A Very Special Weekend with the Family

This last weekend was pretty special. The UI Homecoming events drew Will, Rob, and Betsy and their families back here for a few days. Betsy, Pete, Henry, and Clara stayed at our house while they were here. So, to begin, here are a few pictures of part of their time with us.

Clara was all decked out in a pretty Hawkeye gold colored outfit, appropriate for the weekend's festivities. At this point in her life, she very much prefers to be always within inches of her mother or father. Nevertheless, you can get lots of smiles from this little sweetie.

Henry spent part of his time taking rides on our chair lift. Yikes! He's almost four!

Henry had received a "visible human" toy from Betsy's cousin Katie, who had stayed with Betsy and Pete while doing an internship in the Chicago area. Since Henry and I had discussed skeletons, muscles, and other things about the human body in some of our recent letters to each other, he wanted to work together to assemble this toy. Here he is with the final results.

Meanwhile, Grandma worked her "dog whisperer" tricks on Franklin.

On Sunday morning, Kathie fixed an incredible brunch. Everyone came out for that, so we had almost the whole family together. (Wish Jessica & Mike and Travis could have been here too!!) Here are all of us--Kathie and me, Kathie's mother, and all three of my kids and their families. This was Anders' first trip to Iowa City or anywhere else for that matter. Only Kathie and I had previously met him. Everyone else got to meet him this weekend for the first time. Less than four years ago, this picture would have had only nine people in it. With the grandkids, there are now 13.

Here is another shot with just my three children and their families.

I took ten shots of all of my grandchildren (the cousins) together. I couldn't decide which of the ten were the best shots, but here are two pretty good ones.