Cousins in town!

Back during the move, both Lisa and Linda and their kids were in town for a combined time of almost 2 weeks. While that time period ended up being a bit stressful trying to coordinate the move and spend time with everyone, it worked out really well and we all had a lot of fun. I wish we didn't have the move to deal with, but I'm so thankful that Joseph and Maddie were able to spend more time with their cousins, aunts and grandparents.

 

We spent one morning at Deanna Rose with Lisa and her kids. Joseph loves going to the farm, and was excited to show Ruth, James and Claire around. He also got excited to see them doing the activities I never pay for - one of the best things about the farm is that it's free during the week, and there's plenty to keep him busy without all the extras!

 

This year Joseph overcame one of his previous big fears - riding the ponies! Even as recently as Easter, Joseph wouldn't go anywhere near ponies for rides. This summer, though, I guess watching James and Ruth provided him with some positive peer pressure and he insisted on riding. Kids have to be 3, so this was his first chance at the farm, and they have a great refund policy - if your kid gets on and won't ride, they'll refund your money, so there's no risk! I said ok, he gave the girl his ticket and climbed right on. You'd never know that this kid would kick, scream and cry to get off the ponies last year!

Lisa also let her kids buy worms and go fishing in the pond. This was another activity I'd never let Joseph try, and when I learned they were using real worms as bait and there weren't any helpers to remove the fish if you caught one (and people were catching them all around us!) I just gave him a pole without any bait and let him "fish." That was enough for him, and when he got bored, we bought some fish food and fed the fish that way.

Ruth and Claire playing in the milking barn.

Lisa was definitely the fun mom who even let her kids participate in the mining area. James and Ruth really seemed to enjoy it, and I'm sure Joseph would have also, but he'd started to melt down and was seriously misbehaving.

We wrapped up the morning by letting the kids play on one of the many playgrounds before it was clear my kids were ready to go home for naps.

We had the closing on both the new house and old house set for Wednesday, with the movers coming Wednesday late morning. Luckily, Lisa was willing to watch our kids with Gary for the day, so that we didn't have to deal with them all day. It worked out incredibly well - Joe drove them out first thing in the morning, swapped cars so we could borrow Gary's trailer and they used our van so they'd have enough space and car seats for everyone, and we said goodbye to Joseph for a few days.

Wednesday night Lisa brought Maddie back to our house in time for bedtime, after Jill and Gary took all of the "big kids" to Clinton for the start of Olde Glory Days. Linda, Ethan and Benton had arrived earlier on Wednesday, so the cousins all got lots of time to play together.

I'm sad that we missed out on so much family time, but it was wonderful not having to keep Joseph distracted from the move and all of the final cleaning and unpacking. In the meantime, he had a blast in Clinton, playing with family and spending an evening at the carnival.

I'm so glad Lisa and Linda took lots of pictures (and were better about getting them posted on their blogs before me!) so I could steal them! Joe, Maddie and I drove down to Clinton late Friday afternoon, just in time to watch all of the kids playing on a slip n slide and pool Jill had set up for them.

We stuck around for a bit, but after a few days of lots of playing and probably less sleep than normal, we did our best to check in to our hotel room and get both kids settled as close to normal bedtime as possible.

Saturday morning, June 29th, we loaded the kids in the car and headed to St. Louis for quite possibly the shortest visit ever - it was Mason's first birthday party! We arrived a little later than we had planned, but got to spend a couple hours with everyone before the party started to wind down and the kids were ready to nap in the car, again.

We then drove right back to Clinton and met up with everyone for another night at the carnival. Joseph definitely seemed like the old pro at the carnival games and rides, and Maddie had lots of fun taking everything in.

Sunday we got up and drove home, introducing Joseph to his new home for the first time since the move. He took it all in stride and was really excited to see his bedroom all set up.

On the 4th of July, Thursday, we had Jill, Gary, Linda, Ethan, Benton and Mike, who flew in that day for a long weekend vacation, over for dinner. We had a few fireworks left over from last year, but Joe and Jill decided there weren't enough, so after dinner they headed to a local fireworks stand and picked a few more up.

It was great having the big cul-de-sac with no traffic to set the fireworks up, and the boys had a blast taking turns helping to set the fireworks up and light them.

 

 

A few days later Mike and Linda hosted a bbq at Jill and Gary's, and we were happy to come over (and avoid cooking!). Jill made a poke cake and let Joseph and Ethan help spread the cool whip on top - they were more than willing to help!

On our last day with the Abeggs, we went back to Deanna Rose. Joseph had so much fun playing with Ethan and Benton, and we spent most of our time watching them run around the playground by the turkeys. When it was time to say goodbye, Joseph and Ethan were pretty sad about not getting to see each other for awhile. Joseph was definitely spoiled with such a fun two weeks surrounding a time that would have otherwise been really stressful for him!