A Ton of Pics!!

My niece and talented violin player "super human duckie girl"

My other niece and violin player "super human monkey girl"!!

My husband teaching my sister how to clean a gun :-)

Sock Fashion Expert becomes the feared "attic boss"

The whole kit n' caboodle (All my family)

Visiting Grandpa at the Nursing Home

Sock Fashion Expert serenaded him with her guitar

And the girls played violin for him too..... See him smiling? In the back the kids are all coloring pictures to put up in his room.

My mom teaches the boys to play poker......

And lets the little girls play with her special dolls..........

There was a lot of fooling around at bedtime..... Auntie brought the girls silly things like egg cartons to cuddle with ;-)

The Men played Risk

My Aunt and Uncle hosted a luncheon in Duluth....

I got to see baby Maxton for the first time!!

Sarah and Quent

Cousins.....

Moonbeam and Maxton

Maxton and his Grandma

Me and my 3 aunts..... What a pleasure to see them all!!

Meeting baby Terrance for the first time :-)

A PILE of friends :-)

Shopping with the girls!!

Sock Fashion Expert brought the little girls crowns :-)

Moonbeam has been talking about "Shopping with Bhama" for months!! She finally got to do it!!

Its been a good trip, and its coming to an end. After the first 3 days at my in laws, we headed to a remote location to spend a day with a big family of old friends. The kids loved it and stayed up the entire night feasting on candy and fooling around with their pals. The next day we headed to Duluth to see a bunch of my extended family. It had been a couple of years and I had new second cousins to snuggle up to for the first time :-) My aunt put on a lovely luncheon and made it a special day for all.

After that we were on to my sisters where I had fun with my nieces who are supernaturally endowed with super human monkey and duck like reflexes. Then we spent a week at my mom and dads place. It was a peaceful visit there too. The weather was beautiful and the warm winds beckoned the sock fashion expert and I outdoors to our running destiny. My amazing daughter coached and prodded me to do a record 7 miles straight with her. That was pretty cool. She also prodded my mom to clean out her attic where they hauled record loads of junk out to the end of the drive way. There was so much stuff there that we feared the garbage man wouldn't take it, so when he came, we all helped him load the mess to take away and supplied him with a generous slice of ice cream cake!

My sister spent a lot of time out there with us and we made a lot of fun memories. A basketball tummy held my first nephew and I was anxious to speak to that little boy and feel him kick every chance I got. Silly Auntie that i am, I brought the monkey nieces funny things to cuddle with at night such as egg cartons and cookie sheets. The men played some Risk games that lasted for untold hours. My mom also taught the kids to play Poker and we burned a day on that too :-) Back at my in laws there was a special surprise! All the 3 brothers and their families got together once again along with a surprise trip from Nebraska Great Grandmother, aunt and cousins. The big celebration was graced by a 3 tiered, 6 layer, 3 flavor 40 year anniversary cake made by none other than the Sock Fashion Expert. After a lot of eating, playing, visiting and laughing, everybody headed to the swimming pool at the motel so the kids could play some more. My dear husband got right in the pool and played ball with the kids. It was especially a lot of fun when he tried to keep the ball from me because he used all kinds of unorthodox tactics ;-)

What an awesome time we've been having!! I have loads more pictures and loads more to tell, but i will save it for next time!!