A wonderful visit with granddaughter Amelia

Amelia waits at the Alexandria Amtrak station with her mom, Susannah,

and her dad, Luke, and little brother, Isaac.

In early June, we enjoyed a wonderful visit with Amelia, our sweet granddaughter who lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with parents Luke and Susannah and little brother Isaac. Amelia went on her first long-distance train ride when she and I rode Amtrak's Carolinian from Alexandria to Durham.

The train arrived in Alexandria with a huge rush and a roar that was a little nervous-making for this almost-three-year-old and her grandmother.

Even so, brave Amelia boarded the train, gamely waved goodbye to her family, and settled into the trip.


A few miles down the track, she volunteered, "I like the train!" Well, I like the train too, and I'm happy that my adventurous granddaughter likes traveling on the rails. No doubt, there are more shared train trips in our future. When we arrived at the train station in Durham, Grandpa Mike picked us up and drove us to our home in Chapel Hill ... and so began a very sweet week with our curious, verbal, enthusiastic, sensitive, funny, and very interesting granddaughter.

Amelia's fun and squeals running under the hose on a summer evening evoked wonderful memories of long-ago childhood summers.

Amelia loved our trip to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. Working the bigger-than-life butterfly wings was very interesting,

seeing the butterfly chrysalises, including some emerging and emerged butterflies was pretty interesting,

but visiting the insectarium and seeing piles of cockroaches (above), scarab beetles, stick insects, and more, and then hearing the amplified sound of an actual caterpillar munching on a leaf were captivating!

Music and rythm come naturally to Amelia (and little brother Isaac -- see Susannah's June 11th video blog post).

Listening for the hum of wind passing through a steel tube.

Back at Grammie and Grandpa Mike's, Amelia enjoyed her own special candlelight dinner in the same highchair her dad used as a toddler.

Amelia had a special visit with Grandma (Susannah's mother). She visited Grandma's office, where she had a great time with the staff who all wanted to play with her, and then Grandma took her to Elmo's Diner where our growing girl ate a big lunch!

On another day, Amelia jumped and splashed at the pool with her wonderful five-year-old cousin (and another of our granddaughters) Savannah, who also spent the night. Unfortunately, there are no action shots because I was busy catching the jumpers and splashers in the 4-foot part of the pool!

Beautiful "big-cousin" Savannah was very sweet and protective of her little cousin,

especially when we were getting ready to cross the parking lot to our car.

After a good workout at the pool, both girls enjoyed a tea party featuring the vanilla wafer cake that Amelia and I had made together.

Before they settled down to a surprisingly good night's sleep (it was Amelia's very first sleepover), Amelia and Savannah did some fine stencil art together.

One day, some old friends and singing buddies of mine visited. Cynthia brought her guitar and accompanied all of us in some old favorites, including "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," and others. Amelia joined right in, of course!

Amelia enjoyed Cynthia's time with her playing with letters on the magnetic easel.

Because of Christy's work hours, she wasn't able to spend as much time with us as we would have liked. But she did come by to play with Amelia when she could, and Amelia had fun showing Aunt Christy her magnetic paper doll,

and her Einstein bobblehead doll, which she had gotten when, I confess, I took my granddaughter to McDonald's for a "happy meal."

Bathtime each night was lots of fun in our big bath tub -- look at all those beautiful golden ringlets!

Bouncing around the living room in her Hello Kitty towel, Amelia managed to put bedtime off for a "few more minutes."

And then, playing with Grandpa Mike and the wooly worm helped put off bedtime for a few additional minutes!


But a little quiet reading with Grandpa helped get our energetic girl ready for sleep.

On Friday, when Luke, Susannah and Isaac were due to arrive from Alexandria, Amelia kept watch out the garage door so she would see them as soon as they arrived. She had enjoyed her visit, but she missed her family!

Amelia nestled on Daddy's shoulder shortly after arrival. (I wish I'd had the camera close enough to catch the sweet family group hug when Luke, Susannah and Isaac walked in the door!)

A little later, Isaac played with his Mommy and me in our bedroom while Amelia napped in the big recliner chair in the living room.

Amelia, sweet girl, Grammie and Grandpa Mike had a wonderful week during your visit with us. We look forward to another visit from you, and we can't wait for the time with little brother Isaac can come too!