Family

The reason for our trip was to celebrate my parent's 40th Anniversary.

My Grandmother planned a grand celebration, and it was quite the party.

 Some of my all time favorite people are in this picture.
We sent this photo to Brad.
 They are showing him where he would have been had he been present.

There was even an after party at the country.
With fresh hamburger from the family farm
 (our cousins have the farm, not us, we reap the reward of their hard work).

 

My favorite part about the trip was the amount of family time we had. We soaked up every minute.

We had my niece over for a sleepover. 

So I decided to have a theme.

Luau. 

We ate Hawaiian food and sipped on Pina Coladas (virgin of course).

 

A photo from the shore I forgot to post.

 

My brother and sister-in-law told us about this darling little zoo,
so we all went and had a blast.

 

She rode a horse. 

She was ecstatic.

She didn't want to get off.

There was a tantrum of epic proportions, only our Califlower could pull off.

You know that saying, "Though she be little she be fierce"? 

Yeah, that's her. 

However, there was the next entertainment and it calmed her right down.

If you can't ride a real horse, a fake one is the next best thing, right? 

 Awesome, little playground with plenty of shade right in the middle of the zoo.
Here is our monkey.
Yea, that's Califlower in the pink.
Yes, I let her do it by herself while I snapped a picture.
This wasn't even the worst one she did... alone.
She likes to do things "mysef"

We visited Auntie Lulu, and her cats.

 Every evening looked like this.

 I visited the church building of my childhood and youth, with my girls.

 

One afternoon my brother Jeff and I took a drive around our old neighborhood and schools. 

We then stopped at the local dairy farm to see the cows, drink the amazing chocolate milk and eat fresh ice cream. 

 

My cousins put on a special evening just for us.

It was Philly themed.

All my favorite sandwiches, chips and Rita's Water ice.

These are more of my favorite people.

My people.

I went home feeling so loved and so sad that I don't live closer.

But it makes these moments that much sweeter. 

 

It was a perfect night.

And I cried when I had to say my final good-byes to them. 

 Then I got a short but sweet visit, with this gal. A soul sister to me.

She married my cousin and we just hit it off. 

I was glad to finally meet that handsome little guy of hers. 

She is such an incredible woman, a strong mother, a quality human being, 

and such a great example to me.

Seeing her, if only for a couple of hours, was one of my highlights from the trip.

(Okay, the whole trip was a highlight).

We finally made it home for firefly season.

To show my girls this joy from my childhood and see their eyes light up when they saw them was pure bliss.

 

To say my girls adored my brothers is an understatement.

They wouldn't leave poor Tim alone.

In fact, B ugly cried on the plane ride home for him. 

She asks me daily if he has saved enough money to visit us yet.

I put it in her little mind that Uncle Jeff should move out west, so now she prayers for that every night (insert the smiley emoticon who is laughing so much it's crying)

She loved her cousin Adrienne and baby Mickey.

Califlower liked having a baby to boss around. 

Why I don't have a picture with their family I don't know. 

My phone kept running out of storage so I would have to email my photos to myself.

So I could delete them to take more pictures.

That might have something to do with that.

But she loved all of them.