Mommy Musings: Gramma, Grampa, Aunt Juway and Unca Nafun!

I could not think of a clever title for this one, so I thought I'd just use the names of our recent visitors as translated by our dear little Grace. Translation for those over 3: Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Janae and Uncle Nathan.

I'm a little late in reporting this (work has been crazy busy), but I would be absolutely remiss if I didn't document our recent visitors. It was a real highlight of our summer and something we don't want to forget!

At the end of July, Aaron had to take another week-long business trip and with my workload being busiest during the summer months, he arranged for his sister, Janae to come and spend the week with us to visit/help out. Coincidentally, her husband Nathan has a client in the area and was able to get to fly out on his company's dime for a few days. At the end of the week, Aaron's parents flew in for the weekend and got to see two kids for the price of one flight. :)

Having Janae here was GREAT!! She did a great job of keeping the kiddos occupied, allowing me to get my work done in record time. I fear we bored her to death with our day to day activities, but she was a really good sport about it. Because we live across the country from all of Aaron's family, I really love when I get to spend one on one time with them so I can get to know them better. Janae and I had lots of time to get to know each other, including two "in car" sessions when the battery died and we waited for help. We also both got a lot better at Rock Band during the week (is it really terrible that my almost 3 year old can sing "Roxanne?" -- yeah, time to put away the microphone I think). ANYWAY, this was the least stressful and most fun of all of Aaron's business trips to date. Thank you soooooo much, "Aunt Juway!!"

Though Nathan was only in town for a few days, we did make a trip to Blowing Rock while he was here. The 70 degree weather was a nice break from the high 90's we were having. We ate lunch and enjoyed the scenery.

We hadn't seen Grandma and Grandpa since Christmas and we were so happy to get to see them. Grace greeted Grandpa with her rendition of Barney's ever-famous "I Love You, You Love Me" (about 10 times in a row). She's gotten used to singing to them on the phone and I guess it just seemed like the right thing to do. I know I'm biased, but I thought it was pretty flipping cute! While they were here, we visited Tweetsie (also in Blowing Rock). It was a fun day that would typically get it's own blog, but the focus of this blog is family visitors, therefore I'll just share some pictures and say... the place is neat, the train ride is cool, but the skit is super lame. Oh, and Noah's really, really scared of fake gunshots.

All good things must come to an end and while we tried to convince them all to move to NC, our guests had to go home. We are so thankful they came, thankful that Grace got to refresh her memory of the faces that go with some of the names she mentions each night in her prayers. We hope they'll come back soon and remind ALL of the family that there are plenty of open lots in our neighborhood! :)