Cousin Time

What a great start we have had to our spring.  This year we have had the joy of having lots of visitors come to our house over the last month and a half.

I think our most anticipated visitors however were my older sister (Amie) and her family.   Amie and her family have been serving in full-time ministry overseas, in Africa, for the last 3 years and so we were very anxious to get to finally see them all again in person.   We got to enjoy a week together and had a fun time just watching the kids play and catching-up on life over the last three years.   Thanks to modern technology such as the internet, and Skype we have been able to keep up a little while they have been away so catching-up on life over the last three years in a week was somewhat manageable, though we wish we could have had more time.

We had a great time with them here, and with six kids running around the house and three years of playtime to catch-up on I forgot to take many pictures, but sometime memories are best made not behind the lens of a camera.

Here are the few pictures we did get to remember our time together.   They happen to all be mostly of the kids, but they were the most entertaining during the day and our activities seemed to revolve around playtime and kid activities anyway, with a few work projects for the men to accomplish (thanks to my brother-in-law for his willingness to help with tree pruning and some gate building for our fence).

 Superheros took over our trampoline all week 

 Lots of arts and craft time

Leaning to make coffee, South Sudan style 

Enjoying their "kids" coffee (mostly milk with a little South Sudan coffee) 

A train ride at the park  

Ice Cream night at our local Ice Cream shop - Thanks Grandma for the special treat! 

The two youngest in the group playing trains 

Construction work at the kids Museum (Gwen watching and waiting for the day she will be allowed to handle a saw)  

Cousins, 3 months apart, great friends, and sad to say good-bye

We had such a great time together and I wish that we lived closer so all the cousins could have more time together.  It was an encouraging week to hear how the Lord is using my sister and her family so richly in the area God has called them to serve.   We can't wait for our next time to be together, whenever that may be.