Meeting Grandpa Joe

Right after our trip to Phoenix, Joe's dad and his wife came out to KC to meet the newest Joseph Jeppson! It was a quick weekend visit, but we really enjoyed having them over. Joe made sure to show off our house and take them on a whirlwind tour of the city in the few hours we had to spend with them. We took them to lunch at our favorite BBQ place, Oklahoma Joe's. The downtown art fair was going on, so we wandered around that for a bit (it was really small this year, which wasn't a big deal as the weather was really hot!). Then Joe took the group to his office to cool off and show it off. By this time, Joseph was getting fussy, so we hopped in the car for the ride home, and ended up taking a very long scenic route so he could continue his nap. While the baby was awake, he had lots of fun playing with his grandparents.

(Trying to chew on Grandpa's nose)

Hanging with Grandma Dianne. They played together whenever he was awake.

5, 6 and 7 all together.

7 was sick of pictures and decided it was time for a nap. Fussiness ensued. 5 and 6 decided to copy :)

Joe mentioned to his dad about the goofy wiring issue in our pantry - when we finished the pantry, Joe added a light inside, and wired it to the preexisting panel of switches in the hallway. For whatever reason, the hall light switch had to be on for the pantry light to work. Joe's dad asked to take a look at it "It'll just take a few minutes..." We all know how those stories end up!

Apparently Joe found the fix in just a few minutes, but he had this neat system at his house where he installed a motion detector switch in the pantry hallway - when you walk in, it trips the switch and the light turns on. 60 seconds later, the light automatically turns off if you're not still there. 6 has always thought that was really neat, and 5 insisted it wouldn't take long to wire the switch to do the same. So off they went to the hardware store.

That switch didn't take too long to install, but 6 hates that I leave the light on in the laundry room, so they decided to install another one down there (the light is just on a pull cord, and hard to pull with a full load of laundry... and the basement is rather dark so it's hard to see when the light is off... in my defense). While they were installing that switch, it became apparent that something was amiss with the light upstairs, as it flickered when the motion sensor came on.

At this point, the 5 minute project was now running at 4 hours, and it was definitely dinner time. We headed to Houlihan's for a light dinner, still a little full from the huge BBQ lunch. We said goodnight, and the project was put on hold until Sunday.

After a few trips to the hardware store Sunday morning, 5 & 6 realized that there was nothing wrong with the wiring or the switch (as previously suspected), and instead the problem was simply the lightbulb. But switching lightbulbs wasn't as easy a fix as it might seem, as an old style bulb didn't fit in the fixture. A little rewiring later (and stealing the guts from an old fixture to make the old bulb fit in the current fixture), and the project was finally complete!

Although 5 spent most of his time at our house working on these minor electrical issues, we hope he didn't mind too much. 6 really enjoyed getting to work with his dad on the projects. 7 and I hung out with Dianne while we waited for said projects to be completed, and I know 7 had fun getting lots of attention.

Our next planned visit is for Thanksgiving in Detroit, which I'm sure will be here before we know it. We're hoping we can get Joe 4 to come, and take a good picture of all of the currently living Joe Jeppsons!