Bowman and Stephanie's Visit

Memorial Day weekend, Bowman and Stephanie flew out here with their kids for a visit. It wasn't a very long visit, but we sure had fun with them. We told Brooke a few days before they came that they were coming, and she couldn't stop talking about it. She was so excited to have her cousins come to visit and to have a "sleepover" with her.

They flew in Friday morning, fairly early, and drove up to our house. I did my long run that morning, 9 miles, but I didn't beat them here. They were all hanging out and getting settled when I got back. All of the kids were a little wary of everyone, all the new people (except Brooke, that is. She's always friendly with strangers and new people. She had no problems taking the little cousins and showing them around). Camille seemed pretty shy with Bowman, especially. Funny little baby.

We all got ready and drove out to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. We went to Ventura Beach. It was a pretty sunny day, but still quite cool. Daniel, Stephanie and I didn't even change into our swimsuits. It was definitely not warm enough for us to be playing in the water. Rayna, on the other hand, loved running into the waves and running back. And Bowman rented a surf board and surfed for a couple of hours. The rest of us played in the sand, ate snacks, and visited. By the end of our time at the beach, I think Rayna, Danny and Maya had all warmed up to us. We had fun burying the kids, building sand castles and playing in the sand. And we all got a little burnt. The kids had little spots of burns where we didn't get them with sunscreen. The rest of us were a little pink everywhere.

While Daniel got the car packed up to go and while Bowman finished surfing, Stephanie and I took the kids to the little playground that was right up the beach. And on our drive home, we stopped at a fruit stand and a McDonald's for fruit and snacks (I had run 9 miles, after all, and was feeling rather low on energy).

*Brooke chasing after her cousin. :) She loves them!*

That night, we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire in the fire pit for dinner, and after the kids went to bed, we adults played games together, a few rounds of Canasta.

Bowman and Daniel went mountain biking in the morning on Saturday, and Stephanie and I stayed and got the kids ready and cleaned up the house a little. Then we prepared a picnic lunch to take to the park before naps. The boys made it home just in time to walk to the park. We had lunch and let the kids play a while before we came back to put the babies down for a nap and put a movie on for the other kids. Bowman and Stephanie took a little nap, too. :)

We went to the pool that afternoon for a while, which felt so nice. And for dinner we hit a local Korean restaurant, just for Bowman. The food was delicious, and we had fun.

Sunday morning, I made waffles and blueberry sauce for a good breakfast before church, and they all came with us to church. After church, we scrounged together some food for lunch to feed them before they left.

It was nice of them to come and see us. We had lots of fun. And Brooke absolutely LOVED having other kids to play with. She was thrilled to have her cousins staying with us. (Camille was slightly less thrilled, since Maya is a bit of an aggressive little creature. Makes sense, seeing as how she has 2 older siblings. She's had to learn to take care of herself.)