Homecoming and a visit from the Grandparents

The last week in July was a busy one for us. Thursday rolled around and the boys and I found ourselves driving up to Ashburn yet again--this time to welcome home my cousin Taylor from his mission! He served in the Philippians for two years and was finally flying home. My mom's parents Grandma and Grandpa Brewer made the long drive from Florida so they could be here when he came home, too, so it was an extra special weekend.

Jude found his favorite "person" quickly.

Thursday night we spent listening to some of Grandma's stories from her childhood. It is always neat to hear about her life experiences and those of our ancestors. She is a genealogy buff and has gathered so much information about our family.

Most of the group.

Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Tubby, and Lance. Grandpa hasn't been doing too well, but managed to put on a happy face and spend time with all the grand- and great-grandkids. Uncle Tubby was a trooper, too. He drove up with Grandma from Florida to make sure everyone was safe.

After the stories, Glenn and Stephen sang an impromptu duet that I managed to catch the end of:

...and the computer won't let me upload it. I'll try again later.

Friday evening, Taylor flew home from his mission! Grandma spent the previous few days finishing posters for everyone to hold at the airport. George hurried up after his conference in Charlottesville and managed to make it in time to come to the airport, too! Mom and Glenn missed the homecoming because they were at a family reunion for Glenn's family up in New York.

Waiting...

The kids were so good. It's boring to be at an airport with no where neat to go!

Amy and Laura with Grandma. Grandpa wasn't feeling well enough to come.

Jacob, George, and Stephen. Jason was working, but did manage to get to the airport after Taylor arrived.

He sneaked up behind us!! First hugs go to his mom, of course!

Grandma and Taylor

Proud parents.

Jude wanted to give him a hug, too. Lance was a little shy, but did manage to sneak in a hug at the end.

Buddies. Stephen and Taylor have been good friends all growing up. It was sweet to see them together.

Uncle Rob brought out a bugle and played a short fanfare in the airport parking lot to celebrate Taylor's return. I love my family!

After we all left the airport, we returned to my mom's house where Tyler and George whipped everyone up a great meal of spaghetti and meatballs with homemade sauce. Yum!

Can I just say I love that these men know how to cook?

Saturday we spent the morning running around the mall and the outlet mall with Jason and then played with George's family for the rest of the day. They treated us to a great dinner at BoneFish Grill. Those Bang Bang shrimp tacos are to die for!

Sunday we drove over to Maryland to listen to Taylor give his homecoming address at Church. He did a great job and shared some special stories from his mission that were very touching.

After Church, we all went to the Simmon's house in Potomac, MD for some amazing food!

Lance helped Taylor make some spaghetti sauce. He was excited he got to cook. :)

Jude executing the very important job of food taster. It passed inspection.

Grandma and Laura and Mason.

Spices.

George and I made this bread from a recipe I found on "Our Best Bites" blog. It was a huge hit!

I like this picture of Grandma and Grandpa. We haven't seen them in over a year, so it was really neat they came up.

Family picture. I love that it's real. I mean...this is what the boys usually look like anyway.

Waiting, waiting, waiting for the food to be ready.

Lance found a great seat to enjoy his meal.

Family.

Dessert--mini cream puffs covered in fruit, covered in chocolate sauce, covered in whip cream!

Jude, Uncle Jason is not a jungle gym!

Baby Mason. Such a handsome boy.

 Jude loving on Grandpa.

Uncle Tyler being awesome and letting the boys play Plants vs. Zombies on his iPhone.

Uncle Rob broke out the hymnal and the men sang several songs in four-part harmony. It sounded great!

Jude thought it was fantastic and wanted in on the action, too.

 Taylor with Grandma and Grandpa.

George drove back that night so he could be at work the following morning. Scott came to pick up Lance for their annual summer trip to California that evening as well. :( Jude and I were tired from the festivities and decided to drive back to Charlottesville the next morning. It was a great weekend, and so good to see Taylor again and the Grandparents. I have a wonderful family!

Water Country USA and Busch Gardens

Last weekend, our family took our one and only vacation together and went to Water Country USA and Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA.

Stephen drove down with us Friday morning and we spent the day at Water Country USA. Seeing as it was 100 degrees with a heat index of 115 degrees, a waterpark was a good place to be! So we spent the hottest day of the summer tubing down water slides and floating in the lazy river. The best part was that Jude got to come with us on most of the rides. They have life jackets there in every size and as long as he was wearing one and was able to sit in the raft without being held in our laps, he could come. Awesome!

Enjoying a quick snack before getting back to the slides. 

Jude LOVED the water! He's been a little hesitant this year with pools, but for some reason we couldn't keep him out of the water at the park. I'm not complaining! 

Family. Lance was in heaven. :) 

Jude at the wave pool after a very loooong day of playing. We were all ready for bed.

We drove to our hotel room and were met there by Amy who drove up right after work. We ordered some pizza, took showers and watched the Disney channel (Lance's pick) while we tried to get Jude to go to sleep. We thought he would just crash, but thanks to a second wind, he was up until at least 10 or 10:30! 

Eating his favorite candies. That's my boy! 

Lance thought it was neat we got to stay at a hotel. 

Jude "trying" to go to sleep with the lights still on and everyone else awake. He finally gave in and slept.

Jude woke up Saturday morning at 6:45!! I tried to make him go back to sleep, but he refused, so I turned on the TV quietly for him and tried to sleep a bit more. After everyone else woke up around 9, we went to breakfast and then headed over to Busch Gardens. It was another hot hot hot day (I think it was 95 degrees with the heat index over 100 degrees again), so we didn't last too long at the park. 

Lance was tall enough to do several of the rides. His first one of the day was "Pompeii", accompanied by George, Amy, and Stephen.  

Jude and I watched from the splash area--you can see how hot we already were! 

If you click on this picture, you can see Lance's face. Pretty funny. For a kid who loved Splash Mountain at Disney World, he wasn't a huge fan of this ride.

While the adults were riding Apollo's Chariot, I took the boys to ride some smaller rides.

Teacups! 

We rode a smaller version of "Trade Wind" and Lance thought it was a lot of fun. 

Jude, not so much. 

Swings with Daddy!

Lance liked controlling the swings.

Waiting...

Riding the scrambler. 

Poor Jude was so hot, but such a good sport. 

Airplanes! Yeah! 

Bumper cars! You can see George and Stephen.

Lance was riding with Amy. 

Watching the cars with Jude. 

Jude said "cheese" and then drooled all down George's back. Yuck! 

Lance liked the little bumper cars, too, because he got to drive all by himself.

George, Amy, and Stephen rode Griffon a couple times and while they were gone, I watched in the splash area and let the kiddos get as wet as they could.

Lance thought it was fabulous.

We stopped at Elmo's World for a few minutes and Lance rode a little coaster with George while Jude took a 10 minute nap and then we decided we were much too hot and left to go back to the water park for the rest of the day. 

We tried to snap a family picture really quick--you know, to capture the awesome fun we were having--but this was the best we could get. We were hot, okay!

Stephen, Amy, Heather, Lance, and Jude.

We drove over to Water Country USA and were greeted by an enormous crowd of people. Friday the park was fairly empty and we got on rides without much wait, and even today at Busch Gardens the lines were extremely short for every ride we went on. We were disappointed, but too hot to go back, so we went in and tried to make the best of it.

I got a waterproof disposable camera so I could try and get some pictures. Here are the few that actually sort-of turned out.

Floating down the lazy river. Their river is awesome and fairly long with some rapids and waterfalls and waterguns people can squirt at you. Lance kept trying to swim away on his own. He's a fish.

Waiting in line for a favorite ride! Lance was a little hot. :)

Blurry, but you get the idea. Jude would see the raft and try to run and get in, cutting off everyone in his way. It was pretty funny. He loved riding in the "boats".

George and I were pretty tired and played with Jude in the little kiddie area while Lance ran off with Amy and Stephen to do more slides.

Jude and Mommy going down a little slide at the kiddie area.

Lance came back and was pretty pooped.

The lines were getting shorter, so we decided to go down another of our favorite slides before we left for the day.

Amy and Stephen.

During a flat part in the ride.

Lance LOVED the ride!

Can you tell?

My favorite picture. They all look like they're having fun, even Jude.

Coming to the end of the ride.

Man. It was a long two days of fun, sun, heat, sweat and more fun. We were exhausted. We drove through Wendy's on our way back to the hotel and crashed for the night. Jude didn't have any trouble going to sleep once we put him in his bed and the rest of us followed suit not too long after. The boys slept in until almost 9! We grabbed the continental breakfast in the lobby and hopped in the car to make it back to Charlottesville in time for me to teach Nursery at Church.

We had a great time being together. It was a lot of fun to be there with Amy and Stephen, too! I love my family!