Annual Pilgrimmage

This is the 6th year that we have returned to Austin, Texas to visit with friends, meet/re-meet their kiddos, thaw from the northern winters, and eat our hearts out. We know that it's harder for all of them to come to us, so we make plans each year to come to them.

We originally planned this trip for the end of January, but Amelia caught the flu so we postponed it until the last weekend in April. I had quarantined the kids for the two weeks before the trip so we'd be as healthy as possible for travel. We had a great flight down, with Austin still taking a snooze and Amelia working through all her backpack activities.

Ready to go with her ladybug suitcase!

A brief seat-sharing moment

I was not good at taking photos at all this trip, mostly because of wrangling our own two kids. But I did catch this one of Patrick offering his ice cream cone to Zoe.

We had a sweet brunch with some families from our first bible study group in Texas. There are two kids missing from this photo who couldn't make it into town until the next day.

Then we had a large gathering with our "young married couples without kids" small group - what started off as 7 couples with one baby on the way is now 7 couples with 19 kids among us (2 of which will be born this year!)  Two of the couples also moved away from Texas, so we don't get to share this time with them. Of the 13 kids present for this dinner party, we had a difficulty getting them all together for a photo - so here is a series of photos trying to capture the process.

The youngest member - baby Beau

Sweet snuggles during bedtime with our hosts (I think Zoe was getting her teeth brushed). 

Unfortunately, after our dinner party, I came down with a horrific stomach bug and found myself in bed for the rest of the trip. Patrick was terrific in carting the kids to the other activities with friends, discovering that single parenting on-the-go is tough! But there are no photos to document his bravery.

Flight home - who knew emergency cards could be so entertaining!

While I was waiting for photos to upload, I started digging through photos from our past visits. Here is a little nostalgia for everyone:

2009 - Bailey reimbursing Patrick for dinner with a kiss

2009 - Elijah's homecoming

2010 - Coloring fun!

2010 - Baby Blake

2011 - Amelia on the way

2012 - One sick little girl in the hotel room

2012 - Four baby girls born in 2011 make their debut!

2013 - Quite a crew

2013 - Patrick's surprise 30th birthday & murder mystery dinner

2013 - On the Go

In other fun trivia, every year for the past four years, someone in our couples group has announced that they're having a baby. It's a sweet moment for us to share in.

2011 - Melissa & Luke with Blair

2012 - Allie & Daniel with Hawley

2013 - us with Austin

2014 - Allie & Daniel!

Late Egg Hunts & Goofy Grins

We realized that Amelia didn't participate in any type of egg hunt this Easter, so we created a post-Easter egg hunt in our backyard. She enjoyed it and didn't seem to realize that it was odd to do so. Better late than never. :)

We had a quick visit by some friends who were passing through. Peyton is in school so we don't get to have playdates with her anymore; but Amelia was THRILLED that she wanted to pretend to be a doctor and give Amelia a checkup.

We dipped back cold again this past week, but we had one day that was warm enough to eat lunch on the deck.

She's old enough for chores now....

Waking Amelia up after a nap. 

You sure know that they are siblings when you see photos like these.

Eight Months - Austin

Our little man hit eight months and has spent the past month getting three teeth in, finally sleeping predictably from 10pm-3am without waking (from 8-10pm and 3-5am is still off/on crying some nights) and don't even ask me about naps, and refining his flirting skills. He's still not a gung-ho eater, but is happy to try finger foods if you feed them to him and we haven't found a food he won't eat yet. The reflux is almost undetectable now and we're supposed to stop his meds within the month; praise God for such an easy outgrowth of all the pain and spit-up!

I suppose it's the fate of the second child, but I feel like I'm constantly saying "oh, look, he's doing XYZ just like Amelia" or  "wow, Amelia never did that". Whether it's from being a boy or just who he is, he loves to bat toys around and away from himself and loves you to play his version of "catch". With the onslaught of teeth, we've had more problems with biting, but I'm hoping its just a pain-related phase. He's much more content to sit and play with a basket of toys than Amelia was. He has mastered the roll-all-around-the-room moves while scooting on the back of his head. You've never seen his face light up like when we walk into his sister's room to get her up from sleep - it's like his whole world is a more delightful place when he's with her in her room. He recognizes pat-a-cake, this little piggy, and counting his ribs and never gets bored of peekabo, particularly if his head is covered. It is such a sweet time with this little man.

We tried sitting on the floor this time and the photos were far more successful. He sure loves smiling at his big sister.

Amelia asked to get in the photo action. I gave permission as long as we minimized the head locks.

Adoration

My favorite

Easter 2014

Attempt at photo of the two of them together.

Family Dance Party - Amelia: 0 Wall: 1

She ended up with a pretty nasty cut & bruise but we were able to skip out on stitches.

Star bandaids and strawberry pie make everything better

Sewing a felt Easter egg

He sits unaided and is happy to play with anything in reach.

 I'm not sure whether to title this "the Enforcer" or 

"the look I get every 15 minutes these days when I ask her to obey". 

Selfie with Daddy

Coloring Easter eggs with Rohit & Ishita. We had these plastic eggs that could be dyed and Amelia loved playing with them.

Waiting for me to tip to the side

Austin LOVED that Rohit held him pretty much the entire evening and let him bounce/jump all over the place.

Whisk-tongs made coloring eggs so easy.

While the real eggs were eaten, the plastic ones will be played with for many days.

Figuring out how to get some Easter photos

As a side note, Austin cut his fifth tooth on Easter morning. We had been counting the number of teeth that are sitting right at the surface, ready to come through, just the night before and the top right tooth was in on Easter morning. Poor kid is going to get all these teeth in such a short time without many breaks.

He Is Risen Indeed!