Brenda Hyde: Back to the USA

At 6AM on the very first day back to work in the Middle East after our trip to the States, Hubby D said something I thought was strangely humorous.

Disclaimer: The last few days of our trip were spent in Washington, DC where D worked at his company's office. He also worked every day at the beach, usually for several hours online or on the phone. Was it a "work"cation? Or something.....?

As he was getting on the elevator leaving for work, we had this exchange.

D, “It's amazing. You go to the US and it’s all about leisure time.”

Me, “Yes.”

Elevator arrives and D gets on.

D, “And, then you come back to the Middle East and it’s all about work.”

Me, “Yes?”

The elevator doors are closing.

D. “. . . need more.”

Me, “More leisure time here?”

Doors are closed and the elevator is starting down.

I hear him call up to me through the elevator walls, “No, more work there.”

Before we went to DC we did have a wonderful and relaxing trip in Florida -- I thought. And, while we were in DC we spent some FANTASTIC time with our very good friends SS and ES. They have a new grandson to show off as well. He was sooooo cute.

Mom RA with the NEW big sister, EA.

Little baby WA was so small but it felt very familiar to hold him. AHHH - memories of little LW.

Our granddaughter, ML came to the beach with her friend JB for a week while we were in Florida.

This selfie was taken on our "girls day out."

JB with little LW.

It was great to see ML (and JB, too). She had an outstanding first year in college. She made the Dean’s Honor Roll, the Engineering College Honor Roll, qualified for National Honor Society and earned an additional scholarship from the Dolese Concrete Company to add to her already complete academic scholarship at the University of Oklahoma.

Whew!

Makes me tired just thinking about how hard she worked this year.

I make a point to mention this early on in the blog because I sometimes overlook how great she is doing in school. It has become normal and expected.

While we were walking on the sand one-day, she pointed this out to me.

“LW rolls over and gets a complete blog post. I make straight A’s and not a word.”

She was smiling when she said it, but the more I thought about it, the more I kicked myself. She is right. I brag about her all the time to my friends but I forget to write about her in my blog. I am extremely proud of her and hope she will forgive me for being so thoughtless.

While ML and JB were visiting, we took a trip to the Vero Beach Botanical Gardens. When we arrived, the guide warned us that not much was in bloom. However, we thought it was beautiful and many gorgeous flowers were blooming. I can’t wait to go back when it is really in bloom.

Here I am with ML. The branch at our feet fell right before we sat on the bench and scared us to death.

One night we ventured out to the beach after dark. A nest of baby turtles had just hatched and we were able to see them scurry down to the water. It was amazing.

After ML returned to Oklahoma to get ready for the first week of school and move into her apartment (YES, she has an apartment with 3 other honors students this semester), we went to the beach with our newest older grand kids, MB and AB. We had a terrific time surfing and playing around. They were completely exhausted that afternoon.

MB buried herself.

D playing beach football with AB.

One evening we even took on babysitting LW for a couple of hours. He was helping me cook. Later on he watched golf with Opa D.

Playing Uno with Oma (that's me).

Playing with Opa (that's Hubby D).

Opa is telling LW (while they watch golf on television), "This is the game of golf. Next summer I am going to teach you how to play."

They still have the same barber, but LW is catching up with some cute, blonde fuzz.

We achieved our goal for the summer visit by seeing granddaughter ML and celebrating the new grandson LW’s one half birthday. He is already 7 months old as I write this blog.

I took LW shopping while his mom had her nails done. We had a great time. Here he is with his bag of goodies from the Gymboree store. I think he likes shopping with Oma almost as much as ML does.

Here is Hubby D giving LW his first safety moment. LW was listening to every word.

I am teaching LW to splash D.

They are protecting the top of their heads from the sun.

Just a couple of days after we were back in Bahrain, daughter BHB sent us a video. LW is crawling! We just missed it by 2 days. It is a wonderful video and I am just thrilled that I was able to spend just a bit of time with him while he was such a cute little guy.

Here is the video. Remember, if you are reading this in an email, you need to go to my blog page online to watch. http://brendahyde.blogspot.com