It really has a lot to do with food

We had a lot of busy days at Grandma and Grandpa's house but we also had some days that were just play days with cousins.  The kids love playing with Jessie and Jason's kids.  Every time they get together they make movies.  They made a couple of different movies this time.  One was a made up Studio C type comedy and the other was an adventure movie with Eli as the evil dude.  They dressed him up as a spy or something.  

I think that one of Carol's love languages is food.  She is a great hostess and prepares her house perfectly for guests, even down to ironing the sheets in the guest rooms.  All her preparation and care is her way of saying through actions that she loves us.  I always appreciate it (even if I don't really need any of that.) because I know that she wants us to be happy and feel comfortable at her house.  Another thing she does to show her love is making fantastic food.  Her food is so good.  It makes it hard to resist such yummy treats!  She loves to surprise the kids with treats and prepare delicious meals.  We rarely eat dessert but at Carol's house we had dessert every night.  I don't think Steve and Carol eat dessert every night normally, just when we visit.  One night the kids all roasted S'mores around the fire.  

Another food thing during our trip was donuts.  On the way to Steve and Carol's house Mike decided that we needed a "thing."  He said we needed something that was our family trip thing and since we all liked donuts we should make that our thing.  I do love donuts.  We looked up popular donut shops near Bel Air and found Paradise Donuts.  We went for breakfast one morning and each chose a different donut.  

One treat the kids all look forward to is their trip to 7/11 with Grandpa.  Grandpa is a big soda drinker and he makes a couple of trips to 7/11 a day for a soda.  When we visit he takes one kid with him each day on his 7/11 trip.  He lets them choose whatever flavor and size of a Slurpee and even buys them a candy straw.  They love it.  They all look forward to the Slurpee, obviously, but they also really enjoy their one on one time with him.  Isaac told us one night, "Grandpa is cool to talk to.  He knows so much and explains things so well."  Eli also told us about his conversation with Grandpa and how he dreams of buying a motorcycle.  I really hope that these 7/11 trips will be a great memory of talking to Grandpa.

Besides eating good food we went to the movies, played at a bounce house (where I got to meet one of Mike's high school friends), played at the cousin's house, and swam in the hot tub.  It was a very full, busy week and we enjoyed every bit of it!