Labor Day Fun

Yes, we are still here. Yes, I am still blogging. Post-vacation August was pretty boring, but in a good way! We had beautiful weather and a few fun things to do, but no big adventures. I did get a few pictures, but they need to chased down off the other camera! Hope to catch up with those soon!

So, last weekend we headed north to visit family and friends. We hadn't been up since July 4, so it was certainly time! We drove up Saturday morning, settled in, and got the kids used to the idea of sharing Uncle D's room at Grammy's house! We usually put one kid in Uncle D's room and one in our room, but since Uncle D and Aunt Cedes weren't up that weekend, we decided to be adventurous! We set up one air mattress and set Gillian up in the queen bed! We switched them the next day, just to be fair! Other than no nap on Saturday, they did very, very well. And I slept SO MUCH BETTER than I do when we share a room! HOORAY!

Our first adventure was a swim and fish fry at Dickiedoo's on Saturday evening. Noonie was off visiting family and we missed her. Dickiedoo had invited Grammy and Papa to come along too, since Papa had helped catch the fish, after all!

(Yep, four beers in that picture.)

Some Uncle time.


Oh, and Real Leah too!

I think this is when her nose was starting to run. It didn't stop. And it's Thursday and it's still running just a bit!


The fish was DELICIOUS. The kids preferred Uncle Stevies french fries though!

Sunday was spent playing at Grammy's and having a picnic with Dickiedoo, Mrs. Kathy, Tim, and JOE! Oh JOE!


More runny nose.


Hurricane Isaac threatened, no actual rain.


The kids were out like lights that afternoon and ready to go visit GraGra and Papa after nap. Uncle Willis had whipped up a great lasagna for us. And Great-Grandma and Great-Papa came too. We had a nice visit and an excellent dinner. But no pictures. Colin was NAGGING us to go back to Grammy's though because we had told him we'd have a campfire!

The kids FIRST campfire! They helped Daddy build it. Daddy put those Eagle Scout skills to work!

SO EXCITED!





Get the newspaper ready!


Ready, set, GO!



Old pros already!


Good work, Daddy! It was an excellent fire!


We tried some s'mores. They were not a hit. Goofy kids. I enjoyed mine! They DID enjoy running around in the dark, staying up late, and seeing JOE again! Finally around 9:00 Grammy and I did get them into bed! Then I got to spend more fire time visiting with our friends Tim and Betsy! YAY!

Monday morning we were up and out the door and headed home! A quick holiday weekend, but a fun one!

Turkey Day Catch-up

I think we are still recovering from Thanksgiving, over a week later! We just finished unpacking the last suitcase today! Anyway. Catching up on Thanksgiving!

A few years ago we happened to HAVE to travel on Thanksgiving morning. AND IT WAS AWESOME. So, now we do it every year. No traffic, fast trip, just in time for lunch. PERFECT. We had a lovely lunch at Grammy and Papa Frank's house with Uncle D and Aunt Cedes. Colin even tried a brussel sprout. And the only picture we got was our attempt at a family photo.

G insisted on wearing the Rapunzel dress, sitting in Grammy's little chair, AND holding two bears. On Colin's side, we had pumpkin insistence. So, it was great, needless to say.


The kids took an amazingly good nap after lunch (given that they hadn't eaten enough turkey to fall victim to it) and then we headed in to to see Dickiedoo and Noonie. We mostly just visited and picked at their feast. The kiddos had so much fun playing with my step-brother's 11 year old son, Dalton. Giggles, giggles, giggles. It was great.

On Friday, I took the kids to visit my Grandparents Bish. We also saw my Aunt Pat and her grandkids, Alyssa and Adam, and my cousin Becky, her husband Haiko, and their son Sven. The kids played with Alyssa and Adam so nicely. They played dominoes and cars and wrestled and laughed the entire time. I think my Grandparents had the best time just watching all the crazy. I wanted a couple of pictures of the kids with my Grandparents, but the kids wouldn't get a picture without me in it. I was NOT prepared to be photographed, but the pictures were worth it!

Great-Grandma and the kiddos! (Yes, that's my 87 year old Grandmother on the FLOOR. Man.)


Great-Grandpa and kiddos!


