Following our beach trip in May, my youngest daughter and her three small boys stayed with us for a couple of weeks while her husband went home to participate in a professional and work on his Ph.D. dissertation.

I love having them visit. It’s exhausting, exciting, and a reminder of what’s important to me in life.

These three little guys are little firecrackers, full of energy, high spirits, and a need to run, play, and learn. They can spend hours on the playground or in the backyard, running, jumping, drawing with sidewalk chalk on the patio, and digging in the dirt, but they also adore having someone read stories to them. Even the oldest, who at (almost) five is already adept at reading himself, still enjoys letting someone else read to him.

Family dinner with some of the crew. Several more were off screen right then.

A visit to the zoo!

Time out for an ice cream treat during the visit to the zoo.

The younger two boys playing in the pool.

All three had a blast playing with an upside-down garden cart.

The sandbox at the park down the street got much use.