A Weekend With My Family

My family gets pretty excited when we have visitors. I mean REALLY excited. It's like we are anticipating the Queen...since I know what it means to anticipate the Queen coming to your house and staying in your old bedroom. And assuming the Queen wants pot roast, outlet malls and trips to the mountains, then it is bound to be a good time, my friends. I dig a Queen who can hang with the common folk.

So, when my cousin Katie and her husband Vadim came to visit last week, we were almost beside ourselves with joy. Even though we had work, Bible study, work and more work, we helped them cram in a lot of stuff, like outlet mall shopping, a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, Red Rocks, Hacienda Colorado, Yogurtland and two batches of dark chocolate chip pumpkin cookies.

I would call that success with a side of weight gain, wouldn't you?

Here are Katie and Vadim. She is 22 weeks preggo with twins. I am so glad I have her genes.

On Saturday, Claire and I took Katie to Olde Town Littleton.

I would highly recommend this little street because they have a shop called the "Chocolate Therapist." It is a couch shy of being the most heavenly place on earth.

That drink is called "sipping chocolate." I am pretty sure I need that in a Big Gulp.

We also went to my favorite store: Willow. It is full of fun, funky things that I can't possibly live without.

 

Like these...

And this...

And this fun photograph of a sign. So I took a photograph of the photograph but was then asked to not take any more pictures in the store. Apparently that is illegal or something like that.

So then we strolled down to Sugar Rush:

And this is what we found inside: rows and rows of bright, colorful candy.

Sugar Rush hosts birthday parties for kids. If you do this for your own child, I would highly recommend a little protein and a pillow for the sugar-induced coma that will surely follow on your ride home.

Later that night, after the Sooners survived a horrific 4th quarter and managed a win against the Falcons, we gathered in the kitchen for a cousin picture or two.

This is how they typically play out:

First, there is one of Sam excluding me from the family.

Then there is one of me laughing like a weirdo.

Next is a really blurry one of my dad trying to figure out how to work a camera.



Then we have a semi-blurry one that has Sam looking like he is pregnant, Vadim with his eyes closed and the rest of us wondering how long we have to hold these smiles.

It is a minor miracle we have any family photos at all.

So in summary, it was a fabulous weekend and I can't wait for the next batch of cousins to come and visit (hint, hint). Just be ready for mild hysteria, mass confusion and more food than you know what to do with. In other words, like any other day with my family.