When Dave’s sister Julie and her family come to town it turns into party-mode here in the desert.
Those of us who live in the valley see each other way more when she’s here and there are constant get-togethers of cousins and adults sprinkled in any way we can possibly fit them.
It all started this time around right here…during our Easter get-together (wrote about that back HERE), when they all arrived (it was their spring break up in Utah):
And it was pretty much a party from there on out.
They stayed with us for the first few days.  When that happens life just slows down and I love it.  I loved hanging out with these nieces and nephews and just being able to talk and catch up with Julie and the other sis-in-law and cousin-in-laws.  I am the luckiest to be related to them all.
Those kids swam until their fingers turned to prunes.
We went on a bike ride to see the “farm” of a nearby cousin (we live close to two of Dave’s cousins), who had the other cousins in town for spring break too, which resulted in all these girls getting together:

We sat next to the pool as the kids swam (with these two cousins below as well as another one of Dave’s sisters) and talked about the world and motherhood and the twists and turns life takes.

 …and kept the discussion going as kids bounced in and out and we made dinner.

Played cards…

 …the girls loved on Bo:

The sisters did a 6:00 am hot yoga class…along with that couple on the left below who are great family friends.

(weird sunrise shadow up there, but you get the idea)

We took a bike ride all around the neighborhood and to the grocery store:

 When Bo got tired, she was pleased as punch to perch right here:

I am not the type of mom to bring my kids lunch at school. I’d rather take them out for our “lunch dates” and get them all to myself once in a while.  But this day was a good day to be the bring-lunch kind of mom…since I got to do it with these cousins Claire adores:

More swimming:

The cousins all came to Claire’s track meet:

 …and to Grace’s tennis match:

The other cousins happened to have a track meet at our high school at the same time as the tennis match (they go to a different high school) so it was fun to be able to gather with them all there and watch those great athletes:

These are all cousins except of that cute friend in the middle:

 More dinner together:

 …and a morning walk to school with Lu and Bo:

Then Julie left so stay with another sis-in-law but we got together for lunch:

 (Those were just the people left when we remembered to take a picture…mad we didn’t think of it earlier!)

We watched the cousins’ Saturday tennis lesson talking on the sidelines and whooping and hollering at all the great shots:

 …and had an impromptu barbecue/swim party over here with so many people we adore.

 

We ended all the hoopla with Saturday-night adult dinner to celebrate one sister-in-law’s birthday:

Man I know I sound like a broken record, but I sure do feel lucky to be related to all that goodness.

One Comment

  1. Ok, you're so much like my mom–always thrilled to open the door for an afternoon of swimming, and even more thrilled if everyone stayed for dinner. She always kept frozen burgers and tons of potatoes for baking just for this purpose. I gotta ask– what do you feed all those kiddos (and adults!) on impromptu pool party days? These really are the best days!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *