My sister Audra came for a two week visit in August. And she brought my nieces Kayla and Karly with her! Kayla and Laurel are the same age. Savannah and Carly are the same age. Audra and I just love the fact that we have girls the same ages. They had so much fun getting to know each other again. That's the part that makes me so sad about living so far from my family. My children not being able to play with their cousins all the time just breaks my heart. I think it hurts so bad because my cousins were such a big part of my childhood. So we tried our hardest to enjoy every single moment.
Here are some highlights:
We swam, a lot!
We took walks through the woods and were eaten alive by red bugs, Chiggers, whatever you call them!Sometimes I do question why God put some bugs on earth. Seriously, what is the purpose of a chigger? I do have the fondest memories of my grandmother checking each of us for red bugs when we came out of the woods. She would get us in her lap and look all over our bodies and scratch and scratch those bugs out. Or, at least that's what she would tell us she was doing.
Audra took us out for a "girl's night" to celebrate Laurel's upcoming birthday.
Laurel chose California Pizza Kitchen.
Then we went shopping! Savannah and Karly wanted everything in the store. I told Savannah when we went in that we were just looking. Savannah is my child who loves clothes and shoes so this was really just torture for her. She kept running up to me saying she wanted this and she wanted that. Finally, she said, "oh mommy, I just love this store and I can't help that I want everything in here!" Poor girl, she takes after her mama!
There were a couple of days where it rained and we were stuck inside. The girls called Audra and I in for a play. Kayla, the wicked witch is offering Laurel, the princess a poisonous apple.
Which she partook of and fell to the ground.
Savannah and Karly were little bunnies who followed the princess around. I always love watching these made up plays. I love listening to their imaginations.
I love this little sister of mine. She spoiled me the whole time she was here. It's so neat to me how I am able to learn from her. She has four children also but hers are in reverse order. Her two oldest are boys and they are teenagers! I can't believe that. But it was really neat listening to her talk to her boys. She's going through stages that I have not even had to worry about. It's pretty neat to know she will be there to help me through.
.