Friday evening, Grammy and Papa Frank were kind enough to wrangle C&G for us! We met Matt, Rachel, Samantha, Tim, and Betsy to watch "The Muppet" movie and have some Mexican for dinner. It was so nice to spend the evening with old friends (and family). You knows those friends that you don't see for months or years at a time and sit down together and it's like no time has passed? Yeah, that's awesome.

Saturday morning we headed out to my Grandparents' Smith house for Crazy Turkey Day #3. Lots of people, lots of food, lots of noise. Great, crazy fun.

Any, hey, look! We finally convinced Grandma to sit a large portion of the day instead of working so hard (and thanks to Matt, Rachel, and Aunt Lori who picked up most of her work!)!


My cousin Becky's little girl, Sarah, and Gillian were FAST buddies almost off the bat. G told Daddy, "I try to ask Sarah to be my friend, but she too quick, I can't catch her." I think they were friends anyway!



Those girlies even made a "Girl's Club" and kept trying to shut Colin out of the bedroom they were playing in. I think he took it in stride though. He was laughing about. But I think he was a little confused as to WHY he couldn't play with his BFF, Gillian. Not sure his sweet, friendly little brain could compute the girls only game!


FOOD!

(Even after feeding 35-ish people there were enough leftovers to feed about 20 more people!)

After that enormous feast, we hauled ourselves back to Grammy and Papa Frank's house to celebrate Papa's birthday with the Keisters. Colin was beyond thrilled. BEYOND. He loves Joe. While we were eating dinner, Colin would lean over on Joe's arm, gaze up at him, and say, "I love you Joe." Those boys played and played and played (OK, Joe is 22 I shouldn't call him a boy, young MAN). And Gillian colored with Jessie Bean (and Bean tried to teach the importance of re-capping your markers). It was so nice to visit with our Keisters. They kids have so much fun with them (as do Daddy and I)!!

Next morning we were up early, ate some of Papa's waffles, and helped Grammy light the Advent candle.

Then it was home again, home again. And we're still recovering. Ok, well, I am still recovering. The kids seem fine ; )

Christmas : Rounds 2 - 6

Oh wait, maybe it was SEVEN. Either way, it was a lot of celebrating and we were totally and completely (and overly) spoiled. Let's just do this in a picture story, it's probably easiest.

Christmas Eve was at my Mom's house....AKA GraGra and Papa Greg's house. Uncle Willis and Uncle Stevie cooked up a mighty (albeit a little tardy) dinner for all of us:

Uncle Stevie and some asparagus:


Uncle Willis and some more asparagus (we did eat more than asparagus) and Gillian eyeballing the asparagus.


The kiddos opened presents from Uncle Stevie and Aunt Emily and Uncle Willis and Leah:

Then they headed to bed. Then it was gift exchange time for the grown-ups....and Milo.

He doesn't know he's not a lap dog.

Christmas morning brought stockings at GraGra's house. The highlight of which was PICKLES!

Oh, and the first aid kit!

Colin's favorite was this light-up whirlygig thing. No idea what you'd call it!


After getting cleaned up and dressed up, we were off to Grammy and Papa Frank's house for lunch!

A note on G's dress. The minute she saw me get it out, she yelled "ON!" and she HAD to get dressed right then! She spun and fluffed and twirled and just loved that dress all day long! It was a bit big on her, and her (classy) white t-shirt poked out all day long, but she just loved being dressed up and in her SPARKLE shoes all day. What a girl!

Aunt Mercedes and Uncle D were kind enough to get some pots and dishes to go with our new kitchen! Yay, we can cook now!


Colin was kind enough to brew Uncle D a cup of coffee with the brand new coffee pot Uncle D had given him! (Colin just LOVES to make coffee, real coffee, pretend coffee, he doesn't care! I hope he can barista his way through college, actually!)


Gillian was pretty excited to get ANOTHER party dress from a friend of Grammy's! Hmm, now we need a party!


Before lunch was served, we took another peek at the trains Papa Frank has been working on in the basement!



After a (very yummy) lunch, it was back to GraGra's to grab a nap and then on to Great-Grandma Smith's house for ANOTHER Christmas celebration.

Yep, another one!


With more presents!


Even for Matthew....

I'm not even sure I remember what was in that box that was so interesting? Coffee thermometers, maybe?

Phew, ok, that might be enough Christmases for now. More later...yes. MORE.