Andrea and Julie's visit

It has consistently rained whenever we've had visitors...it's such a strange phenomenon.   Andrea, Julie and baby Emma flew to San Diego and then drove over to Yuma on Monday.  Of course it rained all day and they were bummed as they were expecting bright, sunny skies.  Since our house is impossible to find, we waited outside for them and I even had to walk around the block to help navigate them to our house.

 The kids were so excited to have visitors.  Eli came down at 7:00 and said, "I'm dressed and my bed is made...is the baby here yet?"  He was ready for that baby to be here!

Andrea asked Alison if she would like to make an apron together.  Andrea has started her own little apron shop  and taught Alison the ropes.  First stop, Joanne's.

Andrea has a great eye and is really good at knowing what people will like.  This is also true in gift giving but jokes that Ben Shear is the only person that completely throws off her game.  While shopping, she said, "Oh no!  Alison's a mini Ben!  I can't read her at all!"  It made me laugh...I'm glad someone gets what it's like shopping with a very picky and very hard to read person.

 

They ended up making two because they couldn't narrow down fabric choices.

 

Tuesday afternoon, a friend came to watch all the kiddos and we went to get pedicures and ice cream!

 

Then we picked up the kids and took them to Asian Star (Alison's request).  The kids could not let the baby out of their sight.

Wednesday we went down to the river and played at the park.

Somehow I missed Eli getting in the car dressed like a ninja.

After soaking up some sun, we walked around downtown to find some souvenirs for the girls to take home to their kids. 

The ninja loved pushing the baby.

Get ready for lots of baby pictures.  It was so fun having a baby in the house.  She is the sweetest and the kids constantly wanted to be playing with her and feeding her and holding her and basically anything Ms. Julie would allow them to do.

 

 

It brought back so many memories toting around a baby with me.  One afternoon I took Emma with me to the store while Julie took a nap (this little babe still thinks it's necessary to get up every 2 hours) and I had to stop and process how to do this whole shopping with a baby thing again.  

The baby in the house made the kids ask and ask and ask if we could have another baby.  There was so much I loved about having Emma in the house, but I also saw the reality of a sleep deprived momma and a life that revolves around an eating schedule.  I don't miss that part.

Thursday, Julie and I went for a jog.  Julie had a goal of soaking up as much sun as she could before going back to dreary Michigan.  I'm thankful Arizona gave her a few days of sun before she had to go back.

I had a few things I wanted their help with while I had extra hands.  I really want to make a measuring chart for our kids that can make many moves.  The sticky one on our wall is not tall enough and is barely holding on.  I almost bought one off etsy but backed out when I realized it would cost me $80 and half of that was shipping.  So I asked Julie to help me buy a big board and I'll stain it and paint numbers on myself.  I thought I would need help carrying a long board, but she just picked it up and carried it out like no big deal...then I felt silly thinking I would need help.

Oh well.  It gave us a good laugh and the sales clerk an even bigger laugh as he watched us try to scan it in the self check out.

That's what I love most about these friends; how they make me laugh.  Before the visit, the kids would ask me what we were going to do.  I told them that I didn't know our set plans, but I knew that whatever we did would be fun because it always is when I'm with these friends.