Last week, my sister brought down her brood from Oregon for a summer visit. Mimi and Kuri had been anticipating their arrival for weeks. Alder and Brynn are roughly the same ages as Mimi and Kuri, so they'd both have playmates. They also knew we'd be doing some fun stuff given we'd have visitors!
At first I thought the cousins would pair off by age, with Mimi and Alder running to the backyard and Kuri and Brynn running through the house. How wrong I was. Boys will be boys and that means cars and trains...
...and video games.
Mari was a little shy at first, so she just hung out with Grandma.
But she quite quickly warmed up to Brynn over some goldfish.
Soon they were exploring all her toys...
...talking on the phone...
...and giggling together.
Of course, Mimi clicked with Brynn as well. They're both a bit silly.
There were also plenty of instances of everyone playing together, gender roles be damned.
And times for playing alone!
The trampoline even got some of the adults into the action.
The first night, Grandpa came out and joined us all for dinner.
The kids decided he made a good jungle gym.
The evening closed with some group artwork. As you can see, the little ones are still attempting to learn how to smile on cue.
The next day at breakfast the girls found they all had matching dresses. The boys were more than happy with just their donuts.
After breakfast, we corralled all the kids and set them down for a picture before heading out to the Academy of Sciences. It's great when you have a season pass.
They kids were fascinated by the albino alligator..
...the butterfly art...
...the fish...
...the real butterflies...
...and more fish.
Mimi and Alder, upon exiting the museum, even tried to climb a tree.
Later that day, everyone was pretty exhausted. Julie and my mom went down for a nap, along with Mari, so I took the four oldest cousins down to the creek to try to catch some fish.
Kuri and Brynn were intrepid explorers.
Eventually all the kids joined in the hunt!
After the creek, the kids all decided that they needed to have hill-roll races.
We had only two nights and three days together - far too few given we only see them once or twice a year - but they were wonderfully memorable. So thankful these kids are getting to know each other, despite the distance.
