The Smiths: Memorial Day and Palo Duro with Grandpa and Grandma Larsen

Our Memorial Day was EXTRA memorable this year because Grandpa and Grandma Larsen came!

The kids wasted no time putting Grandma to work playing with them.

We took the kids up to the church parking lot to ride bikes, scooters, and electric toys while Grandpa went to see if we could get tickets to Palo Duro Canyon.

The tickets to get into the park were sold out for the day, but he found a private company that did Jeep tours so signed us up for one of those. Biggest mistake of my life. Ok, not really, and I do enjoy looking back on pictures, but the actual experience was traumatizing. And not just for me. Seth was crying before we even started!

Basically, you sit in the back of a military style hummer and go extreme off-roading and with occasional stops at very precarious drop offs to see the canyon. Some of us loved it (Grandpa, Eve, and Abigail) and some were scared for our lives (everyone else).

I guess technically Halle and Cora were in the middle - didn't love or hate it. Cautiously optimistic.

When we weren't being tossed like rag dolls, the views were pretty amazing.

Our guide took us to the 100+ foot drop off and let the girls crawl out and peak over the edge. My heart was in my throat just watching. This was as close as I would get to take pictures. Grandpa leaned right over with his phone and took videos/pictures, which I'm sure were amazing. I couldn't watch. Andrew kept an eye on Seth.

Abigail and Eve couldn't get enough!

It was very, very hot and Seth screamed and cried any time we were in the jeep. He didn't mind when he could get out and walk a bit. But we obviously had to watch him very carefully. Cactus, poisonous plants (pointed out by the guide), and sheer cliffs aren't too little boy friendly.

These two. This part was the worst. A hundreds foot drop off, extreme wind, a gap from this rock out to the boulder the guide literally jumped them to....what's not to love? I honestly expected one of them to fall. It was horrible. And look at those smiles.

Halle was wise and stayed safely back with me.

The guide literally threw them over his shoulder and jumped out to that rock. Grandpa followed. The guide offered to jump me over to. Ha, yeah right. He said he's carried brides out there before.

Luckily, the girls stayed sitting. The wind was so intense.

Seth hated the jeep ride so badly. It was kind of funny, but I also felt bad. I could feel his pain. The baby and I did not enjoy the ride.

But we finally made it back in one piece. It was a miracle! And Grandpa walked the kids over to see the horses (the place also offers horseback rides) before we left.

And even a little donkey!

We were hot and some of us emotionally exhausted by the end - so we stopped for Braums ice cream cones! Nothing they can't fix!

Seth managed to eat it when we got home and ended up with his face looking like this:

Um....wrong end.

Good thing ice cream fixes everything!

These cones are almost too big for the younger kids.

Later that afternoon, Grandpa took the three older girls out to Cadillac Ranch and helped them paint their names! It went a bit better than our attempt in November with Aunt Lisa with me on crutches and the freezing weather.

We love Grandpa who helps us have such great adventures!

Playing Apples to Apples that night, Grandpa managed to find a pose that captured all of his adjectives. :)

Apparently all of those adventures were on Saturday, the 23rd. We enjoyed a nice, quiet Sunday of church at home with Grandpa and Grandma on the 24th.

Seth and his intense hatred of posed group pictures. Always has to be restrained.

Besides all the adventures, Grandpa also helped us with more projects! He opened up the piano and managed to fix a few of the broken keys. Enough that it's playable now and just needs to be tuned. The rest of the broken keys are high or low enough that I almost never use them.

Seth enjoyed all the manly projects. Grandpa and Andrew also managed to get the washing machine rebalanced - it's been shaking since we moved in and driving me crazy!

On Monday, Memorial Day, we decorated for Abigail's birthday, even though it wasn't until Tuesday. Grandpa was having to leave Tuesday morning and Abigail had chemo, so we did most of her birthday stuff on Monday. Grandpa helped me decorate and in true engineer fashion, kept redoing the streamers on the fan until he got the most aerodynamic arrangement he could. Then he helped the kids enjoy them!

For dinner that night, he made homemade root beer and ice cream!

We tried an science experiment with food coloring, oil, and alka-seltzer than didn't quite work like I had hoped.

We had a yummy Memorial Day dinner that night! With Abigail's birthday cake and homemade ice cream for dessert! (Pictures of the cake in her birthday post.)