Soaking up the family

Happy weekend everyone,

I have just a few short minutes to sandwich a blog between family leaving, ready to start packing, and one last evening with Oma, Opa, GG, and whoever else decides to come by for one last chance to see us and the perma-grin twins. We've been accused of taping their mouths in a smiley face position because they are both so continually happy looking and pleasant.

Some people ask, "how do you have time to blog with twins and all that life requires?" The answer is: Kendra takes care of everything so well and runs such a "tight ship" that she gives me this time to blog. Almost like a gift... the gift of time. :)

I won't spend too much time philosophizing about marital relationships, but we are both figuring out an important concept. Just because something isn't important to me, doesn't mean it is not important to Kendra and vice versa. We prioritize our time and efforts according to what is important to us as individuals, but the reality is we are doing much better by considering both of priorities at the same time. I know, I know... that requires communication and talking, which isn't a forte for some people. However, we're finding that by considering what is important to the other person even though it is might seem meaningless or outright stupid to us, that the effort of consideration means so much. It is a good feeling when although she doesn't value whatever I see as a need or desire, she treats it as important solely because it is important to me.

Anyway, back to the daily life and the grand finally of our month-long trip here. Yesterday we went over to Oma and Opa's for grilled burgers and dinner on their back porch overlooking the pond, the golf course, and the hills behind them. Logan and his girlfriend, Brie, along with GG spent the evening hanging out with all of us. Logan and his girlfriend, Bree, along with GG spent the evening hanging out with all of us.


It's hard to see there in that picture, but somewhere along the way Easton lost his pants and Layla lost her shirt... I think this was one way Kendra tried to keep them cool from the afternoon heat. This next picture is a good one of Oma and Opa holding the twins up by their arms. It's probably not the last time Easton and Layla will stand on the table though. that seems to be more and more of a common thing to happen lately.

After a full day we kicked back with the same group of people and watched a little of the WNBA gold medal game. Apparently yesterday was just a little more than Layla and I could handle because neither of us made it to bed time. I guess she was comfortable laying on me and she felt like a little, warm, cuddly baby to me.

Today we had almost all of Kendra's cousins and their kids (from her mom's side of the family) over to GG's house. I'm not used to being around that many children at one time so the experience was much different from my perspective compared to everyone else there who do that on a daily basis. The energy being exerted by all those kids running around screaming and playing was a spectacular thing to witness. It reminded me of walking into a room with normal lighting and someone slides the dimmer switch from somewhere in the middle to "all the way up"! After hanging out with all of them for a few hours I was tired and it wasn't even me being treated as a jungle gym like Kendra's cousins were! Everyone settled down just long enough to take a picture:

Also during our time of playing out in the yard, I caught a picture of the twins with GG, Aunt Susie, and Aunt Mary as they all made silly faces at each other (aunts and babies alike).


I'll have to come back some time and point out who is who in the picture, but one of the stars of the day was Hercules, uncle Steve's Chihuahua. Alyssa is holding mighty Hercules (on the far left). Here is a close up picture of the stallion himself. The monstrous things to the right of him are a small pair of size 6 feet so you get a good perspective of his stature. Talk about a funny dog... He could have his own reality TV show.

It's hard to believe our time here is already gone, but we'll be on the road to the central coast early tomorrow morning. Time to pack and have one last chance for Opa to play peek-a-boo with Easton and Layla!

Bye bye