Mom's visit

Mom & Mike came to town for a few days during their tour of the south. We had a great time with them during their brief visit. The kids especially loved having Grandma here. They barely left her alone for a second except to go to school. 

Alice's visit

All summer, Aaron has been eagerly anticipating Alice's family's visit to us in North Carolina. Alice is Aaron's best girl from San Diego. Alice and her mom and Aaron and myself spent the past 2.5 years together until we moved. We were so sad to move far from them, but thrilled that they (along with Alice's dad and her 3 brothers) were coming to visit us before heading up to DC for a visit there. A three year old doesn't have much concept of time so for about 2 or 3 months, he kept thinking Alice was going to arrive. The time finally came!!

We had so much fun with them!! We went swimming, played a lot, they went to Marbles (while Aaron napped). We all went to the beach like old times. The kids geocached together. We went to Duke. It was a busy, wonderful weekend. 

The kids playing in the mushroom at our pool

Aaron and Alice together again

We had a good game of Simon Says going on while we walked through Duke. And a plank contest. Because who doesn't? Jeff had a tough one with Eric on his back. 

Ian, Em & AJ with the goecache. This was Kyle & Em's first time doing geocaching and they had a great time. Thank you Ian for introducing the kids to this fun hobby! 

Duke Chapel in the distance

Aaron loves Ian. 

Aaron messed up Em's rainbow loom. Alice is great with her colors and sorted them out for Em one night when she couldn't sleep (PST to EST is a very hard time change, especially when you are 3). With help from Jeff & Dustin. 

Love. 

Grandma's visit

Grandma came to visit while the kids were off school this month. This was her first time visiting us here in Raleigh. We loved having her here and the kids were so energized with her. We had so much fun going to the farmers market, making strawberry jam, planting our garden, going to Marbles, visiting Duke gardens, and swimming. Come visit us again soon, Mom!!

Aaron taking a picture of Grandma

Swimming

Grandma giving Kyle a little payback after splashing her. 

Ben & David visit Raleigh

Josh, Stephanie, Ben & David came to Raleigh to visit us over their spring break. We had a wonderful time hanging with them. We ate great meals, drank great wine, saw the beautiful Duke gardens, made a great seder, and had a fun Easter egg hunt. (Jeff, can you make the egg hunt video?)

Cousins climbing trees after dinner downtown. 

Smelling the flowers at the Duke Gardens

Kyle, Ben & Aaron chilling

The intro to our egg hunt

Stephanie & Aaron

Horseback riding

Papa & Kari came to town for a visit with us. We had a great time, keeping very busy and entertained all weekend long. We started off Saturday with horseback riding. Emily has been asking to go horseback riding since the summertime when we brainstormed a list of things for us to do. We never got to the horseback riding then. This was the time! We headed south. Really far south. So far south that you could see the Mexico border as we approached the horse farm. 

Everyone except for Aaron and myself were going to do the 1 hour ride. Papa, Kari, Jeff & Emily jumped right on their horses. And shockingly, so did Kyle! He has been very sensitive around animals and flipped out about riding a horse (on a small live carousel like thing with ponies attached to a rope that walk around a central pole) when he was younger so we were a bit apprehensive about how he would respond. Thankfully, he was super eager and excited and got on his horse with the same excitement as Emily.

The report was that it was a great ride along the trails with Mexico right next to them. Jeff said that even though he was behind Emily & Kyle, you could tell that Emily was smiling the whole time. 

While they were out on their ride, Aaron and I wandered around the little ranch checking out the animals. Aaron enjoyed the bunnies, goats and other horses that were there. Then he wanted to drive the car. 

But we still had another 30 minutes before the group was due to return so I asked them how old is the youngest they will take on a horse. Luckily, they said they can do a short little walk around the ranch with little ones. And so Aaron got to ride a horse. I was shocked that he (a) would put the hemet on for it, (b) would even get up on the horse and (c) would sit still on the horse. And to top it all off, after his laps were done, he did not want to get off the horse. He LOVED it. Apparently, all my kids love horse back riding.