Surprise Visits

While waiting on Bryant, my best friend planned to come visit.  We were thrilled and prayed and prayed Bryant would come while she was here.  Alas, God said no to those plans.  But, while they were here, we had a wonderful visit.  My kids didn't know they were driving nine hours just to visit us.  So, it was exciting to see their reaction when they pulled up.  The kids were pretty pumped and even though they hadn't physically been in contact with each other (only visually...through Skype) they all picked up right where they left off!  Running and screaming and singing, "There are no cats in America" only a few minutes in to the visit.

Our husbands both speak computer...and so...this is what we found the first night we were all visiting.  Mr. John came up a day ahead because he had to work at the local fort this week.

This is what you do with nine kids when it's bedtime.  Actually this is only six of them.  The crib kids (or ones who need to be contained during the night...except one of them who was still awake), got to sleep in pack n' plays and various ensembles throughout the visit.  Now, here's the ages of our kids...7, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1.  Yep...just imagine the decibel levels which led to this the following day:

We loaded them up as soon as a jumping place opened and threw them in.

The one year olds were super tired and just wanted to go to sleep but we convinced them to drive for a little while.

  We've taught our seven year olds well, I think!  These girls will talk on the phone for over an hour...every day if we would let them.

Kristina tried to line up the kids who were only semi-tired to get a quick picture.  Jack, the six year old was right behind Ace...I promise he was there.

Believe it or not, the next day was even more busy.  Since I was a day past due, we decided to see if we could get Bryant here by tie dying nine shirts and then heading for the pool.  I did not get pictures because we were all pretty busy.  Guess what?!?  Bryant still didn't come!!!

You can see most of the t-shirts here.  Eight out of nine kids looking close to the camera (even though the humidity wreaked havoc on my camera)...not too bad!

James's favorite saying, "Bye bye, see you soon."  He was waving bye to us as they were getting ready to hit the road.  I was so grateful for the distraction and busyness of having someone in the house while we waited on Bryant.  Plus, Kristina was a big help too.  I actually got to sleep in one day till 7 even with Ceili Rain in our room.  The noise level was amazing but so much fun to know they weren't fighting but enjoying each other.