The Recks Stay Overnight

Our dear friends from residency who now live in Montana are on vacation, and we were thrilled that they could carve out a bit of time to visit us!  We had so much fun and wished the visit could have been longer, but we stayed plenty busy while they were here!  Somehow, I hardly managed to take any pictures, so I wanted to chronicle with words some of the splendid moments I took note of while they were here:

• The Banana and her compatriot, Evie, born only a few months before her, had a wonderful time sneaking off to try on all sorts of dancing outfits upstairs in the girls room.
• Mr. SP and his compatriot Loree, and first friend ever, had a fantastic time hanging out.  Loree told Mr. SP a condensed version of The Lord of the Rings, and he was hooked.  Loree’s mom found them off alone in the girls room up on the top bunk bed (YaYa was away at camp) with the door closed so Loree could tell the story without interruptions from little people.
• There was yummy food to be cooked and eaten and spilled.
• I took the little boys outside to play on the foot bikes and car and swings while the big kids diligently worked together to build a tower from kapla blocks.  The third try was the charm, since Mr. Trouble on Feet got by me twice and managed to crash the tower.  Thankfully the big kids were very, very patient.
• After a rainshower in the afternoon, we took a walk down to the other part of our street that was buckled up from the flood.  Amazingly, they had already started to repair the street!  However, the most fun part of the walk was seeing four kids tromping along under gigantic umbrellas and having a good time together.
• After supper, we planned on zipping down to the beach, but in true fashion of those with lots of children, by the time we were actually done with supper, the sun was almost setting, and by the time we got everyone changed into swimming attire, located the life jackets and towels and loaded all small people into the cars, the sun was setting.  By the time we drove a crazy round about way down to the beach due to closed roads from the flood, the sun had already set and darkness was approaching.  We didn’t let that stop us, however, and still managed to unload everything and stick one kayak and the paddle board into the water.  The dads zipped around by themselves for a short time and then gave small people quick rides on the water, which was unfortunately quite murky although deemed officially safe for contact again.
• Loree and Evie were very excited to try to briefly stand up the end of the paddle board.  There were only a few little falls into the water.  It turns out that they are surfing fans!  It’s too bad they live so far away.
• By the time we got everything loaded back up and drove home it was very dark and late.  By the time everyone had showered and was tucked into bed, it was super duper late, but thankfully everyone slept in very nicely the next morning.
• There were so many great grown up conversations too, while walking, sitting on the beach, loading up kayaks, retrieving boxes of strawberries, and especially late into the night after kidlets were zonked out sleeping.  I’m so grateful for time spent with good friends, and that Dr. Peds managed to get the afternoon off from work so we could all spend time together.