We had a blast when Aunt Esther came to visit us for a week. She has graduated from college and is part of the real world now, where vacation time is limited and far in between. We were honored that she chose to spend hers with us!
We didn't have much planned. We lounged around and read a lot of books. (She brought the Hunger Games series and even though I'm so late to this party it's not even funny, what a great series! I liked them very much.)
We took the kids to the children's museum. The day that we went was packed and it was nice to have her help me watch the kids.
She sat in the sun with us at the splash park. (You can tell that we are full of excitement! We were basically ticking through all of our adventures.)
We took the kids to an outdoor theatre and caught a play. No one was very impressed. That was a bunch of what a friend of mine calls, "Forced Family Fun." It was supposed to be great. We packed a picnic lunch. We brought a blanket to sit on the green lawn. Esther was ready to sun on the lawn. The kids hated it. The fun that we were supposed to have was completely lost to them. No one listened to the play. They just fussed over how hot it was, when are we going home, why did I make them come here, etc. Probably the last time that I try that...at least until I forget how miserable that was and I try it again...that's what usually happens to me. Next time I'll make sure that Shane is with me. There's nothing that makes him happier than outings that turn out like that. Actually, that makes me laugh out loud to think of saving that for Shane.
Anyway, the rest of our week was much better...
There was shopping. (That was a fun day!) Coffee. You can't go wrong with coffee.
One day we took off for our beach. Landry "peeled" her eyes the whole way there because she was so excited.
She really was happy even though she looks a little mad in this picture. She loves the beach more than anyone in our family. That is saying something.
Hayden and I were cheesing it up for the camera.
Gibson found a fishing pole in the garage that someone had given to him for a birthday or something and it had never been opened. He was begging to bring it and I was saying no. (In case you have never brought a fishing pole on a trip with children before, you should. It is a ball of fun, or tangled and mangled fishing line. Whichever way you want to look at it.) Esther acted like I was a crazy mother for not letting my child experience nature and bring that fishing pole, so I told Gibson that if Esther was ready to help him out when we got there, that it was fine with me. (hee hee hee) We got to the beach and she had just settled into her chair and here came Gibson. It was such fun to watch the two of them struggle with that pole as they were getting everything ready and then untangled...and then ready and then untangled...I did not say, "I told you so."
She was a good sport and Gibson had fun. She is still the "cool aunt" in his book.
We packed a picnic lunch and enjoyed every last bit of it. Food always tastes better outside.
This was right before Gibson showed up with the fishing pole. That might have been the last bit of relaxation while we were there.
After we played in the water for awhile, we introduced Aunt Esther to crabbing. We brought along some chicken and string and tried to put our expertise to work. (We've only been once before.) We didn't catch much, but we did have fun.
After all of that fun, we stopped at a little beach shack on the way home for some ice cream.
These little baby bananas were growing on the tree on our way out. How I love to live in a place where we see stuff like that!Besides our couple of outings, we did a lot of swimming. Esther worked on her tan. The kids had a blast in the pool.
They were playing a "diving" game.
We enjoyed a cookout and were so sorry to see her go. We can't wait until she comes again!
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