Family Visit Review

Rather than try to attempt to make this into a few posts I decided to make a summary post.  A couple weeks ago I mentioned that my in-laws were going to visit for Christmas and that I would most likely be otherwise occupied during that time.  Well, I was.  So here is a summary of what's happened with my family over the last couple weeks:

My in-laws visited for 10 days.  During that time:

• The kids went to the beach multiple times with Oma and Opa. Daughter got wet and sandy and son played with his trick kite.  They both had a blast and Mommy got some work done.
• My son went to his first sleep over (I think Mommy had a harder time with that than my son).
• I did lots of baking mostly as gifts but for us also.
• I had a few showings, inspections, etc.
• My in-laws were able to find a renter for the house they bought the last time they were down here (they bought it before prices went up even more, planning to retire in a few more years).
• Hubby started his night shift schedule.  It's really worked out well so far (even with family visiting).

Around 2AM the night / morning before my in-laws left town, my little brother got to our house for a 5 day visit.  So that meant we had 9 people, 5 cats, and 1 dog at my house for that night.  Hubby and I were in the camper along with my brother and everyone else (and all the animals) was in the house.  The more the merrier right?  While my brother was in town:

• My son played extensively with the small parachute my brother gave him.  My brother is a parachute rigger which means he packs and fixes parachutes so to make one wasn't too hard.
• One of my first cousins and his family came and visited for a few hours.  It was a great way for them to see all my family at once since they hadn't seen my brother in over 15 years.  In fact my cousin's wife had never met my brother.
• My parents, brother, and my family of 4 went to Busch Gardens 2 days before the New Year.  Yes, it was crowded but it was still fun.  My dad and brother hadn't been in close to 20 years so they were able to enjoy a couple of the new rides as well as our favorite from the last time they'd been there. My mom and daughter were able to see a couple of the shows too.  I must admit, I'd never been when it was that crowded before.  We got one of the last parking spaces in the farthest parking lot  (it was about 1.5 miles from the entrance of the park).  The good news though... it was so crowded they didn't charge parking because they didn't want to hold up the line taking money from people.

Making an Appointment

Lately, I have been booked s.o.l.i.d.  I've either been showing houses, meeting clients to work on contracts, or making phone calls - lots and lots of phone calls.  That's why it was very important to schedule some family fun time. 

We have season passes to Busch Gardens.  Over the summer they have later hours as well as an acrobatics show and fireworks display as the park is closing.  We knew we were about to run out of time to see the fireworks display so we scheduled a trip for last Wednesday.  Unfortunately, life and work happened and I couldn't go that day.  Luckily we didn't tell the kids our plans so when we ended up being able to make it on Thursday they were extatic.

Right before we got there we drove through a thunderstorm.  It was still raining when we pulled up to the park at 6PM.  We sat in the car for 5 minutes while the rain passed.   The temperatures dropped substantially so that was nice.  And many of the people who got soaked decided to leave the park.  There were still lines, but they were shorter I'm sure.

Of course the boys went to ride the coasters.  The thunderstorms meant they didn't open right away but they still got to ride multiple coasters including one pretty much at dark.

My daughter and I went in search of the animals.  Unfortunately, the thunderstorms meant most of them were not out.  We were able to see a few animals though including these beautiful flamingos. 

And she rode the carousel an played on the biggest moon bounce I've ever seen.

After all the rides closed down they had an outdoor acrobatics, light, and lazer show called Kinetix (pretty cool stuff).  The grand finale was a fireworks display... also very cool.  One of the best displays I've seen in a long time.  Can't imagine what it's like to live nearby during the summer since they do it every night the weather cooperates.

It was so nice having a little break.  Needless to say, I didn't know the following week (last week) would be so hectic.  I am SO glad I got the break.  It made this last week more bearable.

She wanted her picture with something.