Yaya and Auna Mar Mar's Trip (a very long post)

Hannah talking on the phone. (notice she is in a big girl car seat now!!)

Mary soaking up the sun before she leaves to snowy AK!

Luke and Liam hunting...for what you might ask, I don't know!

Picnic time, YEAH!!!

Accosting Yaya while she's trying to nap!

oLuke was watching a movie and would not smile!

Luke's dinosaur plant that Aunt Mar Mar bought him.

Hannah's first (but not last) visit to the horses!! Luke was asleep in the car and would not wake up so we fed them carrot's with out him.

Luke's new efant (elephant), his name is "Big Efant""

Water fun!!

Look at that cute booter!!

Luke and Aunt Mar Mar's bird feeder. Those birds went through three whole feeders full in a week. Thank goodness the snow is gone now and there eating less. They were going to make me go broke!!

I know it's been a while sine we have updated but we have been very busy visiting!! We have been having a great time shopping and going to Chucky Cheese. When my mom and sister got here there was still a couple feet of snow on the ground from a blizzard and we had a huge snow fort in out front yard surrounded by decapitated snow men. When they got here it was cold and windy outside and not a lot of fun so we went to Chucky Cheese a couple times. Since then however the weather has warmed up and there is now no snow on the ground. They brought the sun with them and warmed every thing up, YIPEE!!

So for the second week they were here we having been taking advantage of the warm weather and playing outside. We planted some carrots in a pot inside for Luke to watch grow, Mary painted a tree on a large canvas and used the kids hands to make the leaves. It is supper cute and is hanging in my living room. Unfortunately I have not yet taken pictures of it. The kids have taken lots of baths, in the bath tub and the kitchen sink, read lots of books, gotten lots of presents and pretty much been spoiled rotten...in the good way of course. We had a wonderful time and can't wait for them to come back again.

My mom and sister left us tonight however to go home to AK. We took the kids and dropped them off and didn't make any stops. Luke was an angel. He slept the 2 hrs there and watched his movies on the 2.5 hrs back. Hannah on the other hand was a little terror. She would not sleep and screamed perioticly. I thought that if I just ignored her long enough she would eventually fall asleep. NO WAY, that girl was so suborn and head strong it's got me a bit worried. We did make it home though in one shot which gives me hope for our road trip to Livonia, Michigan next Thur. I will expand on this thought in a few min.

We told Luke that Yaya and Aunt Mar Mar had to go home to Gampa Eric because he was sad and hungry. :) Here is a part of a conversation we had at 10pm last night when Luke snuck into Yaya's room where we were talking. Luke came in and said "tell me about the airplane Yaya."
Yaya: Yaya and Aunt Mar Mar have to go home to AK on a big airplane to see Grandpa Eric.
Mama: Grandpa Eric misses Yaya and Mar Mar and is sad and hungry when Yaya is gone.
Luke: "Gampa Eric is sad? Gampa Eric is hungry? Yaya has to go home and make Gampa Eric scambled (scrambled) eggs and ham."
Papa: What has Grandpa Eric been eating when Yaya is gone?
Luke: (matter a factually) Toast

Well I think Luke is more right than he knows and Grandpa probably has been eating a lot of toast with Yaya gone and will probably get scrambled eggs at some point when Yaya gets home, minus the ham! While my mom and sister were here Isaac helped around the house and made a couple meals. One very epic meal was a casserole consisting of frozen burritos and canned clam chowder baked in the oven. My first thought, WHAT THE HECK?!?!?!? Apparently it was a hit though, and my dad even went back for seconds. My dad did say it was a bit weird biting into a burrito and then a potato. Oh well, at least they were eating dinner...right?? I'm not to sure myself.

So let's update everyone on what's going on. My mom and sister were here for 10 glorious days and that was so great for everyone. We have enough food in the frig and freezer for the next few months. My mom insisted on buying us meat for Pascha so we now have a whole shelf of different meats in our large freezer that will probably get us through to the end of the semester. THANKS MOM, YOUR THE BEST...AND MARY TOO OF COURSE!!!!

Thursday we will be heading over to our friend's the Lynch's for a dinner potluck dinner for St Partrick's day.

Friday we will be heading to Emmaus for a fish dinner they are putting on for a fundraiser. Maybe I will be of some help to them if my kids cooperate.

Next Thursday we will be heading to Livonia, Michigan for a Lazarus Saturday Youth retreat that Matthew will be speaking at. He was invited to be the guest speaker at this youth retreat at the Basilica of St Mary. It's an ethnic Arab parish of about 3,500 people. It will definitely be something to see, especially since we will be there for Palm Sunday and for some reason the Arab parishes make a bigger deal about Palm Sunday than they do about Pascha. We will be staying in a hotel for Thur, Fri, Sat and Sun, and coming back Mon morning. I hope the kids do OK!! I think this will be a fun road trip for our family!!

Then of course Holly Week is super busy. Services every day and a very somber week. On Holy Thursday we will be heading down to Emmaus and staying through Bright Monday. We will be staying in a hotel close to the church so we can be involved as much as possible. We are very hopeful there will be an Easter Feast this year and so are giving Pascha another go here.

After Pascha Matthew has a week off from school and then 6 very busy weeks till the end of school, including lost of lectures, the elevation of Fr Michael to Bishop and Grandpa Stephen coming to visit, but more about all that in another post. Let's just get through Pascha first!!

I have been working on this post and downloading pictures for over an hour now I must get off to bed.