Memorial Day Water Fun

What fun it is to wake up and go on a little drive to a park, see our family, swim, picnic, slide and then come home again all in the same day!
         
I wish close proximity with my family was the norm for all my life, but I can honestly say that having a brother and sister  four hour drive away is the closest I have ever lived to my family since 9th grade.   That’s a sad thought, so lets not linger there.    Instead let’s look at this! And this!And this!
    

And after all that looking and laughing, let’s just agree that holiday’s truly are for
sharing with your family!  What a blast!

Niblings and nibbling

So me and my brother Jon?  We have babies 11 days apart. They are both girls.  They both have big cheeks and ski-jump noses. They are both utterly loveable rolly-pollies. And, yeah, I think it’s pretty special! What is even more special is that our families got to hang out a couple weeks ago! Jon and Zanna are only a five hour drive away, but we learned our lesson from trying to drive straight to Chicago and stopped for a good while at a rest area to let Charlie get his wiggles out before naptime.  It was fun!

Charlie and Wendy were much more interactive in the car, playing peek-a-boo and ‘talking’ a lot to each other.  Wendy woke up while Charlie was still asleep at one point and proceeded to squawk loudly at him every 30 seconds until he opened his eyes.  He woke up saying “Baby Sister wake up me!”  It was pretty funny! And then we got to see Ziva!  Family resemblance, anyone?Zanna made us a delicious French dinner that night.  ( I still want the recipe, Zanna!)This is a picture of Jonathan contributing to the wine sauce of the said French dinner.  Really, you say?  By rooting through the tool chest?

Yep!  A very creative use for pliers and screw!

After dinner and a delicious Tres Leches Chocolate Cake for dessert, the kids went to bed in opposite order of their age while we waited for Jon to get home from work.This is me being excited to see Jon.  This is tired Jon after a long day at work trying to enjoy his cup of coffee and not knowing I’m taking a picture about how excited I am to see him.  Then we called Erik.  (This is a stock picture of Erik, he was not there.) We called him several times—on all his phones, on all his phones at the same time and then had to settle for leaving a voice mail. It was probably the best group voice mail I’ve ever been a part of leaving. I hope he saved it for posterity.After Erik failed to answer his phone, Jon read aloud to me about preserving liquid manure (urine) from farm animals for use as fertilizer and we laughed so hard we cried.  I think it might have been very late by then.   

The next morning the girls had a good heart-to-heart while Charlie ‘helped’ Aunt Zanna make cheddar cheese and apple scones for breakfast.  YUM!Eeeek!  Those cheeks! (not you Jon) She is so cute!We played lots of games.  Little people games involving object permanence. . . …and gross motor skills.  (“I see you grabbed that egg-plant looking thing over there.  Wanna pass it over here so I can drool on it too?”)Medium-size people games involving shapes and colors.And big people games involving Kinect and a lot of really silly uncle moves.Speaking of silly, your guess is as good as mine: whose baby is whose?   Yeay!  for nibblings, and yummy nibbles and family close enough to drive to!  

Thanks for a wonderful visit, Jon and Zana!

More California Fun

We decided to make a vacation out of the wedding in LA and stayed in a rental house for the week with Jonathan’s other brother and his family. Read 6 children under 9 and 5 adults over 32 .

Needless to say there was nary a quiet moment, except perhaps at 2 am,

BUT oh the cousin love and fun that were had!!!

Our schedule was jam packed with wedding events and enjoying as much of the area as we could while we were there. We went out for frozen yogurt and had an In-n-Out burger and even spent a day at …. There were all sorts of rides and elaborate Lego constructions everywhere. Charlie got to go on his first roller coaster. Which he said was “too fast.” I went on one too, with Jonathan. He said I was fun to ride with, but the truth of the matter was that I really DID think I was going to die, I wasn’t just screaming for fun! (Since Wendy wanted to eat every two hours, and didn’t fit the specs for most rides and because I had broken my toe the week before, I considered it a triumph to just keep up with everyone, let alone go on a ride!)

Here’s Charlie going down the biggest slide of his life, looking like a pro. He got some air right after I took this picture, but managed to land it and get to the end safely. (My heart was in my throat watching as Jonathan let go of him at the top!)We also went into the Lego water park. It was so much fun for everyone! Even Papa and Wendy had a smile or two to share!

And, you have not visited California if you are a land-locked Midwesterner unless you have also visited the BEACH. We spent two afternoons marveling at God’s creation there! Charlie thought the ocean was too noisy.It sure was windy!

Wendy enjoyed it in her own way—which meant Mama got to enjoy it too! (Thanks for her shirt, Christine!)The surf was amazing. I could understand why Charlie got a little frightened watching it!Look at those curls! They could make a fortune selling salt spray as a hair product!

We had such a lovely time with our family! As we drove in to our parking lot at home in St Louis, Charlie suddenly said in a disappointed voice, “Not this house!” When we asked him which house he wanted he said he wanted the one “with cousins.” We sure DO miss those cousins!