Visitors!!

One perk about living away from Utah and the majority of family is that we get awesome one-on-one time with individual family members when they come this way.  I was thinking if we lived in Utah and Will and Hannah or Annie came for a visit - we would most likely say hi and ask them a few questions about their lives and be done.  But here - we have the excuse of "hey we are the only family you got this side of the mississippi - come stay with us!"  and we get lots of face time and bonding time.  It's very fun way to get to know family members better.

Our first visitors were Will and Hannah!  Will is Joey's nephew on his way to begin medical school in North Carolina and had a few days to kill before moving into their new house.   They are such a cool couple!  Very laid back, smart, interesting and classy.  We loved having them here and they were very good natured about having 7 kids climbing all over them for 3 days.

Downtown Memphis

Trolley -

we are both glistening from the lovely humid heat of memphis 

Boating trip to Lake Arkabutla in Mississippi

Maryanne with her favorite Uncle Caleb

 

Next visitors were the Terrys!!  Only one day - but we'll take it!  We spent time at the Botanical Gardens and swimming.  Luke and Aiden went "house shopping" along the row of playhouses at the gardens.  And finally when they couldn't agree on a house, they decided they would still get married but live in their own houses and just come and visit each other.

 Nothing melts a 5 year old boys heart like a girl who can do a sweet ninja kick into the pool

Next visitor was ANNIE!!  She is Joey's niece. We love Annie.  She is very confident, funny and fearless.  She spent a week here and most of it was spent with kids - telling stories and leading adventures.  I was so impressed with her genuine love for children.  She also helped a lot with cooking and would go through our fridges and make-up recipes that were always delicious.  She stayed with the Wilsons but came over and played a couple times.  One day we had an impromptu Star Wars Tea Party.  We made and painted our own light sabers, then had some tea and crumpets while we sang the Star Wars theme song and played Star Wars trivia.  The day ended with some epic Star Wars battling and dancing.  Oh and we threw in some 80's karaoke.  Majorly fun day. 

After I introduced our 3 Star Wars guests, Malan said "And we decided to invite some Earth Princesses too..." and introduced Lucy, Olivia and Emme's characters. 

Annie also joined us for Member's night at the zoo.

Fountain swimming.  The kids kept diving for the money on the bottom - destroying people's wishes.  We hopefully restored them all.

 

big, black snake

Lucy loved the airplanes!

Maryanne - not so much

night time boogie - (not sure about their music choice but...)

Later that week we all went to Botanical Gardens.  I love going there with the cousins.  Those girls belong there - creating nests, being butterflies, swinging, pretending in nature.  It suites them well.   And we played in the pretend rainstorm at the watershed ....

and then got to play in a real rainstorm....

Thanks for stopping by --- all y'all!  We love having these visits so keep 'em coming!