Family Weekends

In June we spent a couple of weekends down with Joe's family.  The first one Joe was actually doing a back-to-back rock climbing re-certification and whitewater rescue course so the kids and I packed it up and headed down to stay with Joe's parent's for a bit and to celebrate our niece Annie's first birthday!

 

Life is always so good and easy when we are with the cousins...they all play so well together and keep each other entertained for such a long time! Add is some water like a sprinkler or a water gun fight and it's even better! And I just love this picture of Eli and Grampy in battle! I also have to give major credit to our nephew Chandler (who is soon to be a senior in high school) because he played water gun fight with the little ones for a long time...they all just ganged up on him and chased him around and he was such a wonderful sport!  

And of course we celebrated the birthday girl!! It's so hard to believe that this last little girl Cousin is already one year old!

   

And the next day we spent time enjoying the new swing set that Grampy built for the kids in their backyard!  

And zapping bugs!

  

And sometimes swinging and zapping bugs at the same time!:) 

And the day after that we joined up with our cousins again (just the little ones this time) and all visited the Gilsland Farm Audubon Center near Portland.And enjoyed the frog pond filled with many frogs and tadpoles, explored the children's area (where the glass viewing area of the beehive was the biggest hit), had a picnic, and wandered through their amazing peony gardens!  

What a fun weekend! The 2nd weekend we were down with family was really fun too...except that I didn't take any pictures! We went down for Joe's cousin Katie's wedding. It was an incredibly beautiful back yard celebration and even the kids loved it (you should have seen Eli, our normally shy little guy, busting a move on the dance floor)!

 And the day after the wedding we had a great visit with our wonderful friends the Winslows. We have missed them so much since they moved a few years ago and every time we see them it's still just as good and easy to be together. They just got a new puppy so Sadie was able to join us and the pups were fast friends as well!:) 

 And if that weren't enough we spent the day after that visiting a local fort (where our puppy may or may not have used a historical landmark as a bathroom...which we did clean up). After our visit to the fort Joe's parents graciously watched the kids while we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening visiting with friends in Southern Maine that we don't get to see often enough (including one friend, Stef, that we haven't seen in years)! We had a wonderful dinner at a little lobster roll cafe (Four Mile Lobster) in Cape Neddick that our dear friends just opened (Joe says it's the best lobster roll he's ever had so be sure to stop in if you are ever in the area)! And finally Joe spent the evening speaking at a men's Bible Study (and fundraising) while I visited with two wonderful friends! 

Aaaahhhh....two great weekends with family and friends! And that wrapped up our overnight trips for a while. We are headed to Bar Harbor tomorrow to visit for the day with friends there and then we will plan on being home for a bit as we welcome baby boy!