Living far from grandparents means that our kids don’t get much one-on-one time with our parents. Because we want to foster a bond between the kids and their grandparents, we’ve sent each of them back to Indiana to hang out with Grammy, Grampy, and the fam. Cooper led the way, and then Silas took a turn.

This summer was Brynn’s chance.

When it came time to leave the family reunion, we flew home while Brynn rode with Grammy and Grampy to Indiana. She stayed two and a half weeks all by herself! Such a brave, spunky 4 year old!

After bonding with her cousin at the reunion, Brynn and Brooklyn became inseparable, so a lot of time was spent at Aunt Stephanie’s. All I can say is that Stephanie is an incredible sister-in-law to add one more to her bunch! They visited the splash park and Chuck E Cheese and had lots and lots of sleepovers.

Dad would come and take a couple of the kids for a while each day. One of Brynn’s favorite things was to ride Grampy’s orange tractor. She was cautious at first and wanted to go slow, but soon was begging to go super fast and even drove the tractor in 2nd gear.

Brynn experienced everyday life in rural Indiana as she and Grampy sat out on the back property quietly waiting for the groundhog to pop out of his hole. Finally, they set a trap for it and caught it. Brynn asked how Grampy knew the groundhog was a boy. Then she thought about it and said, “Oh, I know how you know it’s a boy! He wasn’t wearing a bow!”

Besides groundhog hunting, Brynn also helped Grampy start a brush fire, spread mulch around the trees, clear a path to the swamp, and paint with watercolors.

Dad said Brynn constantly smashed his heart to pieces with her affection for him. So sweet!

Two and a half weeks is a long visit for anyone, but especially for a 4 year old. Brynn did get homesick and would call and ask when I was coming to get her. Dad said the waves of homesickness passed pretty quickly and Brynn would move on to the next activity. At one point she asked why she hadn’t gotten any mail yet. Stephen commented, “Well, I mean, I guess she does live there now!”

We managed to send her some mail in time, but we were so happy when our little Brynnie-boo came back home! She ran up to the house into the arms of her excited brothers and mama. For the first while, she didn’t say much and just took everything in with her wide eyes. I think she may have forgotten us and our house a little bit.

Welcome home, Brynn!