Landing from Blanding

As my dad named the visit from my sister, Kristi, her four kids, her childhood friend, Joni, and two of her three kids, the “Landing from Blanding” arrived late last Friday evening.  Yes, we had eight additional people in the house for 2 nights.  As crazy as it sounds, it actually wasn’t that crazy!  We did a good job of keeping everyone busy – it was a quick visit, but it was awesome.  I just love my sister and her kids, and it was so good to see Joni!  We grew up with her, and she married one of Stuart’s best friends from Blanding (Stuart is Kristi’s husband).  Now that Kristi is back in Blanding, they have rekindled their friendship and have picked up like they never missed a beat.

 

They left Blanding around 2:00 and got to our house around 10:00.  It was like seeing a clown car unloading to see all of them pile out of Kristi’s Denali when they pulled up!  It looked like we were being invaded!  Peyton was already asleep by the time they got there, but we took them into her bedroom to see her – Kristi cried.  I love her, and she has been dying to meet her new niece, so it was a special moment. 

 

After we gave them a tour of the house, we got everyone situated where they would be sleeping – the kids all slept in the basement on the couch, in sleeping bags, on a blow-up mattress, and in a fort (that was for Taylor, the youngest, who is 4).  Taylor was funny – he and the other two boys haven’t been to our house for 4 years, and Taylor was just a baby, so he has no memories of being at my house.  He informed me, as we were touring the house, “I’ve never been here, ya know.”  He wanted to sleep in a fort, so I put a camping mat on the floor with his blankets and pillow and then made a fort for him out of the pillows I took off the couch to turn it into a bed for Trey (Joni’s oldest).  Kristi and Joni slept on the hide-a-bed in the family room upstairs, so all the adults were on the main level, and the kiddos were in the basement.  It was great! 

 

Before bedtime, we watched the video of Darren, Peyton, and the pooping incident.  It was so funny, we had tears in our eyes!  After everyone was in bed, Kristi and I stayed up WAY too late looking through all of our keepsakes and photos from China. 

 

The next morning, Peyton was up at 6:07 – I was shocked!  It’s the earliest she’s been up since we all adjusted to sleeping after getting back from China.  I was bummed because Kristi was still sleeping, and she wanted to see how cute Peyton was when she wants to get up.  I had just turned the shower on and thought I was going to be SO ahead of the game for the day!  We were all going to be headed to Golden to watch the football game at Mines and wanted to be ready to walk out the door by 10:15.  This was going to put a major wrench into my plans!  BUT…because I’m flexible, I just had to go with the flow! 

 

Peyton ate 4 bowls of cereal that morning and was finished eating by the time everyone rolled out of bed.  It was really funny – I had Peyton sitting on the countertop so I could get sandwiches going for everyone while she ate her breakfast, but she wanted to sit at the table.  Pointing to the table wasn’t getting my attention, apparently, so she pointed to her bum and then to the kitchen chairs, as if to say, “I’d like to sit my bum in that chair over there to eat my breakfast, mom!”  It was so funny! 

 

Aunt Kristi was SO happy to finally get to see her – she even conned Kristi out of drinking the milk from her cereal.  The boys, especially Tanner, loved her, and she was in love with Tanner because he did exactly what she wanted to do.