I have been bugged by my brother to blog, so I have lovingly threatened to blog about him. Which I really think I will. I need to get on the ball to do that, though, so I can find the BEST pictures available to post. If any of you have some good ones, do send them on.
In the mean time, pictures of a recent visit from some long, lost family of mine:
Craig is my dad's first cousin. Years ago he left America and settled in Germany, then Holland, after he met and married a lovely German girl. They had four children. Irmela, in the middle, is their youngest. She and her siblings, my other cousins, all live in Holland now - near Amsterdam. Craig now lives in Pennsylvania - about two hours away from us. While Irmela was visiting this summer, they decided to come visit us for a day. I loved meeting Craig - we had never met before, and meeting Irmela was the icing on the cake. What a lovely cousin I have living half-way across the world! I wish I'd known her while we lived in England. I'm sure we would have been doing more Chunnel crossing than we did!
And yes, this is the best photo we got with my darling children who can't help themselves in front of a camera ... I don't know where they get it.
Then, a few weeks ago, I flew to Colorado for a memorial service for my great-aunt Imogene. It was a sad reason to be in Colorado, but I had a super duper time spending the weekend with my AhMAHzing sister and her rockin' hus. I didn't get to spend as much time with the rest of my family who was visiting, but I chalk that up to these family gatherings - there's never enough time to spend with everyone.
And THEN, a few weeks ago, our dear friends, the Sparks, flew from Australia - yes, allllll the way from Australia with their 4-year old and 10-month old and stayed with us for a couple of weeks. Sadly, I did not take enough photos. I think we were too busy having fun and running around to various doctors' appointments and such, but we sure loved having the Sparks with us and we sorely miss them.
Erin and Sara on our way out to Beck's GNO - celebrating Sara's birthday
Josh feeding Sam - not the best pic of Sammy, but he's an adorable little - I mean BIG guy!
Jed loved Gillian so much, he could often be heard telling anyone around how much he loved Gillian - it was so, so sweet. And I couldn't resist this photo of Sammy getting ready for his bath ... look at that body beautiful! Visiting the pumpkin patch/farm:
Now looking forward to several more visits from friends and family on the horizon!
