The Second Part of our Big Trip

And these pictures posted in the correct order, unlike my previous post.  (???)

After a visit full of fun at Mark and Jennie's - they had fun destinations planned for us every day - we set out for the family reunion.  At lunchtime, we stopped at the home of two college friends of mine, Jason and Karen, who also became good friends of ours at church in our previous town.  Jeff ran a marathon with Jason right before Jonathan was born.  Jason and Karen have five kids:  Andrew, Tim, Nate, Kaylyn, and Karley.  They hosted a great lunch for us, and it was fun to catch up and for the kids to be out of the car and play.  (No picture, though!)

Here are the kids in the car.

 Yes, those are Jonathan's feet.  He spent a lot of the trip reading.  I wish I could read in the car as easily as he can!  He didn't get my unfortunate motion sickness gene.

 Right before we got together with family, we shared a meal with Rob, Jenny, and their daughters.  I had only met Rob before, and neither of us had met the girls.  We had a great but quick dinner with them, and then set out for the family reunion.

I should note that we were within a few hours' driving distance of a lot of other friends, and I wish we could have seen them, too, so if you're reading this and that includes you, please know that we thought of you!

The big highlight of the reunion for us was meeting our twin nieces, Hailey and Brianna, for the very first time.  They are so identical that Jeff's sister, Michelle, paints a toenail on one baby to help tell them apart.  So, I won't be identifying each baby in the pictures.  But, here is Jeff holding one sweet niece. (And yes, we have two sets of twin nieces.  My sister and Jeff's sister both have twin girls. We got five beautiful new nieces in one year.  Charlotte was born in between the two sets of twins.)

 Jonathan loves babies and has lots of experience entertaining them.

 As you can see.  We got to the reunion early to spend time with Michelle and the twins.  We didn't realize that most of the rest of the family would get there early, too, so we got to see lots of people early.  Here's some more time with the twins.

 Great Grandpa Don watched Jonathan build his Lego Tecnnic...

 Helicopter.  Which has provided hours of fascination both on our trip and back at home.

 Jeff reading a bedtime story to the kids.  Sleeping arrangements in a little hotel room for our family are always, um, interesting.  But everyone slept, so I can't complain!

 There were kids everywhere at the reunion!  17 of them age 12 and under, and 5 of them were Benjamin's age and under.  I don't know how many adults.  That's a lot of people in a hotel conference room.  There were a lot of group pictures taken, but not on my camera, so I don't have any to included here.

 More niece bonding.

 It just so happened that my dear friend, Krista, and her kids, Caleb, Katie, Daniel, and Isaac, were visiting the city were our reunion was, so we got to have lunch with them and their grandparents.  (Krista's husband, Chad, couldn't come.)  We had lunch at a restaurant where a little train engine delivers lunch on overhead tracks.  The kids loved it.

 Here's Jeff calling in the order.

 I had a wonderful hour catching up with my dear friend, roommate, and bridesmaid.  I could have spent a few days catching up, but I was grateful for the hour!

Jeff's mom and the older kids watching fish at Cabela's.

There were kids everywhere.

Everywhere.

More niece love...

and entertaining...

and relaxing in the stroller

Jonathan shows his new helicopter's features to Silvia and little Nicole

Michelle with some of the cousins

Jeff's mom with her grandkids.  

The last picture of the trip...this is sort of a long story, so I'll shorten it.  For those who don't know, Jeff was hit by a car when he was three years old, and he almost died.  Obviously, we are thankful for God's mercy and healing!  Feel free to ask Jeff to tell you the story sometime.  The man who hit Jeff stayed in touch with Jeff and his parents and supported him through the years, and now is in touch with us as well.  The kids and I had never met him or his wife.  So, at the end of the family reunion, they came to see us (they live close to the hotel where we were staying) and we all had some Culver's custard together and got acquainted.

And then, we drove back for a quick meal with Jeff's, dad, slept quickly, got up early, and flew back home.  And the one suitcase that held ten days' worth of clothing for the kids and me kept me busy doing laundry for quite awhile!