We LOVE visitors!

We love having people come visit us, especially when it is Mimi and Papa Ben. They came out to see us for our last week off school. We did so many things and the kids had a blast! We went to the Discovery Science Center, snow sledding, the beach, a farmer's market (mom and dad's favorite!), the park, out to dinner with even more family, played games, put puzzles together and just hung out at home. We have all kinds of pictures from our many events.

The kids had a blast at the Disc. Science Center. We went a few years ago and they have just een begging to go back. If you have never been I STRONGLY urge you to go. We could have spent all day there building, exploring and discovering the hows and whys to science. Some of the highlights were building space craft with legos, locking them all in a wind tunnel, playing ice hockey and learning about space shuttles.

Snow sledding was a blast. We bundled the kids all up in snow gear, were armed with hot chocolate and off we went. I thought Eli and Matthew would be nervous about the hills...I was wrong. One time down with and adult and they wanted to do it all on their own! We had only one casualty and that was me and Spencer. Really I was the only one with lasting bruises so not to shabby!

We spent a day down at the beach doing many fun things. We went to a farmer's market and got some really yummy fruit. I was in awe of all the things they had and at how many markets we had to choose from. Isle after isle of fresh fruit and veggies. Do these people know how lucky they are to have it all so accesible to them? We had lunch and then off to 1,000 steps beach. Really it had only 253, but who's counting when you're going down??? Up was a whole nother story. Lots of little legs climbing a VERY steep 253 stairs. We made it ranging from 1min.30sec.- 4min.52sec. Whew, my legs are hurting thinking about it again! While at this beach we met a man who had lived there the past 30 years. He gave us some history of the houses and helped Allison find sand crabs. He also told us the record for climbing those stairs was 32 seconds!!! You need to go climb those stairs to appreciate that time! After that we were off to find a good spot for sunset pictures. Beautiful! Then dinner with the whole family. It is so fun to see everyone and catch up.

The kids enjoyed putting many jigsaw puzzles together and playing games with everyone. Our favorite for the moment is headbandz. I just like to sit back and look at everyone with a card stuck on their head trying to guess what it is.

We do have on tradition that we have been trying to shake when Mimi and Papa come to visit. Someone ALWAYS gets sick! It started with Matthew and went through them all. They had high fevers, headaches, body aches and bad colds. I do have to say that it was so nice to have 2 extra sets of hands waking up at night giving kids medicine and to check on them. I do think I got a little spoiled. It has been a little hard to adjust to not having them here. BUT, we get to look forward to seeing them in August!!! Maybe I should pump the kids full of vitamin c and everything else that can keep them healthy for the first time ever whole they are here!

Papa and Mimi, we miss you and can't wait to see you again!