Family Togetherness

The suitcases are unpacked. The laundry is done (although not folded). The apartment having been restored to some semblence of order, then, I can take a quick minute to jot down a few things (translation: post loads and loads of pictures but say nothing interesting at all).

Evelyn and I headed out a couple of weeks ago to spend a week in Las Vegas with John's brother Joe, his wife Haylee, and their four little girls: Emma, Sara, Hannah, and Olivia. We had a blast! Evelyn is relatively social, as these things go, and she was in heaven playing with all the other kids. Disagreements were minimal, although we did have one episode when Evelyn decided to stick her finger in Hannah's mouth and two-year-old Hannah promptly bit it. I can understand. I've often wanted to do the same thing, especially when her nails are long. Ouch on both sides. But neither girl bore a grudge, and other than that, it was pretty much smooth sailing.

Adorable little Olivia

is just 11 weeks younger than Evelyn and about the same size. Watching them together was hilarious.

(Evelyn "helping" Olivia out of her carseat after church)

Evelyn is crawling and Olivia is not yet, although she is about the most stable sitter I've seen, so Olivia was at a bit of a disadvantage when Evelyn kept trying to pull her hair, take her toys, or sit on her lap, but she took it all in stride.

(Look who has all the toys. I think we need to work on sharing. Sigh.)

Someone please tell me I will have such an easygoing baby some day. In addition to cousin time, Las Vegas also gave Evelyn more room to hone her motor skills, much to my chagrin when she started climbing (and then falling down) the stairs around day 5.

(Man, I wish we had these at home.)

(All this playing is really exhausting. Gotta keep my strength up.)

Joe and Haylee live quite close to another good friend of mine. When they left to drive up to the Prete reunion half a day before Evelyn and I flew out, Hilary was nice enough to take us in, let us play with her toys, and feed us dinner. Evelyn loved exploring Catherine's big kid toys, and Catherine was a good sport about sharing, although I think she wished Evelyn would learn to keep her hands and feet to herself a little better. Someday, right?

* * *

After a week of non-stop fun in Vegas we flew up to Alberta on Thursday to meet up with the rest of John's family. For the first time since our wedding four years ago (almost exactly since today is our anniversary, Happy Anniversary, Honey!), we were all together. It was awesome to see how much everyone has grown and get to know some of the far-away family members a little bit better. And of course, who can resist family pictures on such a momentous occassion? Certainly not us. The official portraits are still coming, but we did manage to snap a few candids of all the cousins

and of the three youngest cousins: Evelyn (Oct. 5), Olivia (Dec. 21), and Alexandra (Oct. 20)

To be continued . . .