Bowdens, Riels, and Georges ... oh my!

(Ed note: We are frantically catching up with the summer entertainment. My prayer is to be back in "real time" before Labor Day but August is jam-packed with visitors too ... gulp.)

No more than four scant days after my parents had to return back to St. Louis, our dear pals the Riels showed up at our door on Thursday night. They were supposed to leave a little after noon, but because Jeff is Jeff, they left a little after 5. By the time they arrived in Grand Rapids, Jillian and I had passed out in the living room only to awake with them staring at us from the entrance to the living room. I was freaked out and excited all in one brief burst. They're daughter Reva was somewhat awake surprisingly, given the time, but we all quickly said our goodnights and agreed to a playdate in the morning.

Reva and Megan go way back. So magically upon waking up Friday, Megan had a playmate. We washed the day away running errands, eating at Fazoli, and looking for brand name fashions at TJ Maxx and Old Navy.

But really we were just killing time until our other good pals the Bowdens arrived from Pittsburgh. (At this point you can just click over to Court's write-up of the weekend which has much better prose or you can continue your journey here. I've given you options. Don't complain.)

Being the "non-children-having" husband and wife combo we were hoping two things: 1) we wouldn't discuss baby development constantly and 2) we wouldn't make them feel obligated to 'babysit' our own child while they were here. I think we did pretty well with step one, but we obliterated step two and threw our child voraciously into their laps at every turn. I think that was the true testament of our friendship that they never questioned the amount of indentured servitude they were thrust into.

At one point in her life I was worried Megan was not into books. She would chew the corners, flip through the pages absent-mindedly, or hold the book upside-down. And those were the times I could even get her to show any interest in them. But somewhere in these past few weeks she has become addicted to books. Addicted. We read the same 8-9 books, literally, this is not hyperbole, about 8 times a day. Each. Now, they all take about 2 minutes to read so it's not like each one is this mammoth book. But without fail, she will bring you a book, sit in your lap, and you will read her the book. Then she will stand up, retrieve another one, and start the process anew. If you refuse, she will throw a full out tantrum at you.

I explain that previous paragraph only because Dustin got suckered into this cycle on Saturday morning. To his credit, he never wavered, and just read book after book. His patience and nurturing skills were admirable. We walked to our neighborhood's little downtown for lunch and ice cream where the two little girls received considerable attention from both the wait staff at the restaurant and the people around us.

But despite that brief respite we basically were homebodies. We chatted, gossiped, laughed, loved, and relaxed while playing with the girls in our backyard. Our neighbors have an in-ground trampoline so we tested the shocks on it, investigated the play area, and tossed the frisbee around. Relaxing as can be. And we finally tested out our pool. In fact there's even VIDEO of us using it. Well, Jill's more freaking out in it but whatever.

Sunday, as if we didn't have enough people running around, we welcomed over some other friends from Cincinnati, the Georges. They were in the area for camp activities and decided to swing by for lunch on their way back home. Sandra recently had a baby who was under 2 months old, as well as their close to 3 year old son Jason. So we now had eight adults and four kids under 3 at the house. It was beautiful chaos.

Megan and Reva would show off for Jason in their cutesy little kid way and they would chase each other around the house. It felt so cool to have our house be alive like that and I know Megan was pumped to have multiple friends over to play.

Eventually the Riels had to take off, they were headed to Chicago for a few days and the Georges continued on their merry way back to Cincinnati, which quieted the house considerably. Since it was a gorgeous day we drove a half-hour over to Jill's parents and spent the late afternoon on the boat with the Bowdens out on Lake Macatawa. What a serene way to end a gorgeous weekend.