Clear From California

Our awesome friends from California came to visit for a couple days--Mike and Teesha, and their three kids, Samantha, Jacob, and Makenzie. Our kids had a hay day playing with them from sun up to sun down, and we parents felt a little like Jon and Kate plus 8 (pre-breakup) with all the little ones under foot.

Ammon bonded with Mike, following him around everywhere and referring to him only as "my best buddy". The girls had fun playing princess while the boys trucked around looking for manly activities.

Mike was even able to stabilize our shelves in the garage that had been leaning a little worse than the tower of Pisa, and now it feels great to have them bolted down and secured. (see what happens when you visit us? We put you to work!)

Teesha and I tried to be pre-child wild, staying up Monday night until about 3am talking, but since we are both very much post-child-sleep-deprived-already, we were draggin the next day and making regular visits to my personal live-in physican, Dr. Pepper. We even tried to play games like old times, but Rummikub ended up being a lesson in numbers and matching for the older kids and stacking and throwing for the younger ones. Things are very different three kids ago for us both, but we wouldn't give up our kids for anything. They keep us young!

It was a great trip, and ended with a short visit to Cabela's, a shrine to all things holy for Mike. It was his first visit, and he was drooling...and the kids all enjoyed looking at the stuffed real animals (the dead zoo as Kayrena calls it). We loved having them over and hope to see each other more often than every 3 years. We miss you guys!!