Cousins Visit the Farm!

 It can be hard to wait! Especially when you're young!

Grandma, Grandpa, Chris, Rachel, and the cousins all met us at the Tavern for lunch. 

I tried to get Shane to play some paper games with Nate like Connect 4 and Boxes. I had to play with him myself. Uncle Chris tried to get the boys to play a Scrabble game on paper, but that wasn't to Shane's interest. 

Cell phones did the trick. Uncle Chris had a word game on his.

We headed to the farm after we finished. Sophia drove with us in the truck. Carrie let her sit up front, where she immediately commented her mom would want to clean up the dirt on the dash!

"We live on a farm," I said. "There'd never be time for anything else if all we did was worry about dirt." 

I talked from the backseat. I'd been temporarily banished to give Sophia the First the royal treatment! (There's a joke there if you know kid's cartoons!)

Shane was excited to show off his room when all the cousins arrived.

The kids piled in and made themselves at home!

I encouraged the boys to play some Kirby to quiet the racket down some. I was a little worried 10 people and lots of noise would put Carrie over the top.

I needn't have worried. Carrie wasn't even in the house. Heidi had brought a friend over and she was out playing barn manager and socializing.

It let the adults hear each other, at least.

Sophia showed more interest in the animals instead of the video game.

She popped back and forth and could have joined in.

But she checked in on Loki and then went and found Max.

Uncle Chris thought that was a great idea and called in his boys to greet Max, too! They've all met Max and even played with her at our house and at Grandma's.

Carrie was worried Sam and Eddy might be out of hay while Heidi and her friend were walking around, so she sent me to check on things. Rachel wanted to go with and see the barn and the group quickly grew from one to two to everybody not addicted to a video game (aka - Shane and Noah!).

Nate, Sophia, and I scrambled up the hay bales for an impromptu climbing game.

Grandpa and Grandma strolled down at their leisure.

Carrie played group leader for the trip (which she's done before!).

Heidi popped out of the tack room like a local celebrity as we entered the barn. Chris and Rachel's crew have never been anywhere 'rural' before, so the whole experience was new to them.

Sophia and Nate were ready to go back to the house, so I started to walk back with them.....

...and then I detoured everyone to the gator! We went for a joy ride out front while everyone else walked ever so slowly on their own two feet!

There may be pictures out there somewhere. I'll post them if they ever float up to where I can find them.

There was a minor scare when I got back to the house and found the door wide open. A quick check located all the felines and averted a rescue mission.

The big event of the evening was Sophia's first ride. She was a little nervous about whether or not she should do it. Her dad helped her fit her helmet and Carrie provided her with some breeches.

It went well! Carrie was excited and handwalked Sophia on Maddy around the arena a couple of times. 

Carrie's hoping to teach Sophia more in the future!

While Carrie was cleaning up, the rest of us went back up to the house. Chris and Rachel were eager to get back on the road, but I brought up cards. Specifically, bridge and spades.

It turned out Chris was a card player! He started to shuffle and bridge rapidly. I asked if he enjoyed cribbage as a Navy man and Grandpa asked Chris, "Did you get a cribbage board thrown at you?"

"Yeah," Chris replied. "I double-skunked my [navy position I forgot] and he said I could keep it."

So we ended up playing an impromptu spades game while we waited for Carrie to come back in.

Meanwhile, the kids were having a party in Shane's room. We'd kicked them off the video games and I saw Shane and Nate hustling Loki into the room ("Poor dog. It'll be good socialization training, at least."). There was a bunch of hooting and hollering, but it all sounded friendly.

The lights were off when we opened the door to check on them. Sophia was shining the spotlight and it looked like the boys were throwing things off the bunk bed.

I didn't even notice Loki trapped up top until after a few moments! I helped them down as the kids chatted rapidfire about the war they'd been waging.

However, it was time to go. Everyone shoed up and we headed back outside.The cousins piled into the car with their parents and grandparents. It was great seeing them.

I don't know when it will happen again. Chris has to report for duty next week. The kids and Rachel will stay and Grandma and Grandpa's until their house is ready. Both Chris and Rachel said it was a long drive with their kids to get to our house from Grandma's and it's a longer trip from their new house (Shane's a terrific car traveler, so I sometimes forget road trips are harder for others).

After a wild afternoon, Shane was ready to put up a bunch of Pokemon wall stickers and hang out with us.

He'd asked me earlier and I said, "Ask mom." Carrie said, "They're for walls," and I breathed a huge sigh of relief!

It's been an excellent holiday week. I have no regrets. We made it to church and made memories with family on both sides of the tree.