Sand Family Craziness

The boys and I spent this past weekend at a hotel in Owatonna with my dad's side of the family. Some of us went down already on Friday night and enjoyed some water park fun and catching up with each other before the rest of the crew arrived Saturday afternoon.  In total we had 48 people for the get together (including kids, I swear we add a couple new kids every year)!  We did plenty of swimming, enjoying a great potluck dinner and of course we played some games once the kids were sleeping including an entertaining game of Telephone Pictionary.  I love having a big family and these get together's are a tradition that I hope we continue for so many years to come.  My cousins are always there for me through good times and hard and this weekend proved to be no different, I am so blessed and honored to call them my family!! Feeling grateful.

I also realized this weekend that Colton is growing up so fast, hard to even figure out how it happened so quickly.  He was so helpful with Mason this weekend which really allowed me to enjoy my weekend that much more.  I am so proud of the responsible, respectful and fun loving young man that he is turning into right before my eyes!

Happy Easter

We had a great Easter hanging with family and just relaxing and enjoying laughs and good food!  Our Easter activities started last night when we colored eggs with Grandma Yvonne.  The boys had quite a bit of fun coloring eggs and surprisingly it went very smooth with minimal mess!

 Easter morning we woke up to two boys very excited to find their Easter Baskets.  The Easter Bunny also brought some "extra items" this year.  Colton received two giant packets of Pokemon Cars and Mason finally got his own Scooter.  He rode his scooter around the house all morning and even asked if he could ride it down the stairs.  I swear, he is the reason for my grey hair!  After a pretty relaxing morning we got ready for church.  We met Grandma Yvonne at church and enjoyed a great service and some donuts afterwards.  Then it was off to my parents house for an Easter Egg hunt with my sisters kids and then a delicious lunch.  We spent the rest of the afternoon just relaxing, playing outside with sidewalk chalk and riding scooters, the boys built a huge blanket fort with their Uncle Brad and I was able to enjoy plenty of snuggles with my little nephew.  It was a very relaxing Easter which is exactly the way I prefer holidays to be.  Happy Easter Everyone!

 

 

 These two just love their new baby cousin, they are always asking to hold him and want to kiss him and just make sure that he is well taken care off!  I love it!

 Happy 1st Easter to my beautiful nephew.  He is so prefect and a great addition to our family!

Vacation Wrap Up

So we have been back from the island for over two weeks and we have been crazy busy.   However I wanted to finish sharing some pictures from our Island vacation.  We spent the last couples days of our vacation just playing on the beach, building more sand creations and even managed to get in a little boogie boarding!  We could have had some warmer weather but we made the most of it anyways.  

 

Sunday morning we packed and headed to New Orleans so spend the last two days of our vacation.  We stayed at the Country Inn and Suites just two block away from the French Quarters.  We spend plenty of time walking and exploring the French Quarters, checked out Jackson Square, did some shopping and of course enjoyed some Beignets (powered sugar donuts which are a must try when in New Orleans).   We also spent time swimming in the outdoor pool at our hotel, a tiny little pool in the courtyard but the water was bath water warm so the boys were in heaven.  Frankie and I hit Bourbon street for a couple hours one night, quite the experience to say the least!  New Orleans was fun and there was so much more that we didn't get to see, I hope to go back some day and take part in some of the tours and other things they have to offer!  I didn't take too many pictures in Nola, was too busy taking in everything to worry about my camera :)

Our flight home was a smooth one and the boys did great.  Of course my nephew was born the day we flew home so our first order of business was to head to the hospital to meet him!  Perfect way to end our vacation!