visit from the "greats"

today we had a visit from a lot of the kids' "greats" - great grandma z. and great aunts claire, su and chris!  while we waited for them to arrive we hit the pool - even me.  for some reason most of my pictures were of maddux.  i liked all of these for different reasons so i posted them all.

poor manning did a lot of watching while we swam, but he liked being outside and did get to swim a little each day.

mason kept wrestling with big pop and loosing.  you don't poke the bear - or take his chair!

some of madelyn's playdoh creations with great aunt claire 

maddux and daddy 'fishing' with the fames the 'greats' brought

if it isn't obvious by now, manning had a favorite position and wanted to snuggle most of the time.  he just wasn't feeling his best.  but it made for some quality time with his great grandma!  

and then the kids were back in the pool!  i forgot how much easier it is to swim all of the time when the pool is in your own backyard.  it takes so much time and energy to get to the pool for us here!

madelyn was backstroking all over the place because it keeps her face out of the water and her limited range of motion made for an entertaining movement.  here is some of her 'swimming'.

maddux enjoyed a game of 'which hand' with great aunt claire.

aunt claire gave mason 'muscles' with a few balls tucked into his shirt 

everyone was taken with the level of focus maddux had for detangling the fishing lines he had twisted up.  we often forget that his is only two.

great aunt su helping the girls with some playdoh creations

madelyn showing off the playdoh palm tree 

maddux modeling some glasses...

...and then a bow tie.

we weren't going to see uncle josh again so when he stopped by on his dinner break from work i had to get a picture with him.  (the arms behind my head are aunt su's!)

big pop was grilling chicken to go with our rib dinner.  (seriously, my dad's ribs are legendary.  matt and i both ate several!  it was SO worth it!  yummy!  i think matt looks forward to these ribs all year and we ask them to make them when they come visit us too.  like i said, we are flexible vegans. :)) matt was sitting with the kids while they watched little fish swimming.  maddux decided that we needed a 'silly' picture too.

and then he passed out waiting for dinner to be served.

me and my grandma.  so happy we got to see her!

great aunt claire and mason

great aunt su getting a snuggle from manning.

aunt adrienne was holding manning while we were all saying our good-byes and we realized that they matched!  of course i had to to take a picture.

unfortunately, i failed to get a picture with aunt chris!  now she will have to come visit us. :)  she lives in kentucky so we were talking about her coming up some time.  so happy to have gotten to see everyone.  love.