Family Visitors

This year, after planning to spend all extra money to fix our leaky roof, we decided we wouldn't be able to travel anywhere far for the summer, so luckily some of Tyler's family came to see us instead. We were so excited to host our family for our summer vacation. Tyler's sister, Tiffany, and her family and Tyler's parents came to stay with us for a long weekend in June. We spent the majority of the time in the swimming pool, which all the kids were totally okay with.

 

Taryn and Lucy liked to spend some of their time in the car, on their own. 

 

The kids liked dancing to the Wii. Even Grandma gave it a go.

 

We spent the day Saturday doing all the out-of-house activities. It made for a long day, but filled with fun stuff. We drove up to White Sands in hopes of getting there early to beat the heat, but we didn't make it there until around lunch time. It was hot! We found some shaded tables to eat at, but after the kids slid down the hill a couple of times, they were back in the shade and spent most of their time building sand castles there in the shade.

 

We did talk the kids into going back up the hill for a couple of family pictures. Here's our family. 

 

And here is Grandma and Grandpa Gibbons with all 9 grandkids that we had together. 

 

After driving back from White Sands, and a quick dip in the pool, we headed over to the zoo since it happened to be one of their few late night hour Saturdays. The kids all liked the giraffes, and the meerkats. That's where these pictures were taken.

 

The Meerkat display was up again, so they took turns taking pictures here too. It's one of my kids' favorite picture spots. From far left it's: Aubrey, Julia, Halley, Abby, Jacob, Tessa, Anna, and Taryn.

 

Grandma and the kids found a secret hide-out cave near the sea lions. We crammed everyone in together to get a picture. They were being silly, but I got the picture. 

 

After church on Sunday, we were able to put up the bounce house for the kids to play in. No major injuries occurred so it was a success. The kids had a lot of fun while the parents got a few of our own games in.

 

Seven of the nine grandkids slept in our play room together. The picture doesn't really show just how crowded they were, but it worked. Watching movies on the wall at night from the projector was also a fun thing that all the kids looked forward to. The hardest part was picking a movie that everyone wanted to watch, but it all worked out and the kids loved being together.

 

I wish it weren't so sunny from the window, but we got one last picture of the kids with Grandma and Grandpa before they hit the road to travel back home. We loved having them here, and can't wait to see them again. We wished it could have been for longer, but we loved the memories that we made while we were all together.