A long, but definitely worthwhile, trip

 I just took a crazy marathon trip through six states and across about 1875 miles in order to attend my cousin's wedding.  And I did it with 5 children (and 5 butterflies, but I'll get to that...) and no husband!  Jack had to work and couldn't come.  I thought a lot about how crazy it would be to do this by myself, but I really wanted to go to the wedding.  And I knew my kids would want to be there.  So I did it.  And there were horrible moments.  And I was tired sometimes.  But I'm so glad I went.  The kids and I got to see almost all of our family again even though we just saw them last month.

The first leg of the trip was at my in-laws' house.  The next post will have pictures of that....  Second leg, Cincinnati, Ohio for the wedding.  It's always fun to be able to get the kids into a hotel swimming pool.  Aidan loved it.  He was in for a long long time and never fussed.

My crazy Lauren girl will jump in the pool all. day. long.  Fortunately, I had some adult help with Aidan and Lauren in the pool and throughout the weekend. 

We celebrated the birthdays of my June boys, Aidan and Corban.  Doesn't Aidan have the sweetest smile you've ever seen?

There may have been a few hints about how much Aidan loves balls....

An almost nine year old boy can never have too many Lego sets

Aunt Lisa, the mother of two boys, couldn't resist making sundresses for her two nieces!  Beautiful!  The girls love them!

Thomas "helps" his cousin Aidan play with his new birthday present

Aidan all dressed up for the wedding

Everyone changed clothes for the more casual reception.  Jakin gets a few minutes with his little cousin Josiah.

My siblings and I

Lots of kids.  Just like the last cousin wedding, it's so fun for me to see my kids having so much fun with my cousins' kids

The guys without Jack.

The bride and groom!  Caycee and Susanne

My sister and her husband just bought a new house in Lexington, Kentucky.  Since I don't know when I will be closer than the hour and a half away that I was in Cincinnati from their house, I decided to pop down there to check out the new place.  It was lovely, a really nice place for them for many years to come.  In addition to the six of us, my parents also came down on their way home to see the new house.  This was the first time Alli and Micah had all of the bedrooms of their house full!

Ok, the butterflies.  So, Jack and I gave Annie this kit for her birthday.  You send away for the butterfly larvae.  After they arrive, you watch the process of metamorphosis.  I didn't time up our order very well because the butterflies hadn't hatched before we left for our trip.  I knew they would hatch before we came back and we certainly didn't want to miss that.  What's a home school mom to do other than cart the butterfly net along with us on the trip?  Since we had observed the butterflies for a few days by the time we arrived in Lexington, and since Alli and Micah live in a nice neighborhood, we decided to release our charges in Kentucky.

Even though the kids weren't able to be with their own Dad on Father's Day, they had the great good (and rare!) fortune of being with BOTH of their grandfathers on Father's Day!  That was pretty cool.