Family Visits

A couple weekends ago we were blessed by very special visitors whom we hadn’t gotten to share our new home with! My sister, her hubby and her youngest, Edmund came out for dinner. Josh and Edmund (4 months apart) were kind of enamored with one another:

The good news was that Josh didn’t cry every time that Edmund walked near him (like their previous meeting)! It was so good to see my sister, and we’re thrilled as they have moved back to the Willamette Valley!

Later that evening, Nate and Holly and their newborn came to stay for the night and the next day. We felt so blessed that they were willing to travel the two and a half hours with a one month old just to see our new place! We couldn’t wait to show Nate (the fisherman of the family) our little creek. I’m telling you: going down to that place never gets old! It is so beautiful!

Ben caught a crawdad, and Seth caught a frog!

Joshy loved the water as always, and baby Ellie…she just slept:

The big boys tried out the deeper water:

”So cold,” as Seth said. (And yes, that’s his hand down his pants because apparently it made his “privates” very cold—as he announced very loudly.) Sammy is pictured below:

We even got Nate to snap a family picture!

On Sunday, Nate subbed on Ben’s city league basketball team. Seth and Sam love going to watch these games. We got everyone to do a “team” pose, as they were all wearing the same jersey’s—hilarious!

And finally, Katie and I are just thrilled to be living within an hour of each other, so we just had to meet up at the Wilsonville splash park ASAP. The older cousins hadn’t seen each other since April and they quickly picked up right were they had left off. They love each other so much!

Edmund was enthralled by the fountains. Joshy, on the other hand, was a bit too small to understand them and kept getting blasted in the face. Poor thing. I thought he’d love the splash park, but he spent most the time wet and too cold, but did do a fair amount of bear-crawling around.

I get a “bad mom” award for this picture of Josh and Edmund. Look how cold poor Joshy looks. No sacrifice too small for a photo op.

I did snuggle with him afterwards!

Here’s the big kids. Best of buds! I love the picture of them all running in a line. How I got all of them, and no other kids is a miracle!

Yeah for family! We’re so blessed by our relationships with them! (Clara and Sammy pictured above.

Crooked River Camping

Ben and I really debated whether or not to go to Crooked River this year, having just moved two weeks previous. We finally decided to go; Seth and Sam always have so much fun with their cousins and talk about it for the rest of the year. Ben’s mom brings all the food for us, making it a pretty easy trip overall. Ben gets to go golfing (twice this year in fact!) and there are so many hands to help with the kids (65 total in the group this year!). I’m really glad we went, and would have called the whole trip a smashing success, except for the fact that Josh and Sam puked the last night. Thankfully, Josh was just a small amount in the pack and play, and we got Sam outside. Really, puking and camping combined is one of my worst nightmares, but we survived.

Here’s some pictures of our weekend:

Sam, Seth and cousin Alex showing off their “muscles”

Joshy LOVED camping! Dirt, rocks and water galore! (He has perfected this bear crawl!)

We let the “big boys” stay up and go “frogging” for the first time. Thankfully Diane went with me and took one boy, because they both had NO concept of the edge of the pond and almost fell in repeatedly. Sam actually got a leg in, but luckily I pulled him up by the hood.Sustenance for the hunt

First toad caught by Uncle Mike

Diane ready to catch a tipping boy

Shining the light to fine toads.

Cousin Jeremiah got one! Seth and Sam were so brave in touching it!

The kids all took turns holding this baby one. I love this picture of S & S passing it to one another:

Another camp must: corn hole toss

Nate and Holly came for the day with baby Ellie! She is just one month old. I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon snuggling with her!Holly is such a great mama!

The whole family!