I drove down to Dover Wednesday 11/20/19 to pick Mia up to stay with us for a couple of days. Marissa and Gary are headed off tomorrow to a business event, and we are thrilled to have Mia stay with us.

After picking her up, we drove up the back way to grab lunch at the Burger King in Rochester. My kind of day for a scenic drive! Foggy, with cold drizzle down in Dover, but up on the mountain it was snowing! After having lunch, Mia went into the kitchen with Sue to help her with the prep work of making dehydrated fruit Christmas tree ornaments as a start to her visit!

Mia helping Sue with the prep work for the Christmas tree ornaments.

After finishing that all up, Sue and Mia relaxed in the living room while I got caught up on some reading.

After lighting a fire in the wood stove, I asked Mia if she'd like to help me cook Thursday night's dinner - chop suey. She was all for that, though she back peddled with teary eyes when fumes from the onion I was chopping floated into face. She was not a fan of onion chopping with Gramps!

Onions weren't making it....

After all of the prep work and cooking, we knew she was pretty beat. Sue took her up for a nap around 2:15, but, of course, as excited as she was to be with us, she was up and downstairs before 3:00. Around 4:00, she was getting hungry, and so we decided to get the beans and franks cooked early. Turned out she wasn't interested in any of that, and so Sue brought out some apples slices, yogurt, chocolate milk. That she went for.

After dinner, Sue corralled her into the bathroom for a bath, and when she came out we all sat in the living room watching the special movie I had recorded just for this visit: the 30th anniversary presentation of a mixed live and animated version of Disney's Little Mermaid. Not sure Mia enjoyed it, but it was one of my favorite movies I got to share with the kids, particularly, Marissa, growing up. Though I didn't feel this new version had the same wonderment as the original, it was still really well done, and Mia said she liked it. We only did half of it tonight, and will do the second half tomorrow night.

Mia was really beat after her long day. Sue caught this picture of her totally crashed out.

It was an early morning Thursday. Sue had a 7:00 am physical therapy appointment, and Mia wanted to go with her. What a scramble, particularly getting her into her car seat. There had been a hard frost, almost a freeze, and the back passenger door was frosted-closed, if that's a proper description. I had to open it by going in the other side, and pushing out on the door.

There wasn't much time after the girls got back for Sue and Mia to fix the breakfast pancakes. Mia had been looking forward to Sue's pancakes even before this visit, and so there was no way she wasn't having them before I had to drive her down for a gymnastics class in Dover at 9:45. I think we were beat before the day really got started.

Mia digging into her pancakes Thursday morning.

I stayed and watched her gymnastics class as she had been wanting me to see her new forward roll expertise. Each time I watch her, there is improvement, though she does tend to get distracted at times. She remembers the routine she's supposed to do, executes it quickly, and then back to distraction. But then she's only 4....

Mia - 2nd from the right - moving to her next exercise station.

After we got back home, she headed outside with Sue to work on some project Sue had in mind. It wasn't long, however, before they were back in. It was pretty cold out, and Mia was getting a little wet and dirty. To avoid major cleanup activity later, Sue thought they'd just come inside, and work on the dehydrated fruit Christmas tree ornament project.

After lunch, we put Mia down for a nap as it was clear that she was tired. She slept pretty good for over an hour and a half before we heard the little foot steps coming down the stairs. She was just in time for Sue's brother Alan to arrive, and recognized him immediately. Sue had invited him down for the dinner chop suey dinner that Mia and I had put together and cooked Wednesday evening.

All of us in the living room watching the Little Mermaid movie.

After we all watched the last half of the Little Mermaid movie, I warmed up the dinner and made some toasted garlic bread. Strange, but Mia just wasn't interested in the chop suey. She just picked at it and seemed to be really tired. It was an early night for her. Sue took her up and read just a little to her, and then I followed up with just a hug and goodnight kiss. That was the last we heard from her until 6:00 am Friday morning.

I crawled out of bed at 6:45 thinking I had to race around to help get Mia ready to leave. But Sue had everyting under control. She got Mia set up in the living room watching the original Little Mermaid movie while she got another batch of pancakes going.

By the time we finished eating, and Sue got Mia dressed and her hair combed, it was time to head out. I loaded her into the car, and we were off for her day school in Dover. After I dropped her off at school, I ran her bag and car seat over to the shop.

Marissa and Gary had been down at Mohegan Sun in CT at a marine and sporting goods parts event. They had got up at 3:30 am to make it back to open the shop at 8:00 am. We had a nice chat, but I headed out as customers started coming into the shop for stuff. Great visit with Mia, and looking forward to her coming again for several days this coming January.