Family Time

Jesse's brother and his family have been gone for over a week so I thought I better get around to summarizing the rest of their visit before I forget. As a reminder, Jesse's brother, Rich is married to Susee and they have two boys, Mason (16), and Cade (almost 14). Three years ago they moved to Luxembourg for Rich's job and we've been able to see them at least once a year (they visited us twice, we went there once). We hope that we can keep the visits up, but not sure that's sustainable. Jesse did commit to saving up to back there again, but it might be a couple years yet. They plan to stay in Luxembourg for at least another 7 years and just bought a house so they seem pretty committed to that. I wish they were closer, but I guess it's nice to know that we have a place to stay when we want to visit Europe. In fact, Jesse's already told his brother that they will be watching Riley while he and I take a train off to France or Germany the next time we visit. Glad he's planning ahead

Anyhoo, I already talked about our boating adventures over the 4th of July weekend. A weird thing happened about an hour after I got off the boat - I got sea sick and it lasted at least a week. I did some research and there's a thing called land sickness that happens for some people after they get off a boat and that it could last a week or even months. I still get a little off feeling from time to time, but it's mostly gone. Apparently, it can get subsequently worse with additional boat rides so now I'm scared of ever getting on a boat again. Nothing like feeling nauseous all week (and no, I'm not pregnant).

Even with feeling like my equilibrium was off, I still had a lot of fun and didn't let it get in the way. I even played foot golf which was something I'd never heard of before that week. For those that don't know about this activity it's basically soccer and golf wrapped into one. The course is on a golf course, but has slightly different start and end spots, but the same rules. We were a group of 10 and I'm sure we got in the way of the 'true' golfers. I imagine they are likely annoyed by foot golfers, but no one there yelled at us or anything so I don't think we pissed anyone off too much.

Riley didn't understand the concept, but had a blast and was so proud of all the 'goals' she was making. She kept up with us for the whole 9 holes without a single whine so the day was a big win. Plus, I beat Jesse by a couple points which I wasn't expecting at all.

The rest of the week was spent just hanging out either at our house or my in laws. They played a couple of Jesse's strategic type of board games and they humored my request to play with sparklers while I photographed them. On their final night in town we all gathered at my in laws for tacos and said our final good byes. Some extended family stopped by as well so I had to make sure that I took some pictures. This is probably the closest I've come to doing a real photo shoot - posing people and all.

The grandkids

Since I had the tripod and timer set up I used the opportunity to get a quick snap of my immediate family as well.

And that was it They left the next day and our lives went back to normal - almost too quiet not having them around. We sure do miss them and can't wait until next time.