Since the 13th Robert and Natalie and their family had been taken care of by relatives and friends with food and with help cleaning and doing things to assist them with their now-larger family.

Of course, the first thing on the agenda was getting to hold the babies, and that was such a great feeling. Such sweet little things beginning of life full of joy and great experiences.

Jay arrived in time to be there for the weekly Friday wings and movie night. Yum.

He also got to see Charlie in one of his many outdoor activities that included catching some small animals that ventured onto the property and making a soda flume by adding something to the can (though this particular experiment sort of fizzled.)

Since Jay's previous visit in December, Robert had his contractor just about finish the room above the garage that he will use for a guest room, and sometimes for an activities room. The room had its own bath, and was away from the house, and also had a TV. It was probably the best house guest accommodations that Jay had ever enjoyed.

The next morning a FedEx truck arrive with two items that were a surprise to the boys. Ultimately they learned that they had received from Robert and Jay, a trampoline and swing. Robert had one tree swing already, a single seater; this new one had a pad that would hold four kids at once.

Once the new swing was up, the next task was to assemble the trampoline. Actually the assembly went faster than we would’ve thought and probably within two hours the trampoline was ready to be tested. Great fun!

We also worked with Everett on his school project, the PineWood Derby. He had missed having his model cut with a band saw and we worked with some models to see what might be accomplished without a band saw. However, after a fair amount of time we had to conclude that a band saw was the tool we needed and that Everett would have to wait until school resumed and get the cut there. (Added: Robert and Everett got the bandsaw cut needed to shape the model and Robert also purchased a couple of extra kits.)

Another thing we did was get sand for Luke's sandbox and clean and fill his "water park" for him to play with.

We also played cards: The game was "31." A fun game but PaPa B didn't win so we won't mention this again.

Sunday was for church, and Robert had videos with Bible messages for his family to watch. Nice!

Robert had to make a few work-related calls on Monday, and he also had to participate in a video conference. There are two photos on page 2 of Robert and his video conference. Note the video only captures his image from chest to head. It doesn't pick up on Robert feeding Thatcher while working. GREAT MULTI-TASKING!!!

Monday was moving the trampoline to its final position and digging it on. There were more things to do to get it finished, but it still was a source of jumping fun. Note the picture of Jay right after he stuck a landing on his double backflip.

Tuesday was "get the pool running" day and we worked pretty hard to clean up the pool and the pool deck. We began by brooming the bottom toward the main drain and using the vacuum attachment to help pick up the bottom silt. But the vacuum attachment broke so we didn’t get the job finished. That did not deter Robert's boys from getting into the "freezing" pool; with Robert very reluctantly joining them. He described the water temperature as "unbelievingly chilling."

Wednesday was back to school days for the boys and time to return home for Jay.

Another really nice visit to a great family.