Pampa's Surprise

Natalie was having a sick day, which is the reason she was still in Pajamas at the end of the day, but she got a BIG surprise that made her feel much better!My Dad surprised us ALL! I think he was trying to get us back--when Natalie was two months old, we surprised them by going to their home in SC for Christmas; this was after we told them we wouldn't be able to go. It was the best surprise ever; we left newborn Natalie in her carseat wrapped in a bow on their porch, rang the bell, and hid behind the bushes. My Mom was screaming and screaming.

I don't think my Dad got AS good of a reaction from any of us as the one we got from my Mom all those years ago; but my reaction was pretty good. I had been out for a bit and when I got home, David got me upstairs under the pre-tense that Natalie wasn't feeling well again (she had been diagnosed with an ear infection earlier that day). Instead when I got upstairs, my Dad jumped out from behind the couch. They say that at first I looked like I didn't recognize him (processing, processing...unbelief) and then my face contorted in a funny look before finally turning bright red! It was fun! My Mom was celebrating her sister's graduation and so my Dad decided to have some fun of his own.
Natalie and Stephen were SO excited to see Pampa. Stephen couldn't stop hugging on him all week!

We had a great week and did lots of fun things. One of the first things on Natalie's list was to take Pampa to try some cannolis.
Her comment as she sat here looking at all these yummy cannolis, "I'm in heaven!!!!!"
Sporting her new crown!

We also decided to take Pampa fishing, I think we were hoping that someone else would know what they were doing more than us and we might actually catch a fish!!


It must've worked a bit or we just got lucky, this is the closest we have come yet. But our luck didn't last and the fish got away.
Natalie was fishing with David's pole because she was being a sweetheart and sharing her own with Brother. She told David that her line was stuck on something...she had no idea it was stuck on a fish. I LOVE her reaction!

It wasn't really a surprise that Pampa was teaching Stephen bad things...
and Stephen doesn't need help in that department, as evidenced by the gum stuck in his nose several weeks ago.
There were LITERALLY hundreds of these fuzzy catepillars that we keep seeing around. You can see Natalie was still a bit scared.
We actually got her to hold one on a stick, so that was a big improvement for her.

On Thursday Natalie got to go to the MAW building for an interview with the Art Institute of Dallas. They are making a promotional video for Make A Wish for a class project. It's cool because the Art Institute of Tucson is the place that makes her designer outfits for the fashion show we do in Tucson every year. So we already like the Art Institute!

I was surprised that she was a little nervous and rehearsed sounding, not like my Natalie. But I can't blame her with all those bright lights on and cameras, I felt the same way. Not to mention that she must've been uncomfortable with her poor little lips, which were all swollen from a massive cold sore outbreak the day before.
One of the sweet ladies at Make A Wish let Natalie pick a toy out of the closet while I was being interviewed. Natalie picked this baby doll, she named "Baby Travel" and then she changed it to "Natalie" and then she finally changed it to "Meoldy." She is so funny.

She is totally in love with this new baby. When she went to school on Friday, she gave me a list of things I needed to do to take care of her baby.
Look at her poor lips, and this is when they were looking a LOT better. I love her amazingly beautiful eyes in this picture too, and something about not having her hair show, highlights the shape of her face and reminds me of when she was two and bald. She was incredibly beautiful then too.

We had a great week with Grandpa, we ate out a lot and tried some new places, which was fun. B1ut I think Friday was our most memorable day. In the morning Stephen and I went to the Ft. Worth Stockyards with my Dad and sister's family. They were having some kind of fair and so there was a lot more stuff there than normal, including tee pee's (which Stephen loved).


Natalie was at school and didn't get to go with us, but Stephen was SO proud of the doll he helped make for Sissy out of corn husks.
Always fighting bad guys...he loved this cool wooden sword I bought.

In the afternoon, we met up with David after he got off work, and took Pampa to enjoy Six Flags with us. Pampa is not a roller coaster guy, but he had a lot of fun watching the kids enjoy themselves so much.


The first thing Natalie wanted to do was take Grandpa on the front row of Judge Roy Scream, this is them making their "Judge Roy Scream faces" after the ride was over!!
Love this. My Dad is so great. He is a terrific Grandpa and we had such a good week with him.