A Visit from the Oswald's

We spent a lovely day at Lake Michigan. This was right before going home and everyone was pretty tired. Spencer didn't even make it out of the parking lot before he zonked out!
The two grandmas and Kaya (in the bundle on my mom's lap). My mom was able to join us at the lake and later for some other activities. This was really the first time that she and my in-laws had spent time together, so I was really glad that she was able to get to know them better.

We recently had a super fun visit with some of the Oswald side of the family. We've been trying to get them out to Michigan for years now, and finally we were able to get a few. Kalen's Mom Trenna, his sister Susan and two of her kids Kelsey and Randall, his sister Sherrie and two of her kids Amber (this was actually her graduation trip) and Krystle, and his brother Eric were all able to come. We really wished that Kalen's other brother Todd had been able to come too, then all of the siblings would have been reunited for the first time in a very long time. Oh well. We'll just have to do it again soon!

Anyway, we had a great visit with everyone. And contrary to what they kept saying about how glad I'd be to be rid of them and get back to normal, I'd have loved for them to stay even longer! They cooked, cleaned, did dishes...who wants to send that away? Plus, it was SO much fun to visit with them all. I am so terrible at keeping in touch with them, but when we're together I absolutely love to visit with them. I had to keep doing a double take when I'd look at Amber and think that she's graduated from high school. I still remember when I first met her when she was just a tiny little thing, not quite 4 years old yet. And the other kids have grown so fast too and it was great to get reaquainted with them again. Especially for our kids to get to know some of the Oswald cousins better. Spencer was just talking about them today and he said that "cousins are people that you love."

We went on a few excursions with everyone: the Whitehouse Nature Center, Victory Park where we watched Kalen and Eric play soccer and then again later for a community band concert, Lake Michigan where we all got sunburned in spite of using a gallon of sunblock, Turkeyville where we got to go on a mini-train ride which was really fun, Kid's 'n'Stuff museum, the Albion College campus where we were able to see the sharks and check out the greenhouse at the science complex, and apparently a visit to Michigan is not complete without a few Walmart runs! We also had lots of fun reminiscing, playing games, roasting marshmallows over the campfire, and adding "Down by the Banks" to the end of our family prayers which Susan taught us and which has now become our new tradition as well.

We hope that everyone had as much fun as we did having them here. Hopefully now we've gotten them hooked on Michigan and we'll be able to have them come to visit more often!