we had a blast!

This past weekend we were lucky enough to get to spend 4 days with my awesome sis and her new hubby, Derek.  I miss my sister so much and was so excited to get the chance to hang out with her all weekend.  Now that we live 10+ hours apart the time between seeing each other gets longer and longer.  We have always been really close and so to go so long without seeing her is hard.  She "gets" me.  We are so much alike in so many ways, even down to the clothes we buy [when we're shopping separately, even!]  I'm praying that maybe someday we will live in closer to them, maybe even in the same city.  That would be fabulous!  Until then, we'll expect a visit from them every time Southwest has awesome sales! :) 

Lincman in Uncle Derek's shoes

[notice the stash of special k cereal in the background?  Yes I stockpile.]

My silly hubby.  Oh how I love him.

Lincoln loved cuddling with Aunt Hope

Getting all bundled up to go Tobagganing

Yep, we "tobagganed" down that hill

Carrying your own tobaggan up all those stairs is a lot harder than you might think...

there are 124 steps fyi, not like I was counting or anything.  Not like I'm out of shape or anything [I think I need to get back to my morning workouts with Jillian]

Tyler and Lincoln waiting while Hope and Derek were climbing all those stairs....Lincoln is eyeing all that snow and wishing he could go jump in it

Such a great couple, posing in front of the hill

My little family, all nervous thinking about that steep drop [or probably just me]

Hope, choosing her Tobaggan [see how big those are?! They had to weigh at least 100lbs, well at least it felt like it!]

She's thinking about backing out. 

I have to carry this where? how far?

This is her, "what? I'm not nervous!" laugh.

he did not want to be held, he didn't care how cold it was, he wanted to jump in the snow!

[notice the snow covered glove?]

my snuggle bug

There they go!

 

Warming up a bit, in the lodge while mommy and daddy climbed all those stairs!

[Lincoln really warmed up to Derek while they were here, and wanted to be with him all the time!]

and there we go!  I think I was screaming at this point

notice how Tyler is looking at the camera?  I'm still recovering from my stomach lurking into my throat to look

Lincoln woke up from his nap and joined our scrabble game

love these guys!

he's a pro...he beat us all

I love this picture of Hope and Lincoln

this cracks me up.

 love this pic of Tyler and Lincoln in front of Lake Erie

Lake Erie poses

Hope makes some funny faces :)

She made me stand on the bench of the picnic table so she would be taller

We've been here 6 months and this is our first picture in front of Lake Erie

 

 All of us after church

 Lincoln and Lucas decided they wanted to "help" push one of the carts out to the storage trailer.

They actually pushed it all the way down the hall, it was so cute! 

[of course they had help from the Anthony boys]

We took Lincoln to Playground World on Monday....he loved playing in this house.  

It even had a doorbell! 

Aunt Hope got the privilege of going down the slides with Lincman

We had such a fun weekend!  You guys better come visit again soon, ya hear?  Oh and this post is to try and convince all our friends to come visit us (wink, wink!)  We'll take ya tobagganing, as long as you come before it gets warm out! :)  We promise!

we are so excited!

Aunt Hope and Uncle Derek are coming to visit us!  They are on their way now and we'll go pick them up at the airport in T-minus 2 hours!  Aunt Hope has been on me to get Lincoln to learn her name since he was probably 6 months old and before Christmas she was REALLY wanting him to say her name so I opted to have a "sign" for her name so he could at least recongnize and put her together with the sign.  Her "sign" is what I would call and backwords "talking on the phone sign."  You know the one, when you can't yell at someone across the room but want them to know you'll call them later?  You make a "hang loose" thing with your fingers and put your thumb to your ear and your pinky to your mouth.  Well......when we were growing up, Hope couldn't figure out how to do this for some reason.  So she would make an "L with her index finger and thumb and put her index finger to her ear and her thumb to her mouth.  (Does that makes sense?)  And that was how she "talked" on the phone.  So Tyler thought that would be a perfect "sign" for Hope's name! :)  Lincoln caught on quick and now everytime we says Hope's name he puts his finger to her ear.  She was less than amused to say the least! Ha!

Oh and to make things worse for her.....Lincoln can now say Derek's name.  Still no Hope.  Maybe after this weekend he'll get it down.  Poor Hope.

 We just love them!  Here are a few pictures from their wedding this past June.

Oh and am I completely crazy for contemplating driving an extra 15 minutes to Sonic on my way to the airport to get them?  Let me explain why.  First, I LOVE vanilla Dr. Peppers from there.  Second, there is only ONE, say it again ONE, Sonic in our whole city and it's almost 40 minutes away from us.  So by driving to the airport I'm already halfway there so I might as well go the rest of the way, right? :) Did I mention how much I LOVE Vanilla Dr. Pepper? and how much I miss living 2 minutes from one?

mmmmm......

REALLY wanting one now....ok, decision made.

Sisters Through Family, Friends By Choice

Tyler and I were lucky enough to have my amazing sister stay with us this summer. She was here last summer as well and didn't know what she was getting herself into this summer with all that has happened. I felt so bad that she had to put up with such an unusual summer with us but everytime I apologized she would always tell me how glad she was to be here and be apart of it all. She helped us so much throughout the summer and it was so fun to have her here. I'm so grateful to have a sister like her who I can also call my best friend. I just wanted to say thanks for all you did for us this summer; cleaning, organizing, laundry, and for being such a great sister. Love you!