Virginia

About 2 weeks ago we traveled down to Virginia for a immediate family reunion with all of Mr. N's siblings, his parents and all the grandchildren. It was the first time all 6 siblings had been together at the same time in about 10 years. It was such a fun visit. This picture above is L on the car ride down. This picture is a good description of the ride down...covered in Peanut butter with stickers in her hands and her hands caked in some kind of goo..."are we there yet???" Anything to keep them entertained! She did really good on the car ride though. No accidents!

The day we arrived with had a big dinner with everyone at Mr. N's older brother's house. With all the grandchildren (minus one who hadn't arrived yet...) it was pretty loud and crazy. Upon arriving L decided that for her...Virginia and potty training didn't go. She refused to use the potty as she had been doing at home. My potty trained for almost a month child was no longer potty trained in Virginia. Luckily we brought enough diapers!

The family get together centered primarily around 2 of our nephews. There was the blessing of new baby Alexander and the Baptism of Kenny.

L is getting really into dressing up. She put on this army hat and rode the horse and it cracked us up. We had to get a picture!

Here's Mr. N' mom with her youngest son (left), oldest son (middle), and Mr. N (the middle son on the right).

I'm not sure what this picture was all about, but it was really funny to document!

We went crabbing at the beach too, which really involved most of us swimming and playing with the kids in the ocean and a few of the guys trying to lure crabs into the cage or makeshift fishing lines. Above are Mr. N's parents and the new baby in the family.

Kids playing in the ocean.

So we didn't end up catching a lot of crabs. Mr. N's brother-in-law stopped on the way home and bought a box of crabs and we cooked them...they were fantastic! It's a ton of work to get the meat out, but man is it good!

We're all lounging after the beach.

This was father's day after church.

I helped the girls make this shirt for Mr. N for father's day. M's hands were the green ones and L's hands were the purple ones. The girls were so proud of their work! They loved seeing Dad wear the shirt they made for him, and kept pointing out which hands were theirs.

Dinner at Mr. N's sister's house.

We had big family pictures taken too. I forgot to get a copy of the disc with those pictures, so that will have to wait for another post. Not that this post is lacking in pictures. By this time (Tuesday) our girls were so done. They were exhausted and so crabby. All they seemed to do was cry, which is not their norm. That didn't really put Mr. N and I in the best mood...but everyone survived. Mr. N's sister mad the cutest bows for all the girls. It was such a special opportunity to get everyone in the picture! It was so humid and hot though! Ugh. Virginia is a little bit too hot and humid for my taste!

After pictures we went to Bush Gardens. Like I said, our girls were exhausted. We were practically just through the gates when M fell asleep. I think I can count on one hand the number of times M has fallen asleep in a place other than her bed or the car since she was about 3-4 months old. She was so tired! Mr. N, his younger brother, sister, and dad all went on the sky ride. L went with them and thought it was great. I stayed with our sleeping daughter.

After M woke up she was still super grumpy, but a little more manageable. L ended passing out on me too. Again, they don't really do that. The last time L fell asleep in my arms was flying home from Oklahoma in December. Through the grumpiness, though, the girls loved being around all their cousins. They love friends, and there were definitely plenty of friends to play with!

After Bush gardens we really tried to make sure L and M were sleeping more, and their moods improved slightly. L handles the lack of a schedule better that M, so she held up better overall. One morning she and Mr. N were really roughhousing in the room we stayed in. It was so hilarious! She really had a blast.

This picture says it all about how we all felt on the way home. M was passed out before we even got off their road. They slept in late for days after we got home. They've finally recuperated, so they are back to getting up at 6:30-7 am...hooray.... Since then M has been asking if we can go back in the car and see her cousins. I wish we lived closer to everyone. It is such a blessing to be around family. We really miss everyone, but count ourselves very lucky to have been there!