes back on.

I remember when this area of the yard was a lawn. Looks like they ripped that out and made it more natural looking with stepping stones going right through it. Along the path Lydia found this little elephant. Kyle tried to make her believe it was a live baby elephant, but she was too smart to believe that.

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Finally in our tour of Grandpa and Grandma’s property, we came to the orchard. The kids were excited to find apples on some of the trees and wanted to know if there were any ripe ones they could have. Like they have never seen apples growing on trees before. 😛

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Grandpa and Grandma offered to take us out to dinner but before leaving their house, I got some pictures of them with the kids.

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We ended up going to a restaurant called Shari’s. At the restaurant, Grandpa commented on how amazed he at just how well behaved and happy Adam is. Adam’s face just beamed with happiness. I guess considering he has been stuck in either his car seat or the hotel room for the past few days it’s amazing that he is happy and not totally grumpy and ready to go home. Just look at that face!

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Grandpa also exclaimed just how much Lydia reminds him of my mom when she was about that age. He could not get over it. We had an enjoyable evening, even though we waited a LONG time for the food. It took so long to come out that Grandpa decided to get up and go find out what was taking so long. The food finally did arrive, and mine was quite impressive to look at:

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They called it “brioche French toast”. French toast made out of some special kind of bread with some pink berry filling, covered in berries and served with whipped cream. It was super yummy too.

When everyone was finished eating dinner, we thanked Grandpa and Grandma, and said goodbye. Kyle had been texting back and forth with Liesl for part of the afternoon and evening, and had decided that since our visit with Grandpa and Grandma was so short, that we had time to drive further south, and visit Liesl in northern California before we needed to head home. And so our adventure continues. 🙂

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