Sunday, January 1, 2012

A Surprise Visit

Right after my birthday, I got a surprise visit from my BFF/Cousin Jennie! And by surprise, I mean Kevin had just come back from a business trip and told me he left a bag at the airport and we needed to go get it. When we pulled up at the curb I looked out the window and saw this girl standing there and thought to myself... "Wow, that girl looks a TON like Jennie... wait a minute, that IS Jennie! What are the odds that she would be at the airport at the same time we are picking up Kevin's bag? We should offer her a ride. I wonder where she's going? I hope its to see me..." Then I saw Kevin returning to the car WITHOUT a bag and it dawned on me (yes, it took that long) She IS coming to see me and its a SURPRISE!!!

Anyway, we were lucky enough to get her for 2 whole weeks, with some side trips thrown in for good measure. One was to DC where Jennie had a job interview that she nailed (and later accepted) and the other was out to Detroit where we had Thanksgiving with our other cousins, Andrew and Sharon (more to come on that later.)

We didn't do anything too crazy or adventurous while Jennie was visiting. We (and by "we" I mean "I") mostly just enjoyed taking care of the girls and attending to the regular needs of a household as a tag team instead of an individual. The girls loved having the extra body around though. I think Lily enjoyed it so much that she decided Jennie could be her special mom and I could be Brooklyn's. She became very possessive over Jennie and VERY attached.


They played tons of games together, read books, and played hide and seek in boxes...


And pretty much ANY time Jennie was sitting down, Lily was in her lap :)


But don't worry. We didn't spend the whole trip being mommies and maids. We got to eat out a few times, have some girl time, and we even went Geocaching together.
 

It took us a while since we were lugging little girls around on our shoulders, but we eventually found not just one...


But TWO geocaches before heading to Red Robin for a delightful dinner!

 

Oh! And I mustn't forget, Brooklyn found this fuzzy caterpillar while we were out (and begged if we could keep it as a pet)...

And Kevin got to show off like the crazy man that he is :) Fun times! 


Then on the 28th, after we got back from Detroit, we got to celebrate Jennie's 29th birthday! Yay for birthdays! Kevin made an amazing Texas sheet cake with Symphony bar topping for us all to eat, we sang, opened presents, ate pizza, and just enjoyed each other's company.

We felt so blessed to spend some more time with Jennie and can't wait till we get to hang out with her again. Thanks for the visit Jen. We love you!

4 comments:

Sarah said...

Oh Yay! I am so glad you got to hang out with Jennie. Surprise visits are the best! It sounds like you guys took full advantage of your time together and had a lot of fun. Also your girls are absolutely beautiful. Just like their mommy. Lily sure is growing up fast.

On a random side note, those caterpillars are super poisonous when they are in defense mode or dead. Sadly, I didn't know this and gave Noa a dead one to play with. He carried it around everywhere with him and the next day he was covered in blisters. I guess the little fuzzies are actually poisonous quills and when they are dead the shed them. We had to pull hundreds out of Noa with tweezers for the blisters to stop filling up. So...don't give kids dead fuzzy caterpillars :)

Love you and I'm so happy and excited for Jenny

Jennie said...

Yay for visits! When can I come back? How about today? Tomorrow? Fine, I'll drive over tonight :) Wish I could spend everyday with you guys cuz you are just so great! Thanks for always making me feel welcome and wanted at your home. You're the best best best best friend ever Naomi! I love you!!

Tau said...

What fun! Jennie is great and it looks like you guys had another fun visit together.

Kevin Hanks said...

Thanks Sarah! I don't know if I have the heart to tell that to Brooklyn or not... she LOVED that thing.