Holiday Weekend with the Fam

We LOVE it when family comes to visit! Matt’s parents, Jason, Candice, and Jaycee made the 8 hour trek to spend the 4th of July weekend with us. They arrived late Thursday night, so Friday was when all the exciting stuff happened.

Friday morning, Jason had an appointment with Matt to get his teeth looked at (no cavities, yay!) That left Candice and I, and the girls, hanging out at the house until Jason was done.

Lily loved having her buddy, Jaycee to play with the whole weekend. She was so good at sharing her toys with Jaycee!

For Lunch, Jessica, Tom and Nina, and the girls met us at Arby’s and then we came back to our house to play outside.

That night we had a hard time deciding what we were going to do for dinner since some of the group had to pick up rental bikes before the bike shop closed. We opted for Pasquini’s Pizza (no pictures, just yummy food and great conversations) One memorable thing that happened- Lily didn’t want to sit in her highchair and decided it would be more fun to squeeze herself behind everyone on the bench and walk back and forth. Poor Matt and Dan had to eat with their chests against the table. If they tried to sit back, Lily would shove herself behind them. She was quite persistent!

Saturday Morning, we packed up all the bikes and rode into the city to the Cherry Creek Farmer’s Market.

Jaycee got to ride with me! Isn’t she so adorable?! And so helpful with the bell!

LOVE this picture of their family of three! And Lily’s trying to stay hydrated.

The farmer’s market was so fun, but so hot! Our original plan was to have a snack at the farmer’s market and then bike the rest of the way to Dan and Jessica’s house (another 6+ miles) but it was quickly heating up and none of us was really looking forward to biking all that way. So we decided to take our time at the market and then head over to the art festival going on that weekend too.

There’s always such yummy food at the market. Here’s Nina’s pupusa. She had to try it since it’s a El Salvadorean original (where Dan served his mission). Matt and I had a yummy quesadilla but we were too busy devouring it to get a picture!

Bathroom break in Bed, Bath and Beyond – Jaycee for Sale!!

Cherry Creek Arts Festival

The kids played musical chairs with the stroller. Lily had the prime spot for seeing everything.

There was some really neat artwork from artists from all across the country. I’m amazed at the talent of these people.

Getting rehydrated.

Waiting anxiously for their turn to get some strawberry lemonade. Jason’s such a good uncle to share with his nieces.

Tessa is such a little monkey! She kept swinging from the handlebar of the stroller. She tried it later when there weren’t as many kids and almost tipped it over!

After everyone had had enough of the heat and looking at the art we got back on the bikes and headed back to our house. This time Nina and Lily drove with Jessica so Dan and Sophie could ride back with us. We were all so sweaty and gross when we got to the house!

All the art inspired Matt to work on his face painting skills. Sophie was happy to oblige and became a beautiful cat.

Lily got a blue butterfly on her hand (which she quickly smeared on her face before it dried).

No face painting for Tessa, but she happily accepted some red toe nails. Great job Matt! We’ll have to on your nail painting skills!

That night the boys and girls split up – the boys went to see the new Transformers’ movie and the girls went to the outlet mall so Grandma could get the girls some new outfits. Thanks again Nina, we LOVE Lily’s new clothes! The girls had dinner at Which Wich (so yummy!). It was bed time and Lily was having a hard time. I got her some chocolate milk thinking that would help but forgot to pack a sippy cup and she couldn’t drink out of the straw. Luckily, Jessica let me borrow her water bottle which helped but wouldn’t stay open. So I ended up holding Lily like an infant and squeezing the water bottle so the milk would go into her mouth faster. The things we do so our kids won’t scream in public!

Matt said he wasn’t too impressed with the movie. Not sure if that was because he had to pee for most of the movie because of his huge drink or the fact that he had chili-cheese fries for dinner and wasn’t feeling too great.

Sunday we went to Church and everyone had dinner at our house. The girls all looked so adorable in their new dresses! Lily and Jaycee got matching dresses from Gymboree. They were so cute!

The guys got some playing time in while the steaks were grilling.

Matt got the girls popsicles for dessert! He wins over their hearts with sugar. It seems to be working.

Enjoying the beautiful summer evening.

The girls really love their Papa!

These two were having a great time in the sandbox. I thought they were playing so good together, then I went over to check on them and they had been putting sand all over the grass and the sprinkler! After multiple warnings, we had to close it up/ They just couldn’t keep it in the box.

That didn’t stop Lily from still “playing” in the sandbox though!

Matt got a fire going and we wanted to roast some ‘mallows but the only ones we had were the teeny-tiny ones. Candice was determined to get a good ‘mallow.

Swapping stories and wisdom ‘round the fire.

Lily loves following the big girls around.

The little girls love Matt…

…especially when he’s handing out marshmallows on a stick!

Cute Jaycee hanging out with her Daddy. Matt did some wheel-barrow racing around on the grass. Tessa was the only one with enough arm muscles to keep her body up. The other girls just flopped over as soon as he lifted them up.

Monday morning we went to breakfast at Subway. We tried to go to some local cafés but everything was either closed or had a 20+ minute wait. So we chose what was good and quick. Then our visitors were back on their way to Salt Lake. We loved having them here and can’t wait to have more visitors come (hint, hint!)