Grandma Finch

In June my grandma Leah Finch passed away at the age of 95. Grandma is a strong woman whose father died when she was 3, lived through the depression, moved all over the country, and who was taking classes and reading "good" books in her 90s. (No fiction and fluff for grandma, she read biographies and histories and kept a list of all she read.)

All of the Finch family gathered for the funeral and it was wonderful to be with cousins I hadn't seen for 10 years. And Henry loved playing with the other great and great-great grandchildren. That was wonderful. And I love how because of the gospel funerals aren't tragic. I love the words of comfort and hope and the knowledge that I'll see grandma and grandpa again. Wahoo!Running around the church with the great and great great grandchildren before the funeral. Henry's in blue.


At the cemetery Henry stopped at the tombstone and read "H-E-N-R-Y That's me!" And we got to tell him about Grandpa Henry and he thought that was cool. I think it was the first time he kind of understood who he was named after.

Me and my beautiful mother.

visits from Grandparents

May was a time of visitors and it was great. My parents came and stayed with us for a week and then Dell's parents came by. We had so much fun with grandmas and grandpas and we all are missing them.

Here's some highlights from my parents visit
This is Henry playing on the wii fit that Mom and Dad brought. Thank you!!!!!! We play with it all the time and love it. Especially the balance games. What's best is that Henry likes watching us do it as much as doing it himself.

Of course we went to the river walk. Henry lay down and put his hand in the water and then two other little kids came over and did it too. Guess Henry is a bad example, but oh well, you just can't keep a kid from water and this way is better than the total immersion way. At the riverwalk we discovered our new favorite restaurant-- Boudros. Yum yum yum. Mom and Dad had lobster tail with spinach and cheese empandas. I had a fabulous green salad with papaya and pine nuts and Dell had grilled pork with the tastiest garlic mashed potatoes and wilted spinach EVER! Yum. It was so good we took Dell's parents there too. Oh and the best part is the guacamole that they make right at the table for you. We ate two bowls full.
We also explored historic San Antonio starting with the mission trail. This is mom and Henry inside a room at Mission San Jose. We all enjoyed walking around, thought the visitor center movie was a little lame, and Henry and grandma and grandpa enjoyed the light up map with narration. After Mission San Jose we saw another mission and then Henry and I were out of steam.

Another day we went to the spanish govenor's mansion, though mansion may be a bit of a stretch, it was tiny. But the gardens were lovely and cool. Henry and grandpa and fun at the fountain while grandma and I rested in the shade. Then in the kitchen Henry got to grind corn-- it's a family tradition. There are many pictures of me as a child grinding corn in Mesa Verde Colorado.

All in all it was a great trip. I'm so grateful my parents had a conference in Austin and could come early to spend time with us.

Visits With more Grandparents-- Natural Bridge Caverns

Two days after my parents left Dell's parents arrived in San Antonio. They were doing a whirlwind tour of children on their way home from serving a mission in India. Way to go Mom and Dad!! Henry loved meeting them at the airport, though cried when he realized that he wasn't going to get to go on a plane. (That poor kid loves airplanes. He's saving his pennies to buy a ticket.) Because Alex and Dixie and fam live here too we decided to split the time with mom and dad with Alec and Dixie taking the first two days and us taking the next two. Of course we ended up doing things together most of Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday we all went north a bit to Natural Bridge Caverns. Henry was a little nervous about the caves, but soon learned to tolerate them. And once we found pancake rocks he thought they were great fun.

ya gotta go to the guadalupe river

"it was so much fun. we went to the guadalupe river. with grandma and grandpa. I was swimming. We put it (water gun) in water and then squish it and then we get all watery! And be messy." Henry Dunn age three.
I think Henry does the best job of summing up the fun and relaxing time we had with Grandma and Grandpa Dunn at the Guadalupe River.

Sarah came to Visit!!!!!

Elijah eating his dinner and checking out the lime for the pasta salad.
Sarah and Elijah in the middle of the river.
Dell and Henry in the middle of the Guadalupe River.


Our dear dear dear friend Sarah (can you tell how much we love her) came to visit last week with her son Elijah. We've known Sarah since Dell's first year of medical school. She was in his anatomy lab group and he told me "you should meet Sarah, you'd like her." And told Sarah "you should meet my wife." We met and have been friends ever since.

Well Sarah brought 18 month old Elijah down for a couple of days in Texas and we had such a great time. Unfortunately I was having so much fun I forgot to bring my camera to most of what we did, but here's some highlights.

Alamo and Riverwalk. Ate outside at little Mexican restaurant on the river. Then got yummy chocolate.

Outlet shopping. Guadalupe River-- learning to skip rocks (Sarah is a natural, her first toss got two skips!) and eat rocks (though Elijah seemed to think water melon was tastier). Sonic tater tots and shakes and Elijah's first root beer float.

Kentucky Derby Cooking class (oh the mint brownies we can make now) browsing my favorite grocery store-- one of the nice things about Sarah is that she loves doing the boring things that I do. Who else would be happy to walk up and down aisles seeing what neat food is available?

Walks to parks, eating at Canyon Cafe, talking all day and night, and Henry waking up each morning asking for Elijah. When we dropped Sarah and Elijah off at the airport Henry sobbed. Miss you already Sarah and Elijah. Come back soon.

Sonic Goodness

On the way back from the Guadalupe River we stopped at Sonic for shakes and tater tots. Henry was very excited about his milkshake and Sarah got a root beer float that Elijah promptly ripped out of her hands. We all had a blast watching Elijah enjoy his first float-- he was not keen on sharing it at all! Poor Sarah had to content her self with a couple of slurps and tater tots.

Pictures (above) "don't you touch my root beer float" (below) two little boys happy at Sonic

Bathtime

Here are the two little boys having a bath together. Neither was excited to leave the tub when it was time for bed. What was amazing was how calm Elijah was when his hair was washed. It was as if he didn't even notice Sarah dumping water on him. Henry notices and requires a wash cloth over his eyes, but at least he doesn't scream.