We were able to spend the past few days with my sister, brother-in-law and niece and were so grateful they drove in town. We’ve missed them so much and after a lot of thought, we all agreed we felt comfortable spending time together at our house and on the lake since we’ve all been adhering to social distancing protocols for more than two months and restrictions in our respective states have lifted a bit. I know that with the loosening of some of the restrictions in various states, many people are making decisions right now related to how exactly to introduce some normalcy back into everyday life while still trying to be careful and cognizant of everything surrounding the pandemic and we’re very much in the same boat.
We had a great time with family and soaked up every minute with Leslie, Ross, Callie and their chocolate lab, Kona. The boys were so, so excited to see their cousin this weekend and I cannot get over how much it melts my heart to see our trio of children together.
We majorly lucked out with the most incredible weather on Saturday and Sunday. It was sunny and gorgeous outside for most of the day, despite a forecast that called for rain nearly all weekend. The big foam mat Ryan gave me for my birthday proved to be the best investment since the lake was hoppin’ with boats all weekend and the high water in Lake Norman thanks to tons of rain last week meant the number of places to drop anchor near a beach were very limited.
Thankfully the floating water pad gave us the ability to spend time in the middle of a cove and still have a place for the kids to sit, play, rest and jump around.
We made sure to pack lots of snacks, water and sunscreen and were out on the lake for the majority of the day on Saturday and Sunday. The kids were incredible troopers and Callie and Ryder both took short boat naps in our arms that somehow powered them through our adventures.
After so much time on the water, we arrived home rather hungry both days and opted for pizza on Saturday night and grilled out on Sunday.
We also filled our time with walks around the neighborhood, ice cream, lounging in our screened-in porch and game nights after the kids went to bed.
Oh and the boys had the best time joining Ryan and Uncle Ross for an early morning workout on Saturday!
I love this pic of them imitating the guys after they saw them doing mountain climbers.
They clearly think Dad and Uncle Ross are the coolest!
Of course we also had to take a cousin picture to send to my parents featuring the kids in the t-shirts my mom ordered for them.
Cheeeeese!
Oh and one more thing to report from the weekend: The boys had their first brother sleepover! We’ve had them share a room with us a few times before when we traveled together when Ryder was much younger but this was the first time they’ve had a room to themselves overnight and they were so, so pumped! We wanted Callie to have her own space to sleep so while she stayed in Chase’s room, Chase bunked up with Ryder on a blow-up toddler bed air mattress and they did great!
It was adorable because on the first night Chase came downstairs about 30 minutes after bed time and said, “Mom, I just can’t stop talking to Ryder.” Oh the challenges of being a chatty 4.5 year old! Eventually the brother chatter, games and singing died down and they both slept through the night three nights in a row so we’ll consider that a win, despite the fact that they were awake and playing together by 6 a.m. every morning. There was a bit of a meltdown last night when we told them that they had to sleep in their own rooms again but Ryan and I both felt relieved knowing Chase and Ryder can share a room well together since that’s the plan for our boys after our baby arrives and is ready for his or her own room.
Leslie and Ross headed back to Florida yesterday around lunchtime and we spent the rest of the long weekend hanging out close to home as a family. We went on a couple of walks, dug into yummy leftovers, caught up on laundry and dishes and all that fun stuff. As for the week ahead, we’ll be sticking close to home as usual and I am hoping to fill the next few days with plenty of time outside, random activities around the house and work whenever time allows. I also have a peek into a week of workouts and a yummy recipe to share with you guys this week so stay tuned for those posts as well!
Thanks so much for making the blog a part of your day today!
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")