OtterPops: Otterstrom Lillywhite visit

I am attempting to catch up the blog on our summer happenings before we dive head first into fall here soon. We've already started school which is what is allowing me to even have an hour of time to attempt this. Two kids at school, one napping, one distracted with a video (for the time being) until he starts crawling all over me soon.

At the end of July I had the opportunity to drive up to my parent’s house (Where Lara and her family were) to be able to meet my new niece. She was 4 days old and oh so sweet. My in-laws were visiting my house and were so great to watch my older three kids for the day so I could drive 4 hours in a day to stay and visit for 4 hours. I’m so glad I had the chance to meet little Evelyn and say goodbye to the Mangums before they left to Utah.

Speaking of my in-laws, they were able to visit for a week which was so fun! Jared’s parents drove out so his sister Katie and her 3 kids decided to join in the fun. We had such a blast going to the drive in movie, going to the farmers market and out to lunch to celebrate Greg & Jared and the recent triumphal test-taking skills, taking the kids to the local Rec pool, going to the beach, helping out with house projects, celebrating a very watered down pioneer day, letting the kids play all day inside and out. They were such a great help with cleaning, taking kids to the park and helping out in general. It had been a couple years since we’d seen those cousins so the kids had a blast re-acquainting with them and especially Jonas found a pal in his cousin Milo who is only a few months younger than him.

We especially appreciated Gary laying the stair carpet for us along with finishing the family room carpet. Even if we did have to find a few coke cups around the garage and backyard during the following weeks in exchange for his labor. It was so fun to show everyone around our house and to have enough room to accommodate the crowd. Maren & I split the cooking and we sure had fun with everyone around.