The Utah Guinns' Visit

During the first week of July we received a special treat, a visit from Paul's twin brother Matt, wife Julie, and their two children Madeleine and Benjamin. We had been talking to Reina weeks leading up to their visit. She was excited to see her cousin Madeleine again. What is so great is that they are nearly the same age (only a couple weeks apart). But of course TWIN brothers had TWO girls nearly the same age.
They got along so well! Probably the most memorable activity these two girlies enjoyed was DRESS-UP! Reina hardly ever touches her dress-up clothes, but boy were they the "it" item this week! I should have bought many pairs of pink high-heels as they were the hot commodity to fight over. I never had any pretty dress-up clothes as a child. For my high-heel I would slide my foot into a Fisher Price train car. I guess it was more like a roller-skate.

 

We attempted camping with the kids at a nearby campground, Battleground Lake. It was a beautiful campsite! I knew Reina would do great, and imagined Baelor would do fine. He actually did amazingly well. I was more nervous about waking the other campers when he would wake in the night to nurse. We decided Paul and Reina would sleep in the tent while Baelor and myself would sleep in the back of the minivan. Ouch! Uncomfortable for me, but everyone else slept great. It was probably the hardest on Matt and Julie since their boy Benjamin is 1 1/2 and always on the go. It was just a quick overnighter, but we enjoyed chatting around the campfire with the adults including Uncle Steve.

 

We had a fun little barbecue out back with Paul's family for the 4th. Sadly, Paul had to work for the first time on the 4th. We are hoping all of his hard work will allow him more time with family in the future. That's our intention at least. After enjoying Grandma Guinn's new backyard furniture and scrumptious food, we headed over to my sister Sanni's neighborhood fireworks show. It was big and loud and fun for all.
We also took a quick visit to Uncle Bryan and Aunt Wendy's "farm" in Brush Prarie. We don't get out that way too often, but the kids enjoyed all the space and fun toys like the pools, trampoline and playsets. I think Reina was most interested in the hose though. Kids always seemed to be entertained with simple things like boxes huh?

We love Grandma Guinn! You too, grandpa. Next time we'll tackle you grandpa!

The girls: Lauren, Madeleine, Logan and Reina

Reina with cousin Degan

Aunt Sharon and Aunt Louise (the crazy aunts who live in the pink house)

Cousin Logan and Baelor

It was good to see the Utah Guinns and hope to be able to take a visit in their territory soon. And maybe take a look-sie on BYU campus and see all the changes that have been made since we went there.