Viva Le Papa!!!

This past week and a half, we have been very fortunate to have had my father-in-law Harold (the kids all call him Papa) visiting us. It's been almost a year since we last saw him. San Diego, California is sooo far away, and well pictures and phone calls only go so far. Needless to say, all of us were glad he was able to come be with us for a short while.

With the new house, we had a whole agenda and list of things for us to do. And boy did we have work for him to do. I wanted advise on gardening and decorating. Garth wanted to build something with his dad. And apparantly, Harold had his own agenda as well ... First he and the boys made loaves and loaves of banana bread. (Millie even enjoyed a loaf herself. She gave it rave reviews.) Then, when we allowed him breaks from designing and woodworking and gardening, he fried up a humongous batch of his mother's cake donuts. Then, we all went to Griffin's school and learned a silly song about donuts and enjoyed the fruit of his labors. (Millie did not partake of the donuts, much to her shagrin.)

Here is Papa and his musician's assistant, Harrison, instructing Griffin's class.

Here is a great shot of Griffin proudly watching his Papa lead his friends in the ode to donuts.

And here's the performance. The kids really did a great job, and more importantly they all loved "Mr. Harold's" donuts.

After winding down the donut production facility, Papa moved into Cinnamon Roll territory. Again using his mother's recipe, he whipped up about what I swear is 100 dozen cinnamon rolls and butter horns. (By the way, Millie gives the cinnamon rolls two paws up.) Then on Thursday we all played hookie and took Papa to our favorite spots in Grand Rapids ... the Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park and the Grand Rapids Children's Museum.

Here Papa and Maclin are heading into the gardens. Papa has no idea what fun awaits him.

First we had to take Papa to the Children's garden to experience the Great Lakes reproduction. Here are the boys zooming their water crafts through the currents and through the "Lakes."

After a thorough soaking at the Great Lakes, we decided Papa might like to experience some other parts besides the Childrens Garden. So we departed to tour some of the sculpture park. Along the way, we found an interesting Horn shaped gourd.

This is one of the waterfalls within the Sculpture Park.

Here Papa, Griffin and Harrison are investigating some more water we found.

We found this sculpture to be very perplexing, mostly because we were not allowed to cross the creek and sit on the eggs.

Jumping from boulders is way more fun than not touching/climging the sculptures!

The boys found this sculpture very interesting.

Here, Griffin is explaining to Harrison what all the parts of the piece mean.

Harrison takes a little break from all our walking.

Here's an interesting factoid about this arch sculpture. There is no mortar or any binding agent holding it together. Gravity holds these boulders in place.

Before heading back out to the car to find lunch and the Children's Museum, we had to make a stop at the tree houses and cabin. Here Maclin is engaging in his favorite new activity, locking the cabin door. (If I've spoken to you within the last week you already know that I'm the proud owner of a new bathroom door. Garth had to bust the old one down in order to get Maclin out of the bathroom, after he locked himself in.)

After the treehouse and cabin, we coaxed the boys out of Meijer Gardens and into the car with promises of lunch and the Children's Museum.

The museum had installed a new exhibit about safety. The boys spent a blissful afternoon pretending to be various safety and rescue personnel. They sure did love piloting this "helicopter."

I really love the lighting in this picture of Maclin in the helicopter.

And here's Papa napping ... uh ... I mean "manning" the command post.

Here's Paramedic Griffin getting ready to inject a patient.

Firefighter Harrison is ready for action.

Maclin is holding his hat on and driving the car.

Garth and I had grandious plans of all the things Harold was going to help us with while he was here. I got some great pointers on preparing my new flower garden for winter, learned how to properly pull up grass, and plant iris. And he didn't even laugh at me when I didn't know what a flat head trowel was. Garth's priorities were rooted in building something. And boy did they! Together, they spent spent much of the week designing and laboring on the new pantry, or "my office" as Harrison continually tells us. How he managed to squeeze this in between all his marathon cooking sessions is beyond me. But I digress.

My new butler's Pantry. Much of the main level to the new house is a long great room with kitchen, eating area and family room all together. There is a walk in closet off the kitchen, in the dining area. The previous owner used it as a laundry closet. Right after moving in, we had the washer and dryer relocated to a spacious mechanical room in the basement, off the playroom.

Here's the laundry closet before we moved anything. This room/closet made me feel very claustrophobic and I didn't like having laundry spilling out of the room all over the kitchen.

Ta Da!!! And this is what it looks like now. Garth and Papa custom made the desktop. Sanding, staining and laquering it before installing it and all the shelves. They even replaced the door with a bi-fold, which really opens up the space so much! I contributed by painting all the walls inside the room. Harrison felt my color choice was too bland, as he has already decorated one wall with a mural. At least this time it was in pencil and not blackberries.

I don't think the pictures really do the room or Garth and Papa's work justice. It really is an amazing space now.

We thoroughly enjoyed having Papa come stay with us. Keeping up with our busy household and cooking and designing, I'm sure he now needs a nice long rest from us! We were all sad to see him go home, but look forward to his next visit. Here are some of my favorite pictures of Papa and the boys.

Smile? Grimace? I'm not sure here.

Papa and Maclin playing ball with Millie.

Big kisses for Papa.

So, who's next on our guest list? There are many dates still available at the Stidolph Inn-Grand Rapids. Book early. Book often. We love seeing our friends and family.