Adventures in Remodeling

The reason for ye ol' blogging hiatus is simple. We were gone. About two weeks ago, we got a call from Ben (my brother-in-law). Turned out that he was getting ready to take on a major remodeling project with one of his dying bathrooms. And in a house of five people, one bathroom just doesn't cut it. So, due to our oh-so-convenient streak of unemployment, we were open to aid in his plea for assistance. We packed our bags and headed to their home for a whopping seven days. That, my friends, is the longest trip we have ever taken to date. Luckily for us, we love spending time with Ben, Heather and their three wonderful girls. But who was most excited about this trip, you ask? Oh. That's easy. Alex, of course. That kid was beyond thrilled to have three new playmates to share his week with. I must have heard the words, "Can we go to Uncle Ben's house now?" about a zillion times the week before we left. But what about Abby? Well, she took her own sweet time in warming up, but in the end she was pretty comfortable with everyone. She even let Aunt Heather hold her.

It was a great week and the remodeling process went well. Josh got a taste of home improvement. Around our house, I pretty much wear the tool belt where home improvement in concerned. (minus plumbing and electric of course. That's Josh's area of expertise and he has the schooling to prove it.) Actually, when they started mudding the sheet-rock, I found myself a bit jealous. I was more than eager to trade off the screaming kids for a mudding knife. But in fear of stepping on any man-toes, I stuck with watching the kids. I think the remodel was part male-bonding so I didn't want to interfere. I do, however, have a hankerin' for re-doing my kitchen now. And around here, I don't fear the man-toe stepping. Josh knows I like to fix things up around here so he's cool with it.

Alex and Abby had a complete blast with Lauren, Linsey, and Kate. They have a big basement with ample ride-on toys (stay tuned for a fun video later this week). They also have a nice big backyard and live near many fun things to do. Seeing as how we were gone for so long, I'm breaking our trip up into a few blogs. I have way too many pictures to post on one entry. For now, I'll do a little thing I shall deem:

Our Week in Review: The Photo Section

Though this is a zoo photo, I had to post it today because it's one of the best of all five cousins together. How fun!

Alex and Lauren were once again great buddies. He followed her around like a little puppy dog all week. The first words out of his mouth when he woke up (way...way...WAY too early) were, "Can I go play with Lauren, mom?"

Please note in this picture the lady curling her hair in the background. That would be my elusive sister-in-law who managed to somehow almost completely avoid being in a single one of my hundred photos. It was like trying to click a photo of the Loch ness monster for crying out loud! This picture is one of many of the five cousins.

Guess who loves The Wiggles? Did you guess Alex and Abby? Wrongo! (well, righto really, because they do. But that's beside the point.) My nieces all are now in love with The Wiggles. Three more kids lost to the Wiggly insanity. (insert evil laughter here) This is them enjoying some of the DVDs we brought.

Biscuit makin' time. Fun stuff. I made a couple of horse bicuits for the girls. No...not those kind of horse biscuits. Horse shaped biscuits. (How immature is it that I just giggled a little?)

Abby loved this.

Talk about moral support for asthma. Breathing treatment time was eagerly anticipated by all the kids. They loved watching The Wiggles on YouTube while Alex did his treatment. Is it just me or does this look like the tiredest group of kids you've ever seen?

Stay tuned for more Adventures in Remodeling tomorrow when we explore the local zoo...