Family Visit from Ohio

He talks big, but the truth is my Papa, whom we call Abuelo, has never been so proud in his life as he is when he's around Jae. And Jae . . . well, so does a good job tolerating him.










Here's Jae teaching her Abuelo to swing. It looks like he's getting the hang of it. After this she taught him how to use sidewalk chalk. We were really proud of him.










Here's Jae's Gram, helping her blow her very own bubbles. If Gram keeps to tradition, she'll be the most loving source of moral corruption for my baby girl.










I know it doesn't look like it, but these two lovely ladies have TWO WHOLE GENERATIONS between them. The women in my family stay young for decades!















Jae definitely loves her Grandma Ché. It helps that Grandma always brings her presents, I guess. It might also be that Grandma Ché makes AWESOME cookies. Jae gets her love of cookies from me.









Every once in a while Grandma Ché brings presents for the adults, too. This was a week or so after my wife's [CENSORED] birthday. My mom brought her some Fiesta Ware, which apparently all the women in my family love. Me . . . well, if you have to clean it instead of throwing it away after you eat on it, I don't see the point.







Words fail me.













We took a trip to the Smoky Mountains, and we stopped in a quiet little town called Townsend. There were five rocking chairs, which means I got to stand and take the pictures. Again.










Across the parking lot from the rocking chairs there were some flowers buzzing with butterflies. Well, not buzzing, really. But they were swarming. Jae's pointing one out for you. Can you see it?









Can you see it here? Which of these two do you think is wrapped around the other's little finger?
















Chillin' on a cool Saturday afternoon, talkin' about the fellas.
















Doesn't Jae look deep in thought? She probably isn't, but she looks it. If you look carefully, you can see the semi-stale piece of licorice in her right hand. That's how we like 'em in our family: almost crispy.









Nothing makes an afternoon brighter than eating Twizzlers on Gram's lap.












Here's a great illustration of my family. You can see quite clearly in my Papa's smirk how cool he thinks he is. And you can see quite clearly in my mother's resignation how cool he actually is.










The cabin in the background is from the mid-1800s in Cades Cove, not too far from Gatlinburg. It was a pretty day, and shortly after this picture it began to rain. So we spent the rest of the afternoon in the car. We don't do rain.









Four generations of my family's women doing their best Reservoir Dogs impression. It might look like Jae's following the older women, but in her mind she's just supervising, making sure they don't stray to the left or to the right.









All the cool girls stand like this now. I don't get it, but I'm not supposed to. I'm not cool.
















Someone tell Jae that her sippy cup is up-side-down. I don't care what it says on the label, those stupid cups are NOT leak-proof.