I have spent some time this week going through photos and this post is long overdue! We went to visit my Grandma Johns the week of Thanksgiving 2011. It was her first chance to see Amelie and second time to see Nadia.
My Grandma was so excited to see us and had a lot of fun with the girls. She even pulled out her “old school” toys like the phone in Toy Story 3.
Amelie had fun zipping and un-zipping Grandma’s hoodie.
Playing the piano.
More fun with Grandma.
My cousin Leslie and her husband Ryan also came by for the visit which was nice.
My FAVORITE photo of the day. Who knows why we are laughing, but I am sure it’s something funny Mike said.
Big hugs goodbye! I am sure we wore Grandma out, but it was so fun to see her.
Nadia holding a baby for the first time – her cousin Caleb.
We headed down to Sugarland, TX for a quick trip to see Chris and Jen’s twins and to meet Lisa and Michael’s new son Matthew. It was a whirlwind, but so fun! I have been dying to see the boys and was so happy we worked it out for a visit. Nadia was not sure what all the hype was since they couldn’t “play”, but then she thought it was cool to hold one of the boys. Jen suggested we head for the park since it was a beautiful day and our girls had been cooped up in the car all morning. While the kids played and Chris walked the boys in their stroller Jen and I chatted. Her mom Jane came by and we had a quick visit.
Nadia is so strong.
Sweet sisters.
That night we headed over to Pearl Dynasty to have dinner and meet Matthew. Nadia and Angelina were so happy to see each other and started to play right away. Meanwhile Amelie tried to eat her weight in spring rolls.
Thank God for His blessings poured out on our two families. And that we live close enough to see each other regularly. The next morning we got up and had breakfast, packed up and went back to Chris and Jen’s. I had the girls bring in their toys and books and they had a great time showing Jen everything while Mike and I fed and held the babies. It made my heart so happy.
This photo is precious! Thank for having us for a visit!
The week of Thanksgiving this year we headed to Albuquerque, NM to my Grandma’s house so that she could meet Amelie and see Nadia again. That will be a separate blog post, but I did want to mention where we started. From there we headed to Denver, CO to spend the weekend with our friends Randy, Jessica and their children. On Thanksgiving Randy smoked a turkey and Jess has prepped everything else the day before while we were driving up. The weather was so nice that the girls had a blast playing outside in the morning.
Abby set the table and made name plates for each of us. The food was fantastic as always with the Petermans. Jess made 2 kinds of pumpkin pie and a chocolate cream pie based on a Colonial Williamsburg recipe.
Here is Randy getting the turkey ready to become soup for Friday night. After this we headed to the park so the girls could run around.
After the park the girls did some crafts while Jess and I made our Black Friday attack plan and around 7 am we were on the road. Jess loves Black Friday shopping and it was a blast to just be together! We both scored some great deals and while we were gone Mike took Randy and all the girls out to breakfast. He told me that they saw quite a few other dads and kids which I thought was funny.
Friday night my Dad’s cousin Kathy, her husband John, daughter Emma and my Great Uncle Jack came over for soup and ice cream. Emma was about to turn 3 and it was so sweet to see the girls playing together. It was such a nice visit and we are grateful that they drove south to visit us.
The next morning we packed up to head back to Texas. The girls played until the last possible second and then we took some goodbye photos.
Thanks for hosting us this year Randy and Jess. We love you guys!!!
Our last planned road trip of the summer was to Houston for my cousin Jen’s TWIN baby shower. Everything worked out in such an awesome way that we crammed in seeing so many people we love – if we had more time I think we could have seen even more. On the way down I got an email that I was the “elite member of the day” and when we showed up we had our own parking spot in the front and this sign at the front desk. Plus a little treat at check in.
We ate dinner in the room that night and the next morning got up and headed for brunch at my Aunt Jane’s house. We had a really nice time visiting with her, Perry and her sister in addition to Chris and Jen. After brunch we ran back to the hotel so I could change and the girls could nap while I went to Jen’s baby shower. It was so sweet to see the outpouring of love for their boys.
Jen’s dad is “Mr. Hunting Dude” and sent the boys their first camo. Adorable!
Jen’s sister Leslie makes handmade nursing covers. Isn’t it pretty? She sells them on Etsy.
This is me with Jen and Jane. I love them!
I didn’t think we were going to get a chance to see my Dad on this trip, but he flew in early from a business trip in London so he joined us for dinner at Pearl Dynasty. SO YUMMY! One of the families from Nadia’s travel group owns it and the food is delicious. You should go there! After dinner we went to have ice cream with our friends and my dad headed home to get over the jet lag.
Could these girls be any cuter? Melts my heart!
Last of all on Sunday morning I was thrilled to death to see my sister Tahni. She was in town to shoot a wedding and drove up to the hotel to visit with us. We haven’t seen her since last year when she moved to VA. We miss you Tahni and were so happy you were in town the same weekend as us.
After check out we headed home. It was a whirlwind, but fantastic weekend!
