Vacation

We had an absolutely wonderful vacation and trip back home!! It is always so good to get to see family again-and even better when you are bringing home a new little bundle of joy for everyone to enjoy and love on!

We started the vacation by going to my friend Sarah's wedding!  We were so blessed to be able to share in your special day and we wish you the best in your new life and in all your adventures!  We had a wonderful time and got to see friends and family!





















My mom was wonderful and let us crash at her place both times we were passing through Chicago.  This is great in helping break up our trip so that it is a bit more bearable.  Thank you so much Mom and Darwin.  We love you so much.  We wish we could have seen more of you!! Hope to see you both sometime soon. (I have no pictures of you guys :( sad day!)

Sunday we got to spend time with my dad's side of the family.  It is always so good to see all the aunts, uncles, and cousins. What a wonderful family they are.  We love you all so very much, thank you for coming over and spending time with us! Dad and Annette-the meal was amazing! Thank you Auntie Sissa for taking Elijah swimming-he had such a blast, what an amazing Auntie you are!

We even got to meet a second cousin that is just 6 days older than Avery. 

Such a wonderful day spent with family!

My sister Lauren came over Sunday evening after we were all at my dad's and hung out for a bit!

 She even got to feed her namesake a bottle!

We spent a lot of time at my in-laws house.  Always a wonderful treat.  For one they let us crash there and give us our own basement suite!  What wonderful parents you are, we are blessed beyond words!  The children have a blast getting to play with all the aunts and uncles around the house!  Mom and Dad have a blast having a lot of free babysitters.  I think I only changed like 5 diapers while I was home(when you have 3 kids in diapers that is a pretty good deal!!).  We all love the extra attention that everyone gets and it really made it perfect for my recovery.  It gave me a much needed break and the extra hands and help that you need after a C-section when you are limited as to what you can do.  Again a major blessing! We can't thank you guys enough for all the help and the wonderful meals.

Athaiah hanging out with Uncle Aaron!

We had lots of friends over for dinner on Tuesday night-which was so much fun to see everyone! Thank you to the Turley's for hosting such a wonderful get together!

Uncle Tyler and Avery!

Tuesday during the day my Grandpa and Grandpa Loper came over to the Turley's house.  It was so nice to see them especially since the last time we came home we were unable to get to see them. Thank you Grandpa and Grandma for making the drive up to see us!  We love you so much and are blessed to have such wonderful examples in our life!












Wednesday Grandpa and Grandma Turley with Sydney and then Aunt Melanie joined us for dinner.  We had such a good time with them and are so blessed to have you all as part of our lives! 

Thanks to Grandpa for standing on his head to get Elijah to smile for the family picture! We couldn't have done it without you!

This was a reenactment since we were busy getting our picture taken the first time!

 

Saturday we went to the Toledo Zoo with the Turley's and my dad and Annette! It was so much fun.  It kept going between pouring rain and nice and sunny.  The kids had so much fun! Elijah was a bit under the weather-but the next day he was talking about all the animals so he must have been more alert than we thought.  Thank you to everyone who helped push the kiddos around that afternoon and ran with them in the rain!  We had so much fun getting to spend time with everyone and doing something that I grew up doing! The Toledo Zoo was a huge part of my growing up and it meant so much for me to be able to go and spend time with 2 sides of our family together there! So thank you for helping making wonderful memories for my children there!

Watching the otters!

We just experienced a down pour! All wet!

Snuggle time with Grandpa!

 

Sunday we got to spend time with the extended Turley family over lunch! What an amazing lunch.  It was so good to see all of you and get to spend some time with you before we had to head out of town!

 

Well that was our trip in a brief(very brief) nutshell.  We had so much fun and can't wait until we can see everyone again-hopefully real soon!