Country Family Time

I couldn't decide whether to name this post "Country Family Time" which implies that we are spending time with family that have country characteristics. OR to name it "Family Country Time" which would imply that as a family we went to the country. But when I got to thinking... both would be true. :-) 

We are now only hours away from DJ's Mom, stepdad and Sister - who just had a precious baby! We couldn't wait to go down to meet our new nephew Ayden. 

Isn't he precious? I could have held this sweet boy all day. He is so calm, never cries, makes the cutest baby noises and has a head of hair that no girl is going to be able to resist. I know I couldn't! 

Tanner loved blowing bubbles with Grandma so much that he would blow some and suck some in, and ended up leaking and blowing bubbles down his chin.... cute but nasty! 

I love this pic of Grandma Laughing. ( I wish I had more pics of her from this trip... )

One thing the kids begged for was to go on a turtle hunt. And boy, was in successful! We found 4 alive turtles, an almost dead on and a huge snapping one the Grandma nearly stepped on. This thing was so strong it bit a stick in half, when the "fire chief" was taunting it. 

After a while, Grandma had the cool idea of painting the turtle shells before we release them. The kids spent a lot of time making their pet turtles look hip! 

Fire Chief you ask? Oh, yes... yes. That was what Eli started calling Grandpa Steve. Why? Because he is the Fire Chief at the fire department. That has got to be one of the coolest things to a little boy. 

Introducing... Fire Chief and Grandpa... Steve. 

When the Fire Chief is your Grandpa, I guess you get special "fun" privileges. We went for a ride around the block in the fire truck and the kids got to spray the fire hose. ( I should have asked for a turn too!) They had a blast! 

All in all, Grandma Tina and Grandpa Steve have 7 grandchildren now. DJ's brother just had a new baby girl. Unfortunately, they are too busy in college and were not able to make it this trip. But here are 6 of the cousins! 

Aunt Cassie is quite the artist, and paints all sorts of beautiful things. She offered to airbrush the kids some t-shirts. They turned out awesome! 

Here they are with Aunt Cassie. 

(Tanner is not in his new shirt because I didn't trust him eating breakfast in it.)

DJ's step brother Matt set up a day of fishing, which is one thing DJ was hoping to have time for while we were down there. All in all, they caught more than 20 fish. Most of the day it was just the older guys that went. But they came and got the kids for a while too. 

Eli helped reel this one in. It was the 2nd biggest of the day! 

Annica caught a sun perch - it was so spiky! 

Cassie's was the 2nd biggest of the day... until Eli caught his. Still totally impressive to me. 

Tanner did not actually go fishing, but when he saw us taking pics, he wanted to hold one for a picture too. He almost squeezed its guts out. 

We are so glad to be getting to know DJ's side of the family better. We feel blessed to be living this close to them. And glad that they want to have us come down! It has been awesome, and the kids are so excited about it too. Thanks for everything!