A Visit to Seaforth

I recently spent 4 days with my grandchildren. They live about 60 miles north of here, but at this time of year it might as well be 1000 miles north - the difference in the weather is that extreme.

My daughter and her husband went to Mexico on a well-deserved vacation with my son-in-law's company. I looked forward to having the children to myself to do what we wanted to do with no parental nay-saying - know whatta mean?

The first day was a PD day, but the kids went to daycare as usual, and I wandered around town, thinking about going for a run, and generally wasting time. One of my duties as house-sitter, child visitor and fire-keeper was to trek out to the barn each day and feed and water the dogs. I have never been a fan of having dogs that aren't allowed in the house, but I respect that others don't feel the way I do, so I was happy to do the job. I did it last year - no problems - in fact, the boys came with me each time we went out there, and we had fun doing it.

Things were a bit different this year. We have had more snow this year than in the last 10 years combined. The snow in the field between the house and the barn was up to my knees and sometimes thighs, and what should have been a 5 minute walk, turned into 20. If you think I'm exaggerating - take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Odvx4fsj-9o

The movie was made on the first day while the sun was still out. The wind was wicked and biting cold, and it got worse from there. Friday and Saturday it was snowing so hard I could barely see the barn as I set out, and all my tracks filled in as quickly as I made them. I kept thinking that if I fell and broke a leg nobody would know I was there and nobody would find me. Ok - call me drama queen, but that's how it was - I swear!

Enough whining about that. The boys and I had a wonderful time together. We played games, watched movies, and Noah learned how to rinse the dishes off before they went into the dishwasher. He made it into a science experiment and is looking forward to getting paid for the job.

Hunter heard the words to Barrett's Privateers, and went into hysterics thinking it was about private parts. I've never seen him laugh that hard.

Noah lost his first tooth, and had a visit from the tooth fairy. I'm so happy that she was able to find the tooth without help from his parents. That could have been a disaster.

We ate lots of popcorn, drank lots of fancy hot drinks - hot chocolate, chai tea latte, espresso - thanks Tassimo!

I broke the fireplace fan and had to get it replaced. I bought fireplace logs because I couldn't hack any more wood from the woodpile. I cheated - and I'm proud!

I slipped in the sunroom with a scoop full of cat food and sent it flying all over the room. They'll be sweeping it up until summer.

All in all it was a wonderful time spent with two little boys that I love to bits. I wish I could spend more time with them - but maybe it wouldn't be so special if I could.