Granddad Visiting

A couple of days ago, on the 27th, my dad called me up to let me know he would have a long lay-over today. He works in North Dakota two weeks out of three, and the third week is spent at home in Idaho Falls. The Sundays book-ending his week off are spent flying to and from work, and the airport connecting the two legs of his flight is DIA. Since we only live about 45 minutes away, we've been pestering him for months, telling him to call us if he ever has a long lay-over so we could drive up and see him. If the lay-over is only an hour or two, it's not really worth it to call us because by the time we'd get to see him, we'd only get 5 or 10 minutes with him before he'd have to go back through security and get to his gate. But one week he had a four-hour lay-over and didn't think to call us until he got home, so I very sternly told him that if it ever happened again, he needed to call us and we would pretty much drop whatever else we were doing so we could come see him and bring him food. Well, this week, he finally took us up on our offer. He knew he was going to have a four-hour lay-over, so he called a couple of days in advance to let us know. We were all so excited! Evie knew that after her nursery class, we were going to see Granddad, and as soon as we got to the church building, she kept asking about seeing her Granddad so we had to remind her it was after her nursery class. After church, we went home and cooked some bacon. Then we gathered all of the makings for BLT's together into a bag and headed to the airport. We had a very excited Granddad waiting for us! We all exchanged big hugs, and sat down in the food court to hang out and chat. I started making sandwiches for everyone while my dad got us all drinks. After lunch was finished, my dad pulled out a bag of Reese's for the girls. He'd seen a Facebook status I'd posted about my girls being happy with chocolate around their mouths from eating some chocolate chip cookies that my visiting teacher had brought me. He thought that he wanted to contribute to chocolate-covered happiness and brought them some candy. I'm going to have to hide the bag from Todd, though: Reese's are his favorite and his eyes lit up when my dad pulled the bag out! I had so much fun just talking to my dad for a couple of hours and watching him interact with his grand-girls. We all really enjoyed our afternoon, and it was sad when the time came to say goodbye so he could head back through security. We're going to spend Christmas with my family this year, but I also hope we can see my dad again before then. This is probably the first time this has ever been written in the course of human history, but "Hooray for long lay-overs!"

Elizabeth was excited to show off her new skill of walking!

"Granddad gave me candy!"

Until recently, Evie was afraid of my dad because of his whiskers. But now, they're best buds!

I get so used to thinking of Evie as a "mini-me" of Todd that it was fun to see her looking so much like my dad!

"Peek-a-boo, Granddad!"

She's such a silly little girl!

I see you, baby!

Lately, Ella has been going through a Stranger-Danger phase and I was afraid she would scream when my dad picked her up. But she had no problem--especially after he gave her things to play with!

I think his beard tickled her head, though. :)

In fact, at one point Todd and I both left for a minute, and Elizabeth didn't even notice we were gone! She was too happy spending time with her Granddad.

I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual, kid.

I laugh at all of the different expressions!

My dad and Evie both have really infectious laughs, so they kept setting each other off all afternoon!

When it was time to go, both girls wanted to walk with Granddad. I don't think he was complaining!

Evie was ready to go, but Ella's legs are only so long...

Daddy grabbed her other hand to help hurry her along, which led to swinging! Whee!

This would be almost a perfect picture if I hadn't accidentally cut off my dad's head...Oops!

Since Ella was having so much fun being swung by Daddy and Granddad, Evie tried to "swing" herself on Granddad's other side. After taking this picture, I put my camera away and took her other hand so she could swing too.