Thank you for your patience, dear readers, during this exceptionally busy month of August! Last month ended with a bang, my mom’s surprise 60th birthday party…and it’s been non-stop since then!

We started the month with a long visit from Joe’s sister, her husband, and their beautiful daughter. Joe and I both worked during the day but were able to spend evenings with them and a weekend before they had to return home. The Saturday night before they left was Joe’s sister’s high school reunion so Joe and I got to babysit our niece, something that we rarely get to do, living so far away. What a rare treat! We baked cookies and had a slumber party which included a little dancing to Radio Disney and some cookie eating.

That Saturday was also the baby shower for my good friend Rebecca. She and her husband are expecting twin boys very soon. I enlisted Joe’s help for a baby shower game that we played at the shower. You listen to a song that has a boy’s name in the title, but the name has been erased from the song. The object is to guess the boys name and the artist’s name. I think it went over well!

This past weekend we had more company. My brother and his beautiful family…including my sister-in-law and two nieces…arrived on Saturday and stayed through Tuesday morning! This was the first time they’ve seen the new house. We had a wonderful time with them.

Saturday we hung out and took the girls to a nearby park so they could run around a bit after the long car ride. After they went to sleep we drank a little wine and sang some Karaoke Revolution. It was great fun! Sunday we were joined by my sister-in-law’s sister and we headed out to Newport to take a walk on Balboa and play on Newport Beach. My legs feel like I’ve done a million squats after playing with my niece in the water. She was shivering but didn’t want to stop!

Our youngest niece, pictured here, had fun with her sister’s shoes and playing on this chair. I just had to pull out the camera phone to snap a picture of her. She looks a lot like me when I was her age but she’s much sweeter! We had a good time playing peek-a-boo and relaxing while we dried off.

On Monday I took a vacation day and we headed out to the Disneyland Resort for a fun-filled-day. We began with breakfast at Goofy’s Kitchen. It’s a great character experience with really good food. Joe bought our 3-year-old niece an autograph book and she had fun getting signatures. The Mad Hatter was awesome. He “borrowed” her for a bit and brought her over to a table with a lone guy to keep him company while his companion was getting food or something. He said that this was her first date…she gave the man a funny look. Then Joe handed her the autograph book so that she could get his autograph…and he said, “look, this man wants your autograph…sign here.” She signed it. Too cute! I’ll post pictures of our day soon.

We’ve cherished our visits with family and feel so blessed to have had this time with them! It’s hard living so far away from those you love. Now…back to the daily grind!