Kelsey, Chris and Sweetpea Visit

We had a wonderful few days, enjoying the company of Kelsey and Sweetpea. The original plans were for them to leave Kelsey's folk's place, in Pecos, Texas, early on Tuesday morning, and drive to Midland, Texas, to catch a plane to Albuquerque. But plans are made to be broken, it seems. Sweetpea came down with some stomach flu-like symptoms during the early morning hours of Tuesday, so Kelsey had to cancel their flight plans.

By Wednesday morning, she thought Sweetpea was doing fine, so decided to drive from Pecos to our house, after all. But by the time she got here, there was no doubt that Sweetpea was not well. We took her to an after-hours pediatric clinic near our house, and the doctor confirmed Kelsey's suspicion that Sweetpea had an ear infection. An antibiotic and some ear drops were prescribed.

At first, Sweetpea wasn't too keen on the idea of taking her medicine, so we came up with the idea of having her pretend to give her doll the medicine and ear drops first, each time, and that really helped. Here's a picture of her and Grandpa putting pretend drops into the doll's ears.
The medicine worked very quickly, and by the next morning (Thursday) she was back to her happy, sweet-natured self. We decided a short outing, to the duck pond to feed the ducks, was in order. That evening, Grandpa grilled burgers and Uncle Tim came over to see Sweetpea and have dinner with us.

On Friday we went to see Horton Hears a Who at the theater. Sweetpea did quite well, and, with the help of a tub of popcorn, made it through the entire movie.

Here's a picture of Sweetpea, ready for church on Sunday morning. She loved her new dress, and enjoyed lifting it to show everyone her matching panties! It was a treat for me to have her in my Bible class that morning. After church we went to lunch, at Chili's, with Keith and Sherry.
Monday was a busy day. We spent a couple hours, early in the day, at Explora, the children's museum. Sweetpea enjoyed all of the hands-on displays. Due to a change in plans, that evening Chris was able to fly in and join us for a couple of days, making it possible for him to help Kelsey with the long drive back home.

With the entire family reunited, on Tuesday we all went to the zoo. It was Sweetpea's second time to visit the Rio Grande Zoo, the first time being when she was 10 months old. Below are pictures of Chris, Kelsey and Sweetpea on that first visit, and this visit.

The 10-month visit to the zoo.

This week's visit to the zoo.

Today, bright and early, Chris, Kelsey and Sweetpea piled into their car and headed home. It's a very long trip, but they are hoping to make it without stopping to spend the night. I am so thankful that we had this wonderful time together.