We made it to Nonnie and Papa O’s right before it was time for everyone to head to the Family Reunion/Rehearsal Dinner for Jon’s cousin’s wedding. Since the kids were basically Petri dishes, I stayed back with them at Nonnie’s house. We did showers for all and then we all were in bed by 8, I’m pretty sure. Which is only 7pm at home. 😉
The next morning was yet another family reunion, but this time it was for Nonnie’s entire extended family. So, Papa O was super sweet and volunteered to stay home with the boys so Jon, Eisley (she didn’t have any symptoms of HFMD, so we assumed she was in the clear) and myself could go to the reunion. So fun to visit! We loved seeing Jon’s cousins and their kids and his aunts and uncles! We spent most of the time with Heather and Tommy, Jon’s brother and our sister-in-law. Love them.
Heather and Tommy decided that since Lily and Josh had already had HFMD before, they were willing to risk getting it again and brought the cousins over to play. 🙂 The boys had so much fun. Since we had our wedding clothes with us, we dressed up and took a group picture just so we had at least one halfway decent one of everyone. 😉
Then everyone left for the wedding and it was me and the kids again. 😉 The boys decided we needed to do a movie night, so they gathered all the friends at Nonnie and Papa O’s house and got everyone all situated for the movie. See the Elsa doll on the left? The thing is taller than Parker and scared me to DEATH when I walked back out into the living room after getting the kids to bed and found her standing (STANDING) in the hallway.
My company for the evening. 🙂 I could do worse. And Elsa was locked in Nonnie and Papa O’s room by this point because NO MA’AM.
Some Uncle Allen love in the morning. 🙂
In-N-Out shakes and movies on Kindles while snuggled on a blanket in Nonnie’s house just makes everything so much better.
Yay!! We hit the turn for the better on this day and since they were still considered contagious and housebound, Nonnie and Papa O set up the swimming pool for them in the backyard and blew up water balloons. 🙂
Grandma H and Grandpa H risked the disease and came to see us and meet sweet little Eisley. Love this of my girl and her great-grandma.
Uncle John and Aunt Karen came for dinner and after the kids were showered and jammied, he took his guitar in their room and sang and told them stories until they were both asleep. The boys asked for Uncle John every night for a week after that. 😉
Nonnie and Eisley soaking up some early morning coolness in Nonnie’s unbelievably beautiful backyard garden.
The visit went so slowly in some respects, because we didn’t do very much with our sickly children, which ended up being WONDERFUL after our insane last few weeks of packing and moving and transitions. So often, I feel like we cram so much into such a short few days there that we miss out on a lot of quality time, so it was so nice to just have time to sit and visit and hear about everyone’s lives. We loved seeing our family and being there with them. We hate living so far away. 🙁
Time to pack back up the car and head back to our homeless existence. I’m pretty sure Jon and I both had some small panic attacks as we started back out. 😉
There were many times during this week where Jon and I would hold each other tight and say “Okay, if we can make it through this, we can make it through anything.” “Okay, never mind. If we can make it through THIS, we can make it through anything.” And then again, “Okay, scratch it again. If we can make it through THIS, we can make it through anything!” Ha! Sick kids, 24 hours in the car (one way!), homelessness, the looming remodel coming our way and all the joys and sorrows of life can take their toll. But I’m so thankful that we have Jesus and that He gives us the strength for it all. I’m thankful that He gave me Jon to share this life with and these sweet kids to snuggle. And I’m so excited for this new chapter in a new house coming up!