Retirement weekend recap

Last weekend my dad retired.  He had a little after work get together, so we packed up the family on Thursday and headed over

With his work buddy, Dave

While we were at the party, the kiddos were enjoying the pool at Grandma & Grandpa's:

Friday morning Grandma made pancakes and made sure to have mass quantities of bananas and blueberries available:

those curls.

After playing outside for awhile in the morning we headed over to Nick's house for naps and spent the rest of the day in the pool, making a slip and slide and grilling:

Claire, Miles, and Harper

They had fun when Nick release some of his bait fish into the water to swim around.  Claire was a regular old pro around them and my kids were quite leery at first. :)

Saturday morning we headed over to Brooke & Jeff's to meet their new little one, Kendall.  You seriously forget how small and precious they are.  Makes me want another one and then I stop and think, WHOA.

Hayden & Harper

Hayden (4), Kendall (10 days), Carson (3 days until 2), Harper (4), Hazel (6 mos) & Miles (2)

The wild crew

I cannot wait to see their friendships develop and grow.  I envision many of family vacations together where there is a strong bond and mass amounts of chaos.  My life goal is for them all to pair up and marry. :)  A momma can hope...

Once all of the kids started displaying signs of needing naps--you know the meltdowns, wild energy, worn out parents, etc. we headed East.  We made a quick pit stop at the Costco in Iowa City for groceries.  I think a minimum of 5 people came up to us and said they enjoyed watching us navigate two grocery carts with 3 children.  Apparently we've become that circus.  We had to play a mad game of Tetris in the back of my truck to fit all of our luggage, all the stuff from Costco, and still have room for Gracie.