Our fun started with visits from the Baughmans...aka the Murmans. I said visits because we were treated to two different weekend visits. Each time we had so much fun.
The two littlest really like each other.
Our little musicians.
The leader of the Murman children. She's such a beautiful big girl.
Auntie Kay loving on Kiki
Can you tell they like each other?
Our brood
There are a lot of them, huh?!
What a great looking family!
We were so sad to see the Baughman's leave, but it wasn't as bad as usual because we've all been doing a pretty commendable job of seeing each other rather often. We've just got to keep it up! Who am I kidding...I hated seeing them leave. It's always hard.
The day after they left, another one of my besties, Andrea, arrived along with her cutie-pie, Avie. Our visit was so special. They stayed two weeks, so we were able to do all kinds of fun things. The best part was just hanging out with her. She is such a creative person and was so helpful in decorating my craft room. I'll post pictures of the finished product soon. By the time they left, it felt like losing members of the family. The girls still ask where Avie went. We haven't been quite as good at seeing each other, although we talk everyday, usually multiple times. We've vowed to do better at the visiting part.
They loved Auntie Andrea!
This girl has been there for me through thick and thin. Lucky to have her.
I love this kid!
Holding hands.
We had one day after Andrea left before we were off on a trip to Orlando. We headed there for a sad reason. My sweet uncle passed away, and we wanted to be there for his memorial . While we were there, we wanted to make sure to see all of our Florida buddies. We stayed with our good friends, the Putts, and were able to spend time with them and their precious boys, Mateo and Cruz. They were ADORABLE!!! I could kick myself for not getting my camera out. I took this one of them all playing together one morning on my phone.
On Friday morning, we stopped by my old job to see all of my work friends. I especially wanted to see my boss/friend, Susie. I've missed that girl and seeing her again, reminded me why. She's a real sweetie. On Friday evening, we were invited to the Ellis' for dinner. I hadn't gotten the chance to meet their littlest, Jack, so that was a treat. Rosie absolutely loved their little girl, Mei Li! It was so nice catching up with Mellie and Dave, as well. They are such good people!
I haven't mentioned that my family was in town, as well! My mom, dad, little brother, sister-in-law and nephew all came for the memorial, so that made this trip extra wonderful. Saturday was packed full of quality family time. We also got to see my honorary brother, Pierre. My mom and dad like to say we adopted him when he was our pastor in Tulsa. We love him and our whole family was so happy to get to spend time with him. The memorial was that afternoon and was so lovely. It was so nice to be reminded of what a great man my uncle was. I was blessed to know him.
I didn't mention that Saturday was Kiki's 2nd birthday. The poor kid didn't get much birthday love because of the full day, but that evening we went out to ice cream and sang to her. Now that we are home, I need to do a little something to make her feel extra special.
Uncle Pierre
Aunt Judy and my mom at the memorial.
Siblings!
Rosie loves her some Uncle Stephen
Pierre and his beautiful girlfriend, Tiffany.
Brothers from another mother. They were pretty excited to be reunited.
Even though he is no longer a pastor and now is the HR Director of a hospital, he will always be Pastor Pierre to me.
He's also one of our closest friends.
On Sunday, we just weren't ready for my family to leave, so they changed their tickets to stay longer. We all headed to Sea World together. The Putts joined us, as well, and we had so much fun. The girls absolutely loved it. They were both mesmerized by the shows. Kiki thought the Sea Lion show was a hoot and kept clapping and saying, "What a silly guy!" Rosie fell deeply in love with Shamu and thanks to Nana and Papa, sleeps nightly with her new stuffed version. It was so sad to say goodbye to everyone after such a great day.
Rosie and a sea turtle
Kiki loved all the sea life!
It was so good to see Papa after his ankle replacement surgery. He was still in a boot, but is doing so much better! Thank you for the prayers.
Love these dudes. The girls couldn't get enough of Greyson. They wanted to be around him constantly. He was bombarded by Kiki kisses.
That evening we headed down to Tampa to see our wonderful friends, the Heinrichs. We've missed them so much. We always have such a blast with them, and this trip didn't disappoint. We were having so much fun that we decided to extend our time with them an extra day. Our kiddos had so much fun playing together, and Tasha and I couldn't stop chatting. Mark was able to spend some time at one of the hospitals and talk to people doing the same thing he is doing here. It's always good to get different perspectives.
Friends
Miss Khloe! I was so glad to finally meet Tasha's version of Kiki:) They are like the same person. Ha! She's was a doll!
I stole this picture from Tasha. It's not my best picture, but I'm blaming it on the early hour and no make-up. It was so therapeutic to spend time with this girl!
On Tuesday morning, we got up and hit the road. We had plans to get home pretty early, but stopping at every mall and outlet mall doesn't do great things to your time. We ended up rolling into our house pretty late. The trip was so worth it, though.
The last few weeks have reminded me how blessed I am to have such wonderful friends and family! They are each so special and mean so much to me. They also are all super funny. Seriously, I did so much laughing and that just makes the heart happy. I'm reminded of a quote that Andrea found while she was here, "I laughed so hard I had tears running down my leg." In my old age, that pretty much sums it up.
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