Counting Blessings: Sleepover Time! :)

Today's Blessing:  Jonas!!

Ever since I've dreamed of becoming a Grandma, I've dreamed of the day when I can have my grand-kids come and sleepover at "Grandma's house"...you know, a special weekend just for them with Grandma and Grandpa.  My Grandma Searcy and Grandma Maw use to have us grand-kids sleepover all the time and I have such good memories of those days!  My Grandma Maw always taught me some type of handiwork - she was an expert quilter and a very talented seamstress.  I attribute my love of the home arts to her since my mother never really got into things like that too much.  And my Grandma Searcy always made us scones when we came and she had these cutest "baby-doll" pajamas that us granddaughters would wear when it was our turn to sleepover.  Both of my grandmas made it a much look forwarded too event...they hold a special spot in my memory.

I guess that's why I dream of doing the same with my grand-kids...hopefully I can create a special spot in my grand-kid's memory banks of me.  It's being a little selfish on my part too because it's so much fun too!!

So today we got to have Jonas over for the night.  My daughter Stephanie's little baby girl has become quite the high-maintenance little thing with long bouts of crying, difficulty going to sleep and a very sensitive stomach.  And for some reason (perhaps adjustment to sharing his time with Mom and Dad), Jonas has become quite the little whiny pill himself.  So I offered a Cache Valley Get-Away suggestion to Stephanie and I volunteered to watch Jonas to give them a little break.  She was totally happy to take me up on the offer.  But I must admit, my motives were a little selfish.  Sometimes I feel like I hardly ever see my grand-kids so this gave me the perfect opportunity to have a little "Grandma Time" with Jonas.  I just love that little guy!

Stephanie and her cute little family arrived about 10 am this morning and we got to visit a while before they headed up to Logan around 2:30 pm.  I can't have Alexis overnight yet since she is still very dependent upon her mom, but I did get a little holding time in before she only wanted her mom.  Then we loaded Jonas into the car after Stephanie and Clint left and we headed to "The Children's Treehouse Museum" in Ogden - and let the fun begin!!

What a little cutie! :)

The Treehouse Museum is...WOW!  Tons of stuff to do!  We totally ran out of energy before we ran out of things to to!  Jonas loved the whole place.  In fact, many times I think he was overwhelmed with everything they had to do.  He did have a few favorites though...he loved playing with the brio trains, the medieval castles, and the little people farm sets.  To him the figurines became alive and he loved moving them around and of course they all talked even though I couldn't understand a word they said.  It was so cute to watch him play.  And he did have a couple of things he DID NOT like...like the life-size milk cow and the talking mannequin cowboy!  He instantly covered his eyes and turned into a cement statue when we tried to show him those.

The Treehouse had several different train sets to play with!
Jonas loved them!

Right in the center of the Treehouse Museum is a huge Tree!
It was awesome!

Jonas did like the music center - especially the drums.
A future percussionist maybe?!

Castle Time!

We managed to get Jonas in the King's throne for a quick picture
And I mean quick!

And we got him to smile too!!  (After much coaxing!!)

Enjoying the Farm play area.

After about 2 1/2 hours our tummies started getting hungry and poor Grandma and Grandpa were getting wore out with all that fun stuff, so when Jonas said his tummy hurt we knew it was time to go.  So off to McDonalds we went!  Jonas downed a whole hamburger and then with his energy renewed he was off to play on the "toys".

The musical piano slide at the McDonalds in Brigham City.

It was such a fun day!  We did run into a little problem though when we got back home.  First off, it was almost 8 pm and Jonas hadn't even had a nap.  Not good!  Stephanie explicitly told me if he doesn't get enough sleep he's not a happy boy the next day.  We blew it!  So I tried to quickly get him ready for bed and into bed.  But when Jonas realized his Mom and Dad were not coming back to sleep with him at Grandma's house, he started to cry!  I got him calmed down from that realization but then when he realized he'd be sleeping downstairs, he cried again. Apparently something scares him downstairs.  Sad day!  That's where we sleep!  So I held him and quieted his fears and we moved his bed into our room but it was after 9 pm by the time we finally got him down in bed.  You know the old saying, "Spoil them rotten and then send them home."  Oh dear!  We're guilty! :(  But we had so much fun doing it!  Sorry Stephanie :(