Family Fun Time--Part One

At the beginning of June, my out-of-state sisters, Emily, and Beth, and their kiddos, flew home to Indiana for a special visit!  Our cousin was getting married on June 1st, so they wanted to be there for that occasion and make a fun little trip out of it!  It's always so, so good to see them.  I miss not getting to see them more regularly, and am always so grateful for the two or three visits per year.

Beth and her kids (Holly-3 and Ben-1) arrived first.  They came up to our house to play one day, as my mom was finishing up her last day of teaching.  We had planned to go to our nearby splash park but unfortunately were rained out.  The kids still had fun playing with toys indoors.

That Friday evening David, Eli, and I headed to my parents so we could be around everyone while the family was there.  My mom prepared a fun dinner that night, a little Hawaiian Luau.  Holly and Eli were able to help decorate the dining room with pictures of flamingos and toucans, passed out leis for everyone to wear, and got to drink their pina coladas in special coconut cups.  They loved talking about their "Hawaii Party."  : )

After dinner the kids enjoyed playing in the kiddie pool.  This picture displays Holly well.  Such a free spirit.  : )

Emily and her son (Noah-1), were supposed to get in Friday night.  In a very unfortunate change of plans, their flight from California was canceled and they weren't able to get to Indy until Saturday afternoon!  (The wedding was Saturday evening, in a different city.)  We were all so bummed at the lost time with them, and that their plans were derailed and put more stress on them.

Eli and Holly were terrific buddies during their visit.  My other two sisters and Ben went to pick up Emily and Noah at the airport, and my parents had to take my grandma to the church for wedding pictures, so David and I kept Holly with us at our hotel for a couple hours.  Those two just had a ball entertaining themselves!  As soon as we stepped into our hotel room they both jumped in the bed and snuggled under the covers.

They climbed into the tub and took a pretend bath.  Super cute video!

They also had a blast playing on the luggage cart.  They made it a choo choo train and David pushed them around and they'd hop on and off at different "stations."

We had debated not bringing Eli to the wedding (it didn't start until 7:00 pm, his bedtime, with the reception afterwards), but with all of our family coming we preferred him to not miss out on the special family time.  Even with no nap that day he did great!   Thankfully the airport group made it to the wedding in the knick of time!  Our cousin looked radiant, and we filled up on yummy treats at the beautiful outdoor reception.  I'm very bummed I didn't get our family picture taken while we were dressed up, but I did take another video of Eli and Holly.  They spent the majority of the reception on the dance floor!  : )

Sunday morning we enjoyed a delicious breakfast at the hotel, then headed over to our aunt and uncle's house where they were hosting a bridal brunch/luncheon for the couple and some family and friends.  We stayed and visited through the afternoon, then headed back to my parents that evening.

Eli and Ben playing on top of the hot tub.  

Monday morning we all headed out for a quick trip to St. Louis!  (A separate post on that coming next).

Wednesday when we were back at my parents Eli and Holly played in the sprinkler together.  In the following picture Eli's holding one of his "Grammie treasures."  My mom has a little treasure chest, and every day the kids were there she'd have a new small treasure for Eli and Holly to find and play with.  They LOVED it.

Grammie even joined in for a quick run-through!  

The time with the family went by much too fast and was not without its chaos and stress, but overall we made good memories and enjoyed being together.  One of the wrinkles in the family visit was the health status of some of us.  The days leading up to the visit Eli was very sick with a high fever and bad cough.  David caught it next, except not the cough right away, more like the typical flu, and was sick on Friday and Saturday during family time.  I caught the sick bug, and particularly started feeling miserable on Monday (as we headed to St. Louis), and continued to feel darn crummy for a few days, and then had a terrible cough for a couple weeks.  Rebecca got sick in St. Louis, and other family ended up sick after our visit was over.  I don't have any pictures of cute Noah because he had a pretty rough time, which later we learned was because he was sick with Roseola!  Poor boy.  He was super attached to Emily the whole time and seemed terrified of the rest of us.  : (  Hopefully Christmas will be a much happier time for all, and easier on the sisters with the help of their husbands.  : )