It’s never easy telling a friend good-bye, but we had an incredibly fun visit with Kelly and her boys. Within minutes of getting here yesterday, Aunt Kelly had all the boys out for a walk while I was on the phone and Meredith was still sleeping. I thought it would be a quick jaunt, but they wound up walking our entire path and stopping at the playground to play hide and seek. See why my kids LOVE her?! Kelly’s so much more fun than me.

After Meredith and I tracked them down, the boys voted to stay here and play outside rather than watch Meredith’s ballet class. Surprise. After we got home, we decided to head back to Monical’s Pizza for dinner. I doubt they have those in KC, Kelly! Our volume level was a little loud, and one diner even asked not to sit near us, but the kids were really good.

After we got home, we let the kids play until they nearly collapsed from exhaustion. Mason and Alex shared a room, and if you can believe it, they were both out like lights. Kelly and I feared it might take them awhile to settle down. We owe it all to fresh air.

We stayed up late watching multiple episodes of Jon and Kate Plus 8. We really lived it up!

Miracle of miracles, all the kids slept until nearly 7:00 a.m. We had a pancake breakfast before the bus scooped up Alex. Kelly and I took the remaining kids to the park right next to our house. I took my camera thinking I’d grab some fun shots of the kids playing and low and behold I found a gorgeous place to shoot. The lighting couldn’t have been better, so we bribed the kids to stand still instead of playing, which seems really mean, but there's always room for a lesson in delayed gratification. As always, Kelly’s boys were troupers and let me take all kids of fun pictures.


Meredith wanted little to do with the camera, but did let Aunt Kelly take this one. This is what Kelly captured after a 15 second photography lesson from me. Any bets on how long it takes her to buy a big girl camera?!

After Meredith and I picked up Alex from Kindergarten Connection, we met some of our neighbors at a different park in hopes of an early bedtime. We didn’t stay too long because it was hot, and I didn’t sunscreen any of us. It takes seven minute of exposure for all three of us to burn. The tops of my feet are itchy, so either they’re burned or I picked up a parasite wading in the creek while taking pictures. With any luck, it’s a tape worm and I’ll finally loose those last 25 pounds.