My Family Weekend Extravaganza

Craig made plans a couple months ago to take a weekend trip to Las Vegas with a friend.  They left Thursday evening (the 19th) and returned late Sunday night.  Coincidentally, a guy we graduated high school with was getting married out there that weekend and Craig and Jason were able to attend the wedding (despite that not being the reason for the trip)!  They had a great time and I was happy for Craig to get a break from work and the monotony of day-to-day responsibility for awhile.  Plus, Vegas is sooooo not my scene so I'm glad he has someone other than me to travel with.

Shortly after the guys made their plans, I decided I would take that Friday off and plan a bonding weekend with my family.  For various reasons, our time together is never as often as I would like and this was a great opportunity for me to reconnect on whatever schedule we wanted to make for ourselves.  I jokingly called it our "family weekend extravaganza" in the weeks leading up to it as we made tentative plans for all my siblings to be available to hang out.  :)

On Thursday after work, my mom picked the kids up for me so that I could make our weekly grocery store trip.  She fed them dinner and then she, Casey and I held our "weekly" (I use that word loosely) bible study meeting (a new thing we've started along with my aunt) at our house for the kids to get to bed in their own beds.

On Friday morning, I picked my mom up and we took the kids to the zoo for the first time this season.  It was pretty overcast and cool this morning and we all wore sweatshirts!  The trip was fun and we loved checking out the new Tembo Trail near/around the elephant exhibit.  Casey and Wes were there as well with a couple of Wes's friends from Loramie and all their combined kids.  We very briefly met up with them and then quickly split up when we were ready to call it a day sooner than them.

 

The polar bear was napping with his behind right in the window of the mock den that the kids can walk into.  :)

Uncle Dub pretending to be a caged animal at the outdoor cafe.  :)

Little Dub & Big Dub

Aquarium

Hippos!

Reading to us about the elephants.

Aww!  Baby Lucas (who just turned one last month) was nursing with his mommy!  So sweet.

Somebody got sleepy towards the end of our visit.  ;)

We packed a lunch for our zoo trip and then came home for a nap.  We got a late start on nap and then neither kid fell asleep quickly so it was a rather late nap for both.  When they woke, we went back to mom and dad's for swimming and pizza.

I made Pea Wee Kiwi Pops from Weelicious and the kids had those for dessert.  Sophie LOVED it.  Will thought it was just okay.

After dinner and bath, we played Trouble.  I used to love this game as a child and my brothers just got it for Will for his birthday.  He's annoyingly good.

The next few are iPhone pics.  On Saturday morning, the kids and I went to the library as usual, and then on to the farmer's market downtown.

We picked up some beets (for a new recipe), radishes ('cause I'm obsessed with them this summer) and kohlrabi (for eating raw with our big family dinner that night).

Icky of me (no make-up, goofy face) but so cute of Soph.  Love her smile.

We went home for lunch and nap after the market and then back to Nana & Papa's after nap for swimming, dinner with the whole fam and game night later.

The kids are little FISH this summer!!  They LOVE to swim!!

I took full advantage of the relaxed afternoon too!

Will loves the "little pool" (hot tub, which is most often pool temperature) because he can always touch and practice going under and swimming.

My siblings all arrived for dinner around 5-ish and my parents grilled one of our family's favorite recipes:  peanutty pork kabobs.  Sooooo good!!  We had lots of sides to go with and I tried my first Bud Light Limearita.  :)  Also very good! 

Will got a hold of Wes's silly shades and wore them for dinner.  ;)  Goof.

For dessert, the kids had Wacky Watermelon Pops - another new recipe for summer pops I wanted to try.

More swimming after dinner...

Sophie hitched a ride into the deep end on Wes's back.  Haha!

Then it was bath and bed time again.  We ALL spent the night this night.  (I bet my mom was in heaven, having all four of her kids under one roof for the night again.)  I read some of our library books to the kids before we tucked them in and they all listened so intently despite a couple of the books being... umm... a little strange.  

Bed time went a little better this night compared to Friday night and we were all able to play a few rounds of Bananagrams and a game of Balderdash around the island in the kitchen.  A short while into the game, we were all wearing shades to help us keep our poker faces while reading the choices for each round.  It was a hysterical game with LOTS of laughter.

Wes laughing so hard he was sort of crying/wheezing in an attempt to recover his composure.  LOVE it!!!  :-)

Sunday morning we rose and got ready for church.  Mom, Wes and I took the four kids to Catholic Mass at OLL and then made our way into the Grotto for some pictures after.  It was extremely hot and the kids were not terribly in the mood to cooperate, but they still looked cute in a bunch of these.

Our Goddaughter... such a poser.

Lovely ladies.

I LOVE these next three.  The first two crack me up!  Especially Stella's eyes in the second one.  Adorable!

Naps at home yet again.  This time, I took one too!

Aaaand... back for more swimming, or course!

Wes is such a good sport.  ;-)

Sometimes in the heat, a big meal doesn't really sound good.  Nana brought out a substantial snack and we called that "dinner" and just went for ice cream at the Dipper later.

Everyone relaxed and lounged this afternoon/evening.  Especially Casey who just watched the pool fun in her birthday suit from a rocking chair...  Haha!!!  I'm totally kidding.  But doesn't she look naked!?!?  She has on shorts and a tube top, which you can see a few pictures up.  ;-) 

Pee break for the ladies.

While we all drove to the Dipper for ice cream, dad and Wes decided to ride their bikes all the way there.  I think dad regretted that decision.  ;)

Bethany was working (a big reason why we decided to go) and the kids loved seeing her on the job. 

By the end of the weekend (well, before that, actually), I was more than ready for Craig to come home.  It was so good to see him later this night.  I think he missed me too.  I was getting all sorts of sweet texts about how he misses me and loves me and can't wait to be home.  Wow!  Not the norm for my one-to-two-word-texting-hubby.