Our Second day with the grandchildren

I had forgotten what a zoo it is to get children up and going.  When they were growing up, David and Sara kept me running from pillar to post.  Sara has three children and it seems that with just one more little person to take care of, the effort is exponentially time consuming.  Individuality is fascinating to observe, but you really have to be a circus juggler to pay attention to each and every one. 
We sent Ethan off to school, Jacob to the university and then did laundry amid a few rounds of ChickChick.  We decided that we would go to the St. Louise thrift store.   This store is absolutely wonderful and we have found some excellent treasures there.  Today I bought 3 stainless steel mixing bowls there because I forgot to pack my  own mixing bowls to take to our mission.  I am sure I forgot more that the mixing bowls, but there are thrift stores in Maine and I am sure that if there are none, we can always go to Wal Mart.

 At St Louise Thrift Shop we found this Adult Framed Picture

 And we also found this child framed picture.  Isn't he cute.

 St Louise has lots of fine furniture and Sara found a hassock for her living room there

 Oliver took me to the puzzles and games section - we have made some great finds of Harry Potter games there in past visits.  We also found a Radio Flyer tricycle there one Thanksgiving we were here to visit and we managed to get it out into the car right under Oliver's nose without him ever suspecting what we were doing.  He found it under the tree at Christmas and he absolutely loved it.  We got our money's worth in this gift.

The store has a wonderful array of clothing, nick nacks and doodads and lots of clothing and household linens.  The store is packed to the rafters and the proceeds go to Catholic Social Services.  Sara and I just love this store.
As is our usual practice, after a couple of hours digging around in St. Louise, we head off to Pizza hut.  Nothing like filling up the corners of an empty stomach with plenty of Pizza and root beer.
We then went to Morrell Hall on the university campus which is a museum for Natural History.  It is amazing just how many dinosaurs died and left their whole skeletons behind for the paleontologists to find and put back together for display in the museum.  There is even a room that contains hands on exhibits and the little ones had a wonderful time digging and touching.
We picked up Ethan at 4pm.  He had math club this afternoon and  by 5pm we were off to the Pioneer Park where we took family pictures.
After that we went to the pizza parlor attached to Champions fun place and ate dinner there and went to the go cart area and we all drove go carts around the track.  They were difficult to get into and out of - especially if you are wearing a straight skirt (and I was).  I did not know we would be doing the go carts when I dressed in my missionary clothes for the pictures.
We picked up the birthday cake on the way home and we ate cake before putting the kids to bed.  Lyla found that she had left her little beanie baby dog from St. Louise at Champions and so Jacob and Bill went back to get it for her.  Bill also gave a father's blessing to Sara and to Jacob.  We gave one to David during his last visit to us.
It is sad to leave the family tomorrow, but leave we must because our commission is to be missionaries and we are needed out east.  On the other hand, many memories have been made and kept in picture form and I am very very happy that we stopped to see the family on the way out to our mission assignment.