A Fun and Busy Weekend

This past Friday morning the kids and left to go to my Dad's house. We went up there for a wedding. Since Rod and I had taught VBS at our church all week, Rod hadn't been home much more than to sleep. I told him to stay home and get some rest and some stuff done.

The wedding was Friday night and it was one of my cousin's daughters, Rachael. I used to babysit her so I wanted to go. It had been many years since I had seen many of my aunts, cousins, and their kids. Time flies.

On Saturday, my Dad had plans to go and combine some oats. Caleb has been dying to ride the combine in action and hasn't had a chance yet. We stayed a lot later than I had planned, but the kids had a great time.

Farmer Kids!

Caleb Riding the Combine

Alissa had to take a turn, but she fell asleep during the process. Leah didn't want to ride, but she had a good time watching everything.

On Sunday, we had plans to get together with my brothers and their families. We all met up at my brother Adam's house for the day. The kids all have a blast together. This was our last visit this year with my brother Matt who is leaving for Japan in a couple of days. This year, Matt tried really hard to make up with Alissa, but she never really did make friends with him. In the end, I think that she made a game out it and love the attention she was getting for not liking him. Maybe next year Matt!

Sami and Rachel. All the kids loved splashing in the backyard pool.

The inseparable girls!

Caleb and Chris

Alissa feel asleep before all the kids made it too the pool. Rod decided he wouldn't let the opportunity pass.

When Alissa woke up everyone else was still swimming and she was quick to join in the fun. Alissa hung out with Emily in the pool.

Matt picking on Alissa again. Alissa is trying to kick him and get away!

Then the powerwheels came out!

Chris loves his motorcycles!

Caleb gets a ride from Nathaniel.

Alissa makes up with Chris. She didn't like him for awhile either.

Alissa always likes Aunt Alexis

Playtime for Emily and Nathaniel

The girls in the playroom.

The playroom exploded with 9 kids playing!

Family Reunion

This past weekend we had a mini family reunion camping trip. We went to Salt Fork State Park with both my brothers and their families. One of my brothers lives in Japan and he and his family are in the States visiting for the summer. It's been almost a year since we've seen them. It was our first trip to this state park and I would recommend it, it was a very nice park. We had a lot of rain on one of the days, but the next day was beautiful. There were nine kids altogether and they had a blast together. The rain didn't stop their fun at all, they just ran around and played in it. We spent most of the second day at the lake, swimming, riding jet skis and tubing. My shoulders are still sore from the tubing experience thanks to my brother Matt.

We had a birthday/Christmas party for all the kids since it's a little difficult to exchange presents via mail. The kids think it's great to have a birthday party and get presents. We even had cupcakes and decorations.

Noah and Emily blowing up balloons.

The kids had a blast playing with the balloons.

For some reason Alissa and Nathaniel thought that rolls of duct tape were a great toy.

The pile of presents and the kids dying to get into them.

Steph and Chris worked hard to lite the candles, but the wind refuse to cooperate.

Yummy!

Finally it's time to open the presents!

After lunch and the birthday/Christmas celebration we headed off to the lake.

Alissa loves the water.

The kids all jumped in.

Leah went on a jet ski ride with Steph and Rachel.

Caleb thinks Chris is the greatest and wanted to hang out with him and do what he was doing. Unfortunately Caleb wasn't feeling 100% this weekend. After some Tylenol he joined in the fun and played hard.

Alissa loved running in and sitting down in the water.

The three girls were inseparable all weekend.

Chris is getting ready to go tubing.

Alissa swam and played hard. Now it's nap time under a shade tree.

Rachel and Emily are off to ride the tube.

Sami loved playing with Alissa.

We had a few small fireworks. These were snakes Chris was setting off for the kids.

All the big people hanging around the fire.

Alissa loved all the attention she was getting from her cousins. Emily was great with her.

Riding bikes was a big part of the fun.

Emily and Chris took all the kids to the park. The park was a bike ride away and so they all rode in a line with Alissa in the bike trailer.

Emily did a great job making them tow the line!

There was a trail right behind our campsites. The kids were allowed to go down the path to the fallen tree and play. They were pretending it was a house!

It was an awesome time together. I wish that everyone lived closer so that we could do it more often, but we'll just enjoy the time that we do have together.