Brian, Kenna & Kalahari

The original plan was that Kenna & Brian were going to drive from Wyoming to Maryland for Christmas, but when they found a great deal on flights, we opted for that instead! We were super lucky and got to have them around for around three full weeks. 

Brian is awesome and wasted no time using his superpowers to put fussy Elijah down for a nap:

Kenna & Brian happened to fly in on their anniversary and asked that we take them to get some delicious Maryland seafood. We got a recommendation for a good seafood place nearby and headed over, only to be told there was a 90 minute wait. On a Wednesday night at 5:30 pm. It was INSANE. We later learned that Wednesdays are happy hour + half-price drink night...sigh...

So we found another seafood place nearby which was disappointing. But it was fun to enjoy an evening with Brian & Kenna, even if the food was overpriced and not that great.

Then it was on to our next adventure! We had planned to take the kids to Great Wolf Lodge during the spring, but when my friend Bente tossed out the idea of a group trip to Kalahari in December, we decided to to go for it! Waterparks are WAY more fun with friends around! 

Thankfully Kenna & Brian were awesome and agreed to join our little adventure. It was SO fun to have them with us (especially since both sets of friends we went with have immunocompromised family members so we had to stay quarantined because of Aaron). Austin did end up getting it, but it was a very light case (sorry again, Weirichs!). 

Bente bought us all (yes, ALL) Christmas socks!

I love this picture of the feets!

They did have a rather stupid rule that everyone under a certain height had to be in lifejackets at all times. They also didn't have puddle jumper jackets to borrow like I expected, so Elise was stuck with this monstrosity:

Totally not a rash.

Just really, really weird freckles.

Okay, fine.

(I promise he wasn't contagious by this point!)

Elijah tolerated the baby swing:

But the fountain!!!

It was MAGICAL!!!

He could have stayed here for HOURS.

Family photo courtesy of Bente's insistence.

Grateful for friends who make sure I'm in some pictures!

This picture of Talia, Adleigh and Catherine cracks me up:

It's like the printer ran out of ink from left to right...

(And Catherine is my tannest child!)

Emma, Gabe & Seth

I barely ever saw Seth or Catherine. They were always off with friends/cousins.

Jon & I swapped turns with littles.

One day all our kids will run off to play and we can actually have some fun!

Actually, we (and Weirichs) managed to pawn off our kids for an hour or so in the evening and headed for the awesome giant slides! Kenna was a bit of a weakling, but we got her on a couple fun ones! Jon & I enjoyed some awesome crazy rides with Brian (and Emma Knox). It was fun to have a little bit of adult time together!

Other fun things about this trip to remember:

-shoving Elijah in a giant lifejacket so he could go on the lazy river with me because he HAD to have one and it HAD to be zipped up. Like he could somehow drown in three feet of water while I'm holding him and there are lifeguards every ten feet... 

-Catherine trying to spend the night with Adleigh and then walking out without telling Kenna or Brian. She said she couldn't sleep without a sound machine. Me neither...

-the GIGANTIC tub. We fit like 5 or 6 kids in there!

-Brian locking the keys into the running car while they were leaving. Thankfully we were only a few minutes away!