Spring Break in Elko, Nevada

Ross had a whole week off from work after Easter for spring break. And it just so happened that this same week his mom and aunt Mary Ann would be in Elko, Nevada taking care of Grandma Mary while her daughter was out of town vacationing with her family. Grandma Mary (who used to live in Fallon, NV) had a pretty bad heart attack about six months ago and has since been living with her daughter and son-in-law, Judy and LaVelle. Her health is still pretty bad, but she's still hanging in there. And even though we've sent pictures, she still hadn't met Leah in person. So we took advantage of the chance to travel out and see her.

There wasn't a whole lot to do in Elko and I'm sure people wondered why we would want to spend our vacation time there. But it was so nice to just get away and have a relaxing time with family. While we were there Ross and I went to see "The Hunger Games." We also watched "The Help" at the house. Ross did a lot of reading and I did some reading and worked a lot on a puzzle that Grandma had out.

And Leah loved being able to spend so much time with her Grandma Leslie. They played outside when the weather was good, went on walks to get the mail, played downstairs coloring and putting together Leah's little puzzles, and Leah's favorite activity - watching the clocks go off each hour. They have a musical clock and a coo-coo clock that go off one right after another. Leah was totally fascinated by them and her Grandma helped make sure she got to see them as much as possible. Right after they went off, she would be ready to watch them again. We had to explain to her that it would be lots of minutes before she could hear them again.

Leah also liked playing with Grandma's dog, Teddy. She was a little nervous around him at first, but by the end of the week, she was throwing his ball for him trying to get him to play fetch with her. Teddy is a poodle and I thought it was kind funny that when she first saw Teddy, Leah called him a sheep instead of a dog.

One day while we were there, Ross and I decided to get out of the house and take Leah to a local park. After searching on the Internet, we found one that looked fun and easy to find. Boy did we hit the jackpot with this park. It was one of those parks that kind of looks like a little town made out of wood. The playground was full of stairs and little nooks and crannies for Leah to explore. Since this girl LOVES stairs, she had a grand time playing there. Here's a couple of pictures of her playing. Check out the huge grins!

Ross found this part of the playground to climb on, so of course Leah thought she needed to climb up it too.

We also tried to fly kites while at the park, but all we could get them to do was spin in circles and dive to the ground before they both broke. Maybe I'll fix them and try to get them flying again another time.

Here's a picture of us we took with Grandma Mary right before we left. (We actually were having such a nice visit, that we stayed one day longer than we had planned.)

This may not have been the most "exciting" way to spend our spring break, but I am SO GLAD we decided to go. We probably won't be able to spend so much quality one-on-one time with Grandma again. In fact, the night before we got there, Grandma had a pretty bad heart/anxiety attack. It took her a while to recover from it. She slept a lot the first couple of days we were there. But when she was feeling better, I enjoyed vising with her and listening to her tell me about her life and family. So to me the time we spent there was priceless. We love you Grandma Mary! Thanks for such a great visit!