Family Time

We have been so blessed these past couple of weeks to be able to spend a lot of time with our family. As soon as Christmas was over we have had a bunch of David's side of the family in town visiting. 

Our first arrival was David's Aunt Sissy (Abuelo's sister). She flew out here all the way from Northern California to visit for a couple of weeks. At first Finley was a little leery of her, but after learning she was a firefighter, and seeing the pictures to prove it, he warmed up to her! 

A few days later cousin Gabi, Auntie Tami, and Uncle Greg arrived from Colorado. What is it about cousins that makes you instant best friends? Finley and Gabi were so cute together and had so much fun. They enjoyed running away from Aunt Sissy who was trying to eat their toes, and decorating Grammies house every day with leftover Christmas wrapping supplies.

Grammie got them some adorable matching bear hats/scarves/gloves. 

We decided to do some extra fun and special things with all of our visitors in town. 

First up was Monkey Joe's: 

After all their traveling Gabi needed to get out some energy. We tried out a new bouncy place and Finley was very excited to see they had a pirate ship! 

Finley, who is normally scared of heights and slides, was convinced by Gabi to go down a few with her. She was pretty fearless! When they needed a break from bouncing they played a little air hockey. All of Gabi's points were scored on purpose, and the points Finley scored were when Gabi was looking away :). 

Tami wanted to get in on the action too. 

She was chasing the kids and scaring the other children away. 

Another day we went bowling:

This was Fin man's first experience bowling. 

He and Gabi were so cute wearing their bowling shoes and picking out which ball was "theirs". 

Surprisingly Finley was able to master the granny roll. His ball would roll down so slowly to the pins he would have plenty of time to watch it! Towards the end of the game he would even go and have a seat while watching his ball head to the pins. 

Gabi's ball definitely rolled a bit faster. But even if Fin knocked down only one pin, he celebrated like he had just bowled a strike! 

After several successful bowls by Finley, David decided to interfere. He tried to help him roll the ball harder, but the ball only went two feet then stopped. So then David walked out onto the lane to retrieve the ball and totally bit the dust. It was hilarious!

Grammie & Sissy were excellent cheerleaders! 

Bowling was a lot more fun than I anticipated. And Finley and Gabi had so much fun. They were totally worn out when we were done though. It was hard work carrying around those heavy balls. 

Here are the scores from the big dawgs (no bumpers). Greg totally destroyed his competition. 

And here are the scores from the kid's lane (bumpers). I totally kicked those munchkins butts! 

(And Grammie's score was really a combined effort from Finley and Gabi each bowling one ball)

And I would like to mention that I did come in second overall :). 

On the Bean's final day of their visit we took them hiking up at Hanging Rock: 

Tami kept laughing every time I pointed out the 'mountains' to the kids. 

Apparently what we have here were only 'hills'. 

We did a couple of short hikes to some waterfalls. David kept taking Finley higher and higher up these rocks and I was about to lose it! Luckily he stopped and Finley did not fall down the waterfall. 

Gabi is a great hiker! 

Two silly heads playing in the rock garden. 

Climbing big rocks! 

We hopped in the car and then did another hike to an even bigger waterfall! 

This is David trying to strike a pose. 

We have had such a great time visiting with Sissy and the Beans! We were sad to see them go and wished they lived closer. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can get these cousins together again!