Super Labor Day Weekend

Before I launch into our fabulous Labor Day Weekend pics and stories, I just wanted to catch up on the end of August. The last playgroup activity for August we went to a sprinkler park in Barberton. We got there a little early to let the kids play on the playground and hopefully warm up. It was a bit on the chilly side.
Morgan was immediately stoked about the whole thing and spent most of his time in the water. Pepper did ok but a lot of the other kids felt how chilly the water was and were more interested in the playground. At least they had options and we had the whole place to ourselves.

Krista trying to get the girls, Pepper and Sophie to check the water out.

That is a whole lot of freezing cold water. Brave boy.

I only convinced Halle to try out the water again by promising to take her picture.

What a girl will do to get her picture taken.

Another library storytime, this time the kids worked on some colorful paintings.

Ok, so now on to our Labor Day weekend. On Saturday morning we drove to Cody's cousin, Robin's, house near Dayton. She and her family just moved here in June and we are so excited to have more family nearby. We got there around lunch time on a VERY hot afternoon. But that didn't stop the kids from heading outside to jump on the awesome trampoline.

Gotta love Pepper's awesome hair! Robin's hubby Chris supervising the crazy kids.

Khan's family also came up later in the day. That is Kegan getting some serious air.

The three other girls watching Pepper jump.

Our best group shot. Starting from the left: Ali (13), Morgan (4), William (5), Aaron (10), Pepper (2), Kegan (12), Karissa (16) and Andy (6). The two missing are Theron (18) who stayed home to work and Antonio (15) who must have been inside trying to escape the madness.

I know it is blurry but I love the various stages of flying and falling in this picture.

Cody took all these fun pictures while I sat inside in the comfy coolness chatting with Robin and Joanna. I cannot tell you how excited we all are to live near each other. None of our families have lived near extended family before and we are all so happy that for the most part the kids are all close in age. Pepper is a little young, but luckily she is so darn cute everyone was constantly playing with her and entertaining her. I barely saw my kids the whole time we were there. Perfect!

Karissa's 16th bday was on Wednesday but since we were all together we had a little celebration for her. It is not easy to get a picture of Karissa and I'm sure she would not be happy with this one:)

By this time of night Morgan, William, Aaron and Kegan had not stopped running, jumping and playing lightsaber battles. They were the four sweatiest boys. It was kind of gross and amazing at the same time.

Nice cheesy grin from Pepper. And surprise, surprise she's sitting in Ali's lap. I don't think Pepper walked much the whole time we were there either between Ali and Antonio. I need those two to live much closer!

Youtube always draws a crowd. And this is finally Antonio in a picture.

Pepper with her new best friend.

I had to showcase the crazy wallpaper in Ali's bedroom that she graciously let us use. Robin's house was previously owned by some pretty eccentric people who had a little too much money and time on their hands. It was an awesome house though with lots of room for the kids to run and play while the parents could sit and chat and actually play some fun games.

But seriously, isn't that the craziest wallpaper?! And it was only just a taste of what the other bedrooms had as well.

Sunday afternoon, after sacrement meeting, we all drove down to Khan's house to hang out and for us to spend the night. Khan's work just moved into a brand new building that overlooks the river in Cincinnatti. Every Labor Day the city sets off an amazing fireworks show on the river and Khan's office let people (13 and older) come watch in comfort. It was AWESOME! We all hung out in the kitchen area, ate pizza and watched the fireworks that were eye level with us. Meanwhile all the poor suckers outside were standing in the pouring rain. I never want to watch fireworks another way again.

Those lights at the bottom were on top of the water. Such a cool effect. We were on the 25th floor so most of the fireworks were eye level but we could see all the way to the river and above so we saw everything.

A shot of me at 32 weeks. Not the best shot but you can see the belly pretty well.

Better shot of me but not the belly.

We had such a fun night and weekend. Monday morning, Khan, Cody and Theron went shooting with the priesthood in their ward while Joanna and I hung out with the kids. Pepper had had an allergic/asthma attack during the night and woke up with a puffy face but after some benadryl and a blessing she was just fine. So besides that little hiccup, we had a fantastic weekend getting to know more of our family and having fun with everyone. We can't wait to get together again.