Family Reunion

Wow, it has been a crazy, wonderful week! The last of my visitors recently left and we are back to just our little family. My parents, sister, and brother, wife, and their kids were here for 6 nights of fun fun fun. I have been thinking and planning this week for a full year and was wondering how all 13 of us would fit in our house, but it seemed to work out very well. I was so amazed at how well the cousins interacted. Laura and Adam were in heaven having all the playmates around day and night! It was fun to see them mix up the combinations of age and gender and it seems like all combinations worked well. And when anyone needed a break, it worked out for them to seek out their own quiet place to recharge, including me. I just hadn't expected to be so sorry to see them go! We went to the beach, on a hike and picnic, to the MOA, and played a lot around our house. The weather was pretty nasty, with heat indexes of 100+ every day, but we mixed up our play with Wii, sprinklers, pool, beach, and morning time outside. We invited even more family over for an ice cream party one night with the Minnesota branch of my mom's family, a total of about 30 people! All this entertaining is a big deal for me. But it all turned out well and everyone seemed to enjoy the chance to catch up with each other. On the 4th, we had some kid-friendly fireworks courtesy of Jim and a total of 80 boxes of Pop-Its. It was a week of non-stop excitement, but I was amazed at how relatively stress-free it all was for me. I think it might actually be nice (in this case, with these guests) to be the host and not be the one traveling. I always thought I would dislike that role, but this week changed my mind. Thank you all for visiting, come back anytime. I truly mean it!