weekends lately {memorial day, sibling dates, & playing with nieces}

We've had some eventful weekends lately that I just wanted to highlight:

Memorial Day
Russ and I have spent a lot of Saturdays working hard lately. There is a lot to do in the yard and in the house, so it seems like we haven't gotten to do many fun "summer" things yet. So I informed Russ that, while we could work all morning on Memorial Day, we would be hosting a BBQ that evening because I needed some fun in my life.

The original plan was to have Mom and Dad Holmes; Lance, Kenzi, and Zander; and Lacey and Sam. However, we got some extra cousins and we didn't get Sam because he was working. Jessie, Trina, and Sam (different Sam) joined in on the fun.

During the day, I did a lot of cleaning and Russ did a lot of work on the sprinkling system. Mom and Dad got to our house shortly after noon, so Dad helped Russ in the yard and Mom helped me in the kitchen! They were both so great :)

In the evening, we had our BBQ and, due to the very hot weather outside and our complete lack of shade (or grass, for that matter), we opted to picnic on the floor of the living room (blankets laid out and everything!). We provided burgers, condiments, and potato salad (made entirely by Mom), and everyone else brought watermelon, soda, and delicious cookies. We really just ate and chatted, and it was a nice evening together :)

Sibling Date
My sister's family just moved back to Utah from Texas! My brother-in-law will be doing his medical residency here, so they bought a house less than a mile from my parents and they're here for at least three years! It's very exciting :)

So on their first weekend in town, we got together with them and my brother who lives here for a sibling triple date. We all brought food for dinner, and then we watched a movie (The Pelican Brief) after all the kids had been put to bed.

But while the kids were being put to bed, Russ and I were put in charge of going to grab a treat -- ice cream. We had talked about Kong Kones from Macey's, but everyone decided that wasn't feasible, so we should just get normal ice cream. However, after talking about Kong Kones, I really wanted one! So literally one second after getting in the car together, Russ said, "So...Kong Kones as our pre-dessert?" To which I laughed out loud and told him I'd been thinking the exact same thing. We ate our Baby Kongs on our way back to the house, where we ate bowls of normal ice cream. We're ridiculous, but I love it :)

It's going to be fun having so much of my family so close! We officially live the furthest from the clan -- a whole 20 minutes. At the moment, my brother's family is living with my family (for 3 months while their house is being built) and, as I said, my sister lives less than a mile away. Super convenient for me whenever I need to see any of my family! Haha :)

Nieces
Last week, Susan and Molly (Shayne and Stephanie's girls) were in town visiting Lacey all week. She offered to take them off Steph's hands since it was Shayne's first week back at work after his paternity leave. We got them on Friday night.

We took them to Zupa's for dinner ("I would like a grilled cheese with a red toothpick and a chocolate covered strawberry and a lemonade to drink" <-- Haha those girls are specific!) and then to the Puppy Barn to see some cute pups. They seemed to enjoy it, but in all honesty I think Russ and I liked it even better than they did!

this pup was so cuddly and cute!!

After puppies, we got donuts from Beyond Glaze. Molly did not eat hers like a normal donut -- she scooped a bit of frosting off with one finger over and over and over. She also had to wash her hands three times while she ate the first third of the donut. She then gave up and said it was too messy. It was so funny :)

Some other things the girls did: They liked to "hide" and scare us; Susan told me "congratulations" on my pregnancy; Susan says "ya know" very matter-of-factly after sentences like, "I really like books, ya know."; Molly gets excited so she takes a long time to express herself, which was super cute; Susan reads anything at all with words.

When we got back to our house, it was bedtime, so we kind of played like we were pirates as the girls got ready for bed. They are very good to follow their routine without complaint -- even in a brand-new environment! It made Russ and I really want to train our kids to be like that.

In the middle of the night, Molly lost her "lamb-y" so she came looking for someone to help her find him. Unfortunately, we never really told them which room was ours, so she was just opening doors and slamming them shut, and I was really confused when I woke up. Russ quickly determined that it was one of the girls (the wind slams our doors shut when windows are open, but windows weren't open so I was extra confused), so he got up to see what was going on just as Molly started crying. He quickly comforted her and helped her find her lamb and she went right back to sleep. It was so sweet to see Russ slide into dad-mode so easily. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Russ is going to be an excellent dad. I can't wait to see him interact with our kiddies :)

In the morning, we made French toast and got the girls ready to go back home to Seattle. Lacey also stayed the night (she came in the middle of the night, after her Friday plans), so she was there to help as well. Susan requested that Russ do her hair, which I thought was sweet. (Russ doesn't really know how to do girl hair, which I think is kinda endearing haha.) Then Lacey took the girls to the airport.

It was fun to get some time with the girls :)