My Aunt Laurie came in town earlier this week to spend some time with our family and my sister and her crew so we’ve had a full house! Leslie, Ross, their daughters and their chocolate lab Kona arrived last Thursday in the early evening and have been staying with us for the past few days. They’ll actually be joining us on a trip to Jellystone we had planned with our friends at the end of the week and having 10 days in a row to spend with some of our favorite people is the best!
Though Ryan and I love living in North Carolina, we admittedly miss living closer to family a lot so visits like this mean a lot to us, especially when they’re longer than just a short weekend. It feels like the amount of quality time we get together is magnified by a million since 10 days means we have a lot of activities and hang out time built in to our days to maximize fun and connection. With five kids between our two families, there’s certainly no shortage of mayhem but the boys adore their cousins and they play well together. It’s loud and crazy and chaotic but it’s also my favorite thing in the world.
Seeing the babies — Rhett and Colette — interact and crawl around after each other is equal parts hilarious and adorable. They are both so into everything and clearly enjoy being in the middle of the action.
We’ve filled the past few days with a healthy mix of activity and time around the house since there are quite a few nap times to cater to these days.
On Friday, while Ryan and Ross were working and Chase was at kindergarten, Leslie and I took Ryder, Callie, Rhett and Colette to Sweetwater Farms, one of our favorite local spots, to see the animals and run around in the grass.
The horses were the hit of our visit for all of the kids!
Saturday centered around boating and we spent most of the day on the lake and then on Sunday, we made our way to the Whitewater Center.
Every time Ryan and I visit the Whitewater Center we say we need to take advantage of its close proximity more often. Between whitewater rafting, ziplining, ropes courses, mountain biking and hiking, there’s so much to do there but it’s also a fun place to enjoy a picnic and stroll around because there’s so much to see and the atmosphere is so fun.
(Sunglasses — a recent Trunk Club find! / Shorts / Top / Sneakers)
Since we had a bunch of kids with us, all of whom were too little to do any of big activities, we spent our time on the small obstacle course and then hung out and dug into some food while we watched the rafts and kayaks on the rapids. It was a gorgeous day on Sunday — sunny with temperatures in the mid-80s — so it was the perfect afternoon activity! Chase is now seriously itching to go back and do some of the bigger activities but he has to be a bit bigger before he can really dive into everything the Whitewater Center has to offer. Soon enough!
Since Monday was Labor Day and everyone was off work, we had another day of family fun on the boat followed by a cookout with my sister’s family and father-in-law.
On Tuesday, my Aunt Laurie drove in town from Raleigh and stayed overnight which was such a treat!
She kindly offered to bring lasagna for dinner for our crew and having her here was so great. She’s one of those people blessed with the gift for engaging children and had every single one of our kids enamored with her during her visit. She headed back home this afternoon and we’re already missing her!
And now Rhett is waking up from his afternoon nap so I have to get going. I think we’re mostly caught up and though I am hoping to find a minute to get a blog post up on Friday, I also know we’ll be busy with family and I have some deadlines I need to work on behind the scenes before we head off to Jellystone so I may not have the chance to check in until next week. I hope you all are enjoying the week so far and, as always, thanks for making my blog a part of your day!
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I love seeing your posts and your boys! I have to admit, it’s hard sometimes because it feels like COVID isn’t impacting activities or visiting or family, school, etc. Where I am from, it seems to be shutting down everything for the kids and virtual school if one kid has any symptom of COVID until they have a negative test. It’s kind of hard and almost feels like COVID doesn’t exist for parts of the U.S. while others are feeling some of the worst…
I totally get this feeling. It seems like every place and every person is handling the pandemic differently and I’m sorry if my posts are adding to any stress you may be feeling — that is never, ever my intent. I know you weren’t asking me to explain our decisions or how things are in NC, but we are vaccinated and our boys are going to school in masks and we’re wearing masks when we’re indoors (outside of our house) and we’re mostly limiting activities to outdoor activities with friends at the moment. Since we don’t live near our family, visits from family are something we’re doing our best to navigate amid the pandemic. I know what feels okay for our family might not work or feel okay for another family and get that this can only add to the stress of all of this. Thank you for sharing your feelings in a kind way. I appreciate that more than you know.
Agreed, this was said in a very kind and respectful way! So nice to see this (on both sides) <3
I totally feel this!
Cousin time is the best!! You and your sister look like twins in the picture of the two of you together and I love how the babies are smiling! I loved when you wrote, Rhett and Colette, and how they rhyme! Names are SO fun. With my first son, we were choosing between Tyler and Liam. I am so glad we chose Tyler because my son is such a Tyler! Also because I didn’t realize my husband’s sister loved the name Liam and used it for her son! He is such a Liam! We had a second boy but wouldn’t have used Liam even if she hadn’t. I had actually wanted to name Tyler, Brady, but my husband said only if we have a second boy (he is a Ravens if that makes sense! Ha!) We just went to the beach and seeing Tyler, Liam, and Brady all together was so fun!
Thanks for this post. It so wonderful to have loving and close family members visiting and all the kids getting to know each other and enjoy their time together. It is such a joy to be able to spend so much time in fun activities. You two really look like twins and I mean even the babies resemble each other from a distance. Your aunt is one attractive lady and from what you said seems to be a real force of nature.