6th Memorial Day trip

Our 6th annual Memorial Day trip was spent in sunny California this year! :) Yes, we can't complain we have friends in California and get to visit them ;) I never can get over that this group began as 5 and now is up to 9 with am extra little heart beat in Elaine's belly! :) How great the Lord has kept us all together.

This trip included LOTS of Brody firsts. His first airplane ride was a complete success! He loved every part of flying.

 We flew Southwest and will try to never fly with anyone else. Every employee was eager to go out of their way to assist us with Brody.

 He loved looking out the window and everyone else on the plane. We made the rule that Brod got anything he wanted on the flight to save sanity of all the other passengers. There was no sticking to the routine. He only had one major meltdown on the way home. I ended up rocking and singing with him on the back of the plane till he fell asleep.

 Drew picked us up from the airport and took us straight to the ocean! We couldn't wait to get B's feet in the sand. We did dip his tiny feet into the ocean and well...he hated that, too cold I guess ;)

 With no kids themselves, Drew and Heather did a great job planning a weekend that accommodated kids. Brod did beyond wonderful at taking naps wherever we were. In the pic above we spent the day at the lake having a BBQ, swimming and kayaking and B spent a huge chunk of it sleeping :)

 All three guys spent an afternoon with the kids while us girls had the afternoon shopping and eating! What a sight it would have been to see all 6 of these boys out on the town :)

 There was a great park nearby we spent a few hours at. Who new these swings could fit 2 babies?!?! Rowan and Brody loved doing swinging together.

 There was a pool in their neighborhood that B got to take his first dip in. We have a swimmer on our hands we think ;)

 I don't need to say much about this pic. YUM, YUM, YUM!! If we ever lived in California we would all be chunky due to this fast food restaurant.

 Every year the group has a competition. Mike and I were this years winners with finding the most spare change throughout the year! Yay to us :) Next years competition is to see what couple can memorize the most of the book of James in the Bible. We plan to bring the trophy home again next year ;)

 Brod was so excited to meet his best friends, Ashon and Rowan! They had tons of fun playing together. Such sweet boys!

 The whole clan! Next year there will be another baby to add :)

 The three boys all dressed in their jammies and ready for bed! We all loved bedtime! How quiet the house became when all the boys were sound asleep :)

It was another great year! We are so blessed to have such great friends and such a great tradition of getting together every year. Yes, every year gets a bit more difficult with the the continued baby additions but it makes it all the more fun. It always makes us wonder when our group will be totally complete? If it were up to our planning (the 6 adults) there will be 9 kids between the 3 couples. But only the Lord is in control and so we just wait to see and welcome new babies every year to this great group :)