We had some special visitors come to see us! First was M'Lynn, my other daughter! She came for her birthday to visit us and some of her friends. She wanted it to be a complete surprise for the kids so first she surprised Madelyn at her dance class. . .
Then Rylan as he got off the bus and was walking home. . .
We celebrated her birthday...she is 18!
My nephew Jake is serving in the Indianapolis, Indiana Mission and he was recently transferred to at little tiny weeny town called Culver, which is in the north western part of his mission which only happens to be 2 hours away from us in Chicago! With M'Lynn visiting we couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet up with him so his parents asked his mission president for permission, and he said YES, as long as he knew where and when we were meeting. So M'Lynn, the kids and I (Scott had to work :( ) made the trek on a Saturday morning to meet him for lunch.
We were out in the middle of nowhere, with lots of farms and fields, then all the sudden we were in Culver, Indiana!
We met at a cute little café, it was so cute to see Jake, I mean Elder Young and his companion walking down the street to meet us! I asked if I could give him a hug (missionaries have strict rules about physical contact with the opposite sex) and he let me!
We had a delightful lunch, I am so proud of my little Jake, it seems like just yesterday I was changing his diapers and we were dancing to Hootie & the Blowfish together! Now he is a mature, righteous, respectful, kind, open-minded, funny, polite young man!
The kids were a bit shy, except for Rylan he has known Jake for a while and really looks up to him. He asked if we could come visit him again and I had to remind him that visiting Jake is not something we can do often because he shouldn't be distracted by the outside world, he has a important work to do and that is to bring people unto Jesus Christ, and help the community he is living in.
The weekend M'Lynn was here happened to be General Conference where we can listen to our prophet and apostles on TV! Which means a lot of treats, snacks and snuggling on the couch while we listen, oh and massages. Here M'Lynn is giving Madelyn one.
Ian decided to help rub her as well.
Then to get our wiggles out between sessions the kids had a light saber war!
My kids love M'Lynn!
Scott had to work this weekend but he was able to come home about an hour into the second session, but he was so tired that he fell right asleep...opps! It's ok baby you can read it later when it is in print.
Our next visitors were my sister Margaret and her kids Ben and Lizzie! We anxiously awaited their arrival at the airport, and when they came the kids were kind of shy and didn't know what to do or say...
Then they got more comfortable with each other and started to be like old friends
We drove home that night and went out to dinner with M'Lynn, it was her last night here, then we went to Petland (one of her favorite places) to hold puppies!
The next day we showed our visitors our beloved pond, the kids threw rocks, collected treasures and got d-i-r-t-y! Notice Ian's cheek. . .
We also took them to our favorite forest preserve nearby called Waterfall Glen. We gave the kids a picture scavenger hunt. Isn't my niece Lizzie the cutest! The frogs were so loud croaking in the marsh, we were trying to find one but they were camouflaged too well.
Our cute little hikers, Ben insisted on wearing his sweatshirt backwards, he just liked it that way!
We took them to our favorite park, here Ian and Lizzie are going down a slide together, they had some fun moments together but
Madelyn was the one that everyone wanted to be with! She and Ben are only a couple weeks apart, and Lizzie looks up to Madelyn because she is a girl so Madelyn had to be in the middle a lot of the time to dissolve some fights. This is a picture of them walking on Navy Pier on our way to the Children's Museum
The kids had an absolute blast! There are so many fun exhibits there specifically for their ages. Madelyn and Ben both really wanted to climb this rope tunnel up to the 2nd floor, but as they got higher it got a little scary and was shaking, they both got really scared, there were some tears but with a little encouragement they both climbed to the top. We had to take a breather for a minute afterwards.
We didn't really do much else but just let the kids play outside. The weather was so beautiful (finally) and that is all they really wanted to do. The first morning they were here, I woke up at 8:00am which NEVER happens, a little body is always waking me up before then. The kids were all playing in their pajamas just as happy as can be. We kept asking, "are you hungry yet?" and they kept saying "no, we are still playing." They didn't want to stop to eat!
Lizzie set up a ice cream shop while the others rode around on their bikes,
With the kids entertained that left Margaret and I to do some crafting! What a dream right?
This last picture that Margaret took is my favorite, look at those adorable faces! The kids were having so much fun playing together and seeing them play gave their moms so much joy!
After they left I experienced some major depression, which is something I usually don't deal with very often. I love my sisters (and brothers of course) so much and being far away from them just tears at my heart! I am so happy that we had this time together and that our kids adore one another and can have special cousins their age that they can bond with even if it is only once or twice a year. I will cherish all the time we can get with them!
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