For the fourth of July this year, we hosted my entire side of my family trying to save some extra vacation days. The girls were SOOOO excited to have all their cousins coming to our house . . .and their cousin's dog too. :) They made pictures for every single person coming as they waited by the door.
Keith and Alisa's family came in a night before everyone else and we headed out for some yummy pizza.
Then we had fun walking around ISU's campus and showing them where their aunt and uncle went to school.
We may or may not having been not so subtly trying to persuade Auburn to head our way come college.
These two are the sweetest pair - she adores him and he is so sweet in return.
Then heading out for some orange leaf was a must.
As only can be done to family, we put them all to work the next day for the room swap of 2013. When we first moved into our home last year, Ava was not excited about the move at all and we let her pick the room she wanted. Well, after a year in our home, it seemed like a better fit to swap the guest room with her current room . ..and especially in light of the hope that Ava is anxiously hoping to share a room with her new brother or sister for a while when he or she comes home.
My family thought I was crazy to get two rooms painted and swapped in one day. But we did it even if all the final details weren't fully back in place. Beds and furniture were in and rooms slept in that same night.
Ava happily helping paint her new room.
Cousins dressed up and ready for church the next morning.
All the girls (and Oliver of course)!
Silly Shot!
A little bit of Wii Dance after church
Then it was time to celebrate the upcoming fall birthdays with dinner!
September Birthday Brecken
And September birthday Cole
Mom and Dad
and the rest of the crew
For our last day of everyone together, a gracious couple from our church let us come crash at their home on the lake for some water fun.
What a guy to head out with 5 ladies - huh?!
Auburn and I decided we better do at least one thing other than lay out that day. : ) So we talked ourselves into believing we could maneuver the canoe around the lake. Well, the current was so strong we decided to call it victory with across the part where we were at and back. Little victories are still victories - right?!
Loved this shot of these two. Love when I get to see my girl just enjoying the simple but great things of life.
Then that night the bigger girls decided to head to the pool at the hotel right around the time Ava usually heads to bed. Yet when they asked her to go along, it was one of those times the answered needed to be yes. She was pretty happy to be out with her four favorite people and it was fun to watch her feel so big.
Then on a nutty whim I decided to pretend I was still young and stay up with my two nearly grown nieces. It is a pretty cool thing when your nieces grow up and you are excited to spend a night with them. The sad part? When you start yawning at midnight. Sigh.
It was soo fun to have the family all together . . .and so sad to know that some of them had to leave the next morning. The good news was more fun things were in store.
0 comments:
Post a Comment