Totally Worth It...

After a recent fun visit from Alison and Mike and their four kids, our house looked something like this: We always know that it is going to take some time to put things back together after a visit, but it is always so worth it! We love having family visit--especially family with cousins that match up so closely in age and personality to our own kids.

At the same time, my other sister Susannah, her baby Rebecca and my brothers Nathan and David came out to help move Timothy out to Utah, so their visit coincided for a few days with the Bramhall's. There were days when our house was ready to burst with so many people packed in it. (Ten kids and nine adults!) It was so much fun!

We took advantage of the few days to do some fun activities and get out of the messy house for a bit. I loaded these first pictures out of order but wasn't about to start over again. These were taken on a visit to Turkeyville where we all went to ride the trains. The weather had been rainy so we weren't even sure the trains would be running, but luckily they were.

The kids also loved the playgrounds, seeing the turkeys, goats and rabbits, and buying candy in the gift shop.
There were so many of us that we had to take about three different trains. The kids thought it was fun to wave at each other as we passed along the tracks.

Another day we went to the zoo. Susannah wanted to take Rebecca on her first zoo trip. It was a fun visit. Same old scene for us, but still exciting because we had family with us to enjoy it.

And as usual, the kids graced us with a cute talent show!

We also took an excursion over to the Nature Center. My camera was trying to die that day so I didn't get too many pictures, but we had a lot of fun seeing the brand new baby turtles that were just hatching and the snapping turtle in the tank that would try to bite our fingers when we put them on the glass. The big rat snake was pretty cool too and so were all the monarch caterpillars in the milkweed patch. We went for a walk up to the bridge and had fun spotting fish in the water along with a big soft shell turtle that lives nearby.

Sunday evenings in the park are always fun in August with a free concert series. We weren't sure if we'd enjoy this week's selection of gypsy jazz, but it was actually pretty good and got the kids dancing before they spotted the playground and headed over to play there instead.

Susannah and the brothers left that night after Susannah fed us the most delicious brisket ever. And the next day we took the remaining family to Swain's Lake in Concord. This is one of our favorite places to go swimming. It's a small, shallow lake so the kids get get pretty far out without me worrying to much and it's a beautiful setting to enjoy a day out. Plus it has a fun playground for the kids. The water that day was perfect--way warmer than the college pool where we also took everyone before the Nature Center trip.

Isn't this kid irresistable? Lydia is such a cutie!

On Tuesday we took the kids to the kid's museum. Lydia thinks it's number one!

And while we were there, we had the kids go into the messy art room and make giant birthday cards for Nana to give to her at her surprise party that evening. We had never thrown a surpise party before and since we spent the entire morning at Mom's house, it was really hard not to wish her happy birthday. I even got a text from Andrew asking us if we were planning something for her because she thought we'd forgotten. The kids had so much fun watching for her car to pull up into the driveway. When they spotted her, we all hid so we could jump out and yell "surprise" when she came into the door. I had forgotten until too late that she would be lugging in a big pot of soup! I was hoping that we wouldn't scare her to death and have her drop the pot. Plus, I felt bad that no one ran out to help her get in the door with it. But she made it in and really was surprised I think.

We enjoyed a yummy dinner of tamale soup and fried tortilla strips (so good!) and Mom got to look at her cards and the relaxation kit we had put together for her with a basket containing bath salts, a candle, a book and some moisturizing slippers.

The ultra chocolatey cake was divine and so was the double chocolate brownie fudge ice cream. After that it was time to say goodbye to Alison and Mike who decided to drive all night to get back to NJ. It was such a fun visit for all of us. Our game nights just aren't the same with just us playing. And our kids are already missing their cousins like crazy and asking how much longer till we'll see them again. Hopefully not too long!