I love being a grandma

I haven't posted in here for quite awhile at least for me it's been quite awhile, so tonight I am making sure that I don't go to bed until I take the time to write my thoughts.
My kids have all been so good to me allowing me to keep my grand kids in the summertime as much as I want to, or as much as possible with church camps etc.  Every one of my kids have been so good to let me have them and John and I have had so much fun through the years doing all these fun things with them. 
One set of our grand kids lived with us for 6 years while our oldest daughter went back to college and got her PharmD degree so we became very close to them.  The other set of kids lived with us for about 2 years and during that time had one baby grand daughter.  This was Pyper who is now almost 11 years old.  The last 3 years we've been able to keep her and now her brother Ryker who's 9 and their younger brother Greisyn who is almost 6.  We have so much fun every summer with all the kids. 
In June we were able to take our 3 older grand kids with us to Grass Valley, then to Weiser and then on to our home here where they got about 10 days before having to go home with their parents. 13 year old Tanner got to learn to really ride his motorcycle well while they were here and we would take him way up the mountain onto trails where he honed his skills.  I wish we could have kept him here a little bit longer but he's of age to be going to scout camp so his parents had to take him home after our July 4th family reunion. 
Now our son Tyler and daughter-in-law Deena have also been so good letting us have the kids for as much time as we want in the summertime too.  The parents came for our family reunion and then left the kids when they had to go home around the 12th of July and we are going to get to keep them clear until the end of August. 
I cherish every moment I have them because we get to have so much fun and I get to teach them life skills that they don't get to learn at home.  Pyper has always been afraid of the water and timid to try hard things.  This summer while she's been here we've been able to teach her to be comfortable  floating all over the pond and finally today she even let go of my hand while swimming and floated for 3 or 4 minutes without panicking.  This is a huge step for her and I even took pictures of her doing so well so we could show her parents.  At the end of our swimming time I asked her if she was ready to get out and instead of the usual yes, like she couldn't wait to get out of the water, I got the response "I think I'd like to swim a little bit longer."  I sent pictures of her way out in the pond without me and floating alone for the very first time today. 
The other very cool milestone we've crossed is that she was willing to learn to ride the 4 wheeler by herself and is now driving all over the place on it with confidence and a new feeling of self esteem in all these things she's overcome this year. 
Ryker learned to swim without his life jacket a couple of days ago and he's now doing really well and doing better and better each day. I sent their parents pictures of all our fun today and their mom sent back an e-mail to the kids so excited that I could feel her pride through her words. 
I really feel like I've grown super close to these grand kids this summer, even more than all the past years. 
Every day Ryker gets out his mandolin and practices on his own several times a day.  He's self motivated to practice and learn and I get so happy when I see him go get out his mandolin and play it. 
Today was no exception, not only did he practice it 3 different times but when I'd mentioned to the other kids that we needed to take a little time to practice our music tonight he never let me forget it and reminded me asking if we could play on our front porch like he'd remembered us doing a few years ago with a friend of mine. 
Finally at 9:00 we headed out there in the dark and spent an hour practicing.  He can play a guitar, mandolin, and bass already and is learning them quickly and well.  His sister Pyper is learning the bass and mandolin and she is also very self motivated to learn.  She sings our bluegrass songs around here all day long as we do different activities.  Okay I guess I'm rambling now and so I need to just write all about how our day went today and call it good.
After our morning breakfast, I took all 3 kids down to the garbage dumpster on our way to the post office.  Ryker who is always very helpful jumped right out and into the back of the pickup to help me get a whole lot of sheet rock scraps into the garbage.  We made short work of it, so then we headed to the post office where I mailed off Jeff's care package.  When we left there I took the kids into "Hoots" cafe so that they could see where I go to play my fiddle when I always talk about it with them.  They got to sit up to the counter on those fun vintage swiveling stools and I bought them an ice cream cone. 
When we finished that we came home and almost immediately went on a 4 wheeler ride up into the mountains.  We saw 3 mules up there which was fun, and several cows of course along with a grouse bird who flew up beside us on the trail.  When we came home we were all dusty and hot so we put our suits on and headed to the pond for a swim.  By the time we got home from that it was time for me to fix dinner, and then we practiced music late tonight.
My back patio door is full of hand prints, and my bathrooms need cleaning, but those things don't bother me a bit when I have the kids here.  There is plenty of time to wash the hand prints when they go home but for now my focus is on having fun and teaching them valuable life long skills. 

Pyper, Greisyn, and Ryker having fun in the cone flowers.

Pyper

Ryker shows me how he can balance on the front of the 4 wheeler.

Greisyn loves wearing this big helmet. 

Greisyn loves playing with Maggie who comes to the pond with us every day.

Ryker is showing me how he can swim with no life jacket and I take his picture so he can show his parents how good he's gotten this year. He's so proud of himself!

Now Ryker wants to show me how he can float. "Take a picture of me floating grandma."

Look grandma no hands, hurry and take my picture before I fall. 

Pyper floats without me near her for the very first time today.  I had to take her picture so that we could show her parents how good she's doing.  She's always had a horrific fear of water so this is a huge step for her.

Pyper and grandma practicing and getting her confidence up to float alone without me near.  You can see from the previous picture that she did it too!

Pyper and Ryker having some fun now that Pyper has shown that she isn't nearly so fearful anymore. I'm so proud of her conquering her fear!  We did it Pyper!

Am I tired every night?  You bet I am, but I'm so happy that I get this opportunity each summer.  I wouldn't change it for anything.  I just found out that my other 4 grand kids are going to get to come spend a week with us this month too. 
All 11 of them got to spend time at grandmas and grandpas once again this summer.  They love it and call us the day school is out each year asking when they can come.  Ryker said to me that he wished he could stay here for 6 more months, then he said, wait maybe I'd like to stay here about 2 more years or maybe even till I'm 16. 
Earlier this summer our 13 year old grandson said that he loves coming here because he can just have so much freedom to wander around.  Tori our 15 year old grand daughter had so much fun here too that I think she would move in and live here too.  Then Cortney our 17 year old grand daughter told me that she loves it here because a person can just be themselves and not worry about how they look or having their makeup on or anything like they do living in Utah. 
Me I have to agree with everything each one of these kids have said.  I love my grand kids and being a grandma is what I was meant to be. 
Today was once again just awesome.