Home Again, Home Again Jiggity Jig

Miss me? :) As you may remember, we traveled up to see my family this past weekend and I have to tell you, I had a great time! My brother's house is amazing and beautiful and perfect for hosting a family of four. :) We had free run of the entire main floor (two bedrooms, a gigantic bathroom and a living area complete with couches, TV, tons of floor space and a piano). It seriously couldn't be a more perfect set up. Upstairs is three bedrooms (well, a master (and bath) and two other rooms used as offices). another gigantic bathroom, the living room, dining area and huge kitchen. The view from the front deck is even better in real life than in photos and the back deck has a hot tub and stairs leading to the backyard which was equipped with a trampoline and play structure (not yet moved out by the previous people). The kids were in heaven on that trampoline and I have to say, little Miss Kaylen can jump! I'm not sure where she gets her coordination and balance from but that girl can jump circles around me...and everyone else!

Besides the amazing house though I had a really great visit with James and Cara (and I don't think we drove them *too* nutty! *grin*) as well as my sister, brother-in-law, niece (and kids), dad and a cousin and his family. I kid you not, we packed a lot into not quite 48 hours.

We arrived in town Friday around 1pm and we stopped by Cara's office so that we could follow her to the house. We unpacked and settled in a bit and then the kids went wild in the yard for a few hours. Soon, it was time to head over to my sister's house (about 50 minutes away) for her birthday bbq. I was glad to see that she looked so well after her surgery last month and while she is still recovering, she looked good! When we first arrived there Kelton's cousin, her mom, brother and my brother-in-law were down the lane on the water and Kelton couldn't wait to see them so I agreed to walk with him down to meet them. Oh the joy that arises when they see each other - it just never gets old!

We stopped on the way back to pet and feed a couple of goats who have a pasture down by the water and, as you can see in one of the pictures below, Kelton ate a couple blackberries. :)





We got back to the house and settled in for dinner - which is crazy nutty when you have a 6 year old, a 5 year old and two 2 year olds plus 10 adults. My dad was there which I was really happy about because it gave me a chance to visit with him. About 8:30pm we said our goodbyes and, taking Cara with us (James took my dad home), started out on the hour drive back to the house. We hadn't gone all that far when I thought to ask Cara if they had a coffee maker (I suddenly remembered that Cara isn't a big coffee drinker and James doesn't drink it at all.). They didn't - so I made a stop at WalMart to buy one and all the necessary fixings. It's not pretty thing if I go without coffee in the morning and there were no nearby coffee places that Cara could think of.

We finally arrived back at the house about 10 and amazingly enough, the kids hadn't fallen asleep on the way back. I'm sure it had something to do with all the silly songs we were singing. :) We got them to bed without wasting any time and we quickly followed.

The next morning we hung out at the house and played A LOT on the trampoline. Around lunchtime my cousin and his family, along with my dad, showed up for a bbq. Again, it was crazy nutty but a lot of fun. The kids (and Dakota) all got to play in the hot tub which they loved! Then it was food time and more play time. At one point on the trampoline, Kaylen noticed that her cousins toes where painted pink, just like Cara's were, which made her want HER nails painted pink. It wasn't long before all four kids were lined up getting finger and toe nails painted. It was too funny!

I left to take my dad home about 4:30 (it's about an hour drive each way) and I really enjoyed having that time with him. Once we got back to his apartment I went inside for a bit to see his new cat. I'm so glad he has a cat and I can clearly tell how much those two love each other. Mr. Tom Cat was even waiting at the door when my dad opened it. Very sweet.

I stayed a bit and then said my good-byes and headed back to James' house. Since it was an hour drive I decided to call my sister and she and I talked the entire way. It helped the time go by quickly and it was nice to be able to talk with her without having to say "Hang on a sec...Kelton, please give that back to your sister." or "Hang on again....Kaylen, we don't hit!" a million times in 10 minutes.

By the time I got back to the house the kids had already had their dinner and were getting ready for round two in the hot tub. They were both so tired though that it took only about 10 minutes before Kaylen was asking to get out so she could go to bed. Both kids were out cold by 7:30pm.

The adults had dinner and then we settled in to watch a slide show of the photos taken during the day. Cara took control of my camera early on in the day and all I can really say is this: my memory card hold 1168 photos. Why do I know this? Because that's how many photos Cara took. (ok - I took maybe 60 of them) She got some really good shots too! I deleted about 500 last night when I downloaded them but that means I kept 668 - with most of them being from ONE day! Pretty funny!

Yesterday morning we got up and packed up everything. We had breakfast, played for a bit (yep - you guessed it. On the trampoline.) and then hit the road at 11am. We drove for an hour and stopped in at my sisters for about an hour (we had made plans to go through mom's jewelry box). We hit the road again for about an hour and then made a stop at the cemetery before driving 3.5 more hours home. We arrived home around 5pm and we were all exhausted!

It was a really good weekend though and I already want to go back. :)

This morning was Kelton's first day of his second session of day camp. He is loving it just as much (maybe more now that he knows what to expect and knows some of the kids) as the first week. Hard to believe that in 22 short days my baby will start kindergarten.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend: