Perhaps the best part of summer so far has been this past 8 days while we’ve had family come into town. The prep work of getting the house, yard, landscaping, garage, etc to the point that we were ready for everyone to come was… a feat to say the least! But it was so worth it. And we loved every minute of family time!
Friday: first day my mom arrived
We took the boys over to the ball fields to have their Sandlot day with their friend. Grandma Donna was the cool grandma and stood in as a pitcher until Travis showed up. He then took over and eventually bought slurpies for all the boys. After naps we took the boys and their friends over to the pool where we ran into a lot of their baseball team and it became a real life scene from The Sandlot!
Saturday: Trav’s family arrived
Travis had to leave at 3am to drive to Minneapolis in order to pick up his Mom, Dad, both brothers, and one wife and baby. We started the day at the lake and everyone was having such a good time that we stayed for hours before finally leaving to grab ice cream from the Viking, in Clear Lake. Later that evening we met up with a ton of friends show our family some food ok’d Ultimate frisbee! I’m so glad our family could be apart of something that’s meant a lot to us as we’ve lived away from home. But sorry Vaughn and Mom that you guys got roughed up during the game! We played until dark and then came back to my house for s’mores and combined fireworks with my neighborhood, and Travis’s sister arrived with one of her daughters; it was such a fun night.
Sunday: Fast Sunday and the 4th of July
It worked out that I sang a solo in replacement of the closing hymn for church, with my Sister-in-law accompanying me; she was amazing. And the spirit was so so strong that day. During the afternoon the grandparents took over the watching of children and cooking of food so that Travis and I could take his siblings out to sight see. Then once it was dark, Travis took everyone out to see the fireflies while I decorated for Aaron’s bday.
Monday: Aaron’s Birthday/ Baptism
We started the morning with birthday pancakes, and happy birthdays… then it was off to the parade! We showed our family the Clear lake parade and carnival before taking all the kids home for naps. Travis and Garett decided to bike home from Clear Lake and about a mile away from the house Garett popped the back tire on the bike.
Then it was baptism time! Aaron was so prepared so grown up. And seemed like it was the moment he’d been working for in life! He had U. Garett and U. Bryce stand in as witnesses. Each grandma said a prayer. Cousin Allie gave the sweetest talk on baptism, and Maddix gave a wonderful talk on the Holy Ghost. As we rapped everything up and we’re about to walk out, Aaron felt prompted to go up and bare his own testimony on baptism… SOOOOooo cute!!! Afterward we ended up moving our outdoor bbq inside due to the crazy heat/humidity! Thanks to everyone who came over to celebrate with us/help us.
Afterward we had baseball going on in the back, some ppl were enjoying the back patio and watching a storm head roll in, and then an outdoor movie up at the Carter’s.
Tuesday: Final day with everyone
Travis took his sited to the local airport and said goodbye. The rest of us set to work cleaning the house and putting it back together before heading to Minneapolis. My mom stayed back for a day with my kids and I showed Travis’s family around the Mall of America before taking them to the airport. On my way home I stopped at COSTCO!!! My first time in a year and a half! And it was all by myself! I loved every minute of it! Back home and kids in bed, my mom snd I started the Pitch Perfect series because somehow she’s never seen them before!
The last days with my mom:
movies, naps, Clear Lake, and chats. Not going to lie, I was so trashed from working on overdrive with almost no sleep for weeks that I went pretty comatose! But I was glad she was here! She left Saturday morning snd it was comforting to say goodbye knowing we’d be out to Utah in two weeks!
So until then all!
