Church, Cousins and the Spinney Thing

One of the reasons we love staying at the Hampton Inn is the soft bed and free breakfast. Brent and I like the egg options but the girls are fans of the waffles. Not the healthiest option, but it's part of what makes traveling fun. Gita made no pretense of anything resembling healthy and just filled a cup with whipped cream, chocolate chips and caramel drizzle.

We packed up and headed to Clovis where we met family for church. As was true the previous night, BJ was tracking us and called a lot to give us tid bits about where we were. One call was about the hospital Brent was born in. "The hospital isn't there anymore..." but he encouraged us to look out the window to our left anyway. 

Our ward is rapidly shrinking and it was nice to sit in a full chapel again. The Wuehlers mentioned it was rather empty due to Spring Break, but to us it was chock full. Everyone was so very nice and I love singing the hymns with many voices. Sydney met and became fast friends with another Sydney.

We changed out of our Sunday best at the church and headed to BJ and Jeanne's home. When we pulled up, there were some cousins standing at the front door- ready to greet their other cousins. I should note that in all, the girls have 36 cousins- with many on my side of the family. The girls see cousins here and there a lot but on Brent's side, they don't have quite so many. The cousins see each other a lot more often accepting us. It's been a hot minute since these kids were around each other and well, you never know how this kind of thing will go. Turns out, it was hugs all around and those kids got along famously. I think the Clovis cousins were pretty excited to reacquaint themselves with the Chicago cousins. For Sunday dinner we had a grilled cheese bar and Jim also made an incredible marinated chicken. I insisted on photos so here are the grandparents with all their grandchildren.

Group hug!

We explored what Uncle Jim looks like with hair (Brigitta is laying over the back of that couch behind him).

Brent and Jim commiserated on the pregnant belly with Aunt Julie. 

There was a lot of energy in that house! To give some adults (and some kids) a little break, a group went to a nearby park. The spinny thing became the thing and suddenly everyone wanted to get photos on it. 

The trick is getting it to go fast enough for a good shot. 

Vera got a lot of love and her mom got a break.

Again, the spinney thing.

Cousin snowflake!

The clouds reflected the setting sun and it was spectacular!

Balancing on the seesaw takes more skill than at first blush.

And again, the spinney thing.

BJ and Jeanne had raided their local Costco for every snack you could think of and all the kids made up their own bag to use at the park. We played games and chatted until the exhaustion started to set in and then our little family set off for the hotel- excited for the Great Wolf Lodge!