Saturday, July 25, 2009

So Good to Go Home

While we were waiting to close on our house, we decided to go visit our family and friends in Utah and PA. We had a great time in both places and the weather was simply perfect!

Here's Pierce sitting with his Great-Granny. Unfortunately, he didn't want to sit still, so I only got to take these 2 pics the whole time we were there visiting.
What a sweet boy! Makes you just wanna kiss him, huh?
We got to spend the 4th of July holiday with lots of old & new family and friends. We had tons of wonderful food, great fellowship, and so much fun! It was so amazing to see everyone!

Pierce & Kennedy hangin' on the steps. They had a great time playing outside together!
All the kids (& even some of the adults) were playing Red Rover. Pierce even got in on the action! As you can see, it even tired him out!
Pierce hangin' with Uncle Will, and cousins, Darius & Tanaka.
Kelly, Kennedy & Khari were there, too! So was Jasmine, but she was playing with the other kids, so she didn't make this pic. Kelly was nice enough to take a pic of us, too! :)
It was great to finally meet Uncle Will & Tanaka. I had heard so much about them over the years and...FINALLY! I had met Darius when we were stationed in North Dakota, but it had been years since both of us had seen him. In this pic below, starting at the top right is: Brandon, to his right, Darius, across from Darius is Marshall (Brandon's big bro), down a step to Marsh's right is Tanaka and to his left is Khari.
All these guys grew up together & had funny stories to tell about "back in the day." It was heartwarming to sit and listen to them tell the stories, laugh & joke and just reminisce. We're so blessed to have such amazing people in our lives.
Just hangin' out back...Uncle Marsh with Piercey, Kelly & Kennedy, Ms Cle, Piercey & me.
I love this pic of Kennedy & Pierce cracking up in the background!
We finally pulled Jasmine away from Red Rover and got a pic of her with her lil sis, Kennedy.
We drove to Ogden one day to go see (and meet) Aunt Geri. She wasn't able to come on the 4th of July because of knee surgery, so we took the party to her! What a sweet, sweet woman! We also stopped in to see the Fifes. We can't wait until they have their little boy later this year!

Normally one of the very first places I go when I get to PA is to the cemetary to visit the graves of my Pappy and my Dad. I always take flowers and just spend some quiet time there. It's a beautiful cemetary and they do a wonderful job maintaining the grounds. It's a sad place for me, but yet very comforting. Pierce & B came with me and Pierce even helped with the flowers.
We got to visit with Great-Grandpa & Great-Baba Griffie...on 2 different days, but still got to visit them both.
We also saw Great-Grandma & Great-Pappy Giordano. Pierce sure did love playing with all the trucks, blocks and stuffed animals that Grandma had at her house!
My cousin, Brooke and her husband, Brad and twins, Chase & Izzy came to visit us. The kids had so much fun on the deck. Izzy was the "supervisor" and if you look at the pics, Chase took a BIG sip of Pierce's cup, not realizing that it was milk...so, he just decided to hold it in his mouth before he finally swallowed it! (He normally doesn't drink milk) Too funny! When it came time for pics, Chase wanted no parts of it, but Pierce & Izzy really didn't seem to mind.
Pierce had his first popsicle and seemed to like it...until it fell off the stick!
We went to visit Aunt Joyce, Uncle Len, Jessi, Jonathan, Ethan & Ryan and headed down to the creek. This was so much fun for Pierce. Poppy helped him put his stick in the water and we showed him how to skip rocks. The creek was clearer than I've ever seen it. Aunt Joyce & Uncle Len's property was just beautiful and so lush. I took some pics of their lillies...I even stole a blackberry from one of their bushes...but only one!
We hung out at Pappy & Cindy's one night and built a campfire. We had hotdogs and smores. Is there anything better than that? Pierce played football with B and had a fun time with Molly and Leah. Leah even showed him his first lightning bug. He thought that was pretty cool. Leah LOVED Pierce!
We met Heather, Dex & Cash at the playground one afternoon. What beautiful boys she has! The boys had a great time on the playground, as did B & Poppy. It was so good to see Feath. The last time we were home, we saw her the first night we arrived and she had Cash the next day, SO...we didn't get to see very much of her. She looks amazing, as always.
We got to see Mindy and meet her boyfriend, Darren, but unfortunately, we didn't get any pics...not even of her & me. We so enjoyed their company and meeting Darren. He's wonderful to my friend & she's very happy, so what more could I ask for?
We went and met Uncle Brad and Jared at Jared's All Star practice. We try to squeeze in as many people/visits as we can, so...we'll go wherever we need to to see our family!!
The night before we leave, we normally invite whoever over to see us one last time, while we pack and get ready to leave the next day. Grandma Gensler came down, Grandpa & Eleanor, Grandma Giordano, Tony & Cindy, came to visit...as did Shirley, Linda & Nancy (Dougie Doug's sisters).
We also got to hang out with Karrah, Saphire & Raziyah. The girls are growing like crazy and had us laughing all night long. K looks great and spending time with her is always so nice. Hide and go seek was the game of the night. Please note how Raziyah is "counting" with B...too funny!!

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