Backtracking to last month, Samantha and Amelia were excited to have their cousins, Max and Mason, come over to play all the way from Washington and Idaho. Two of Jake’s sisters, Gigi (from Washington) and Angie (from Idaho) spent church and the afternoon with us after braving a very crowded and hot few days at Disneyland, each with one son. Gigi has five kids and Angie has four, so I thought it was a great idea that they went on a little mommy/son Disney vacation with just one kid! I will definitely have to keep that in mind for the future.

Despite being a bit older than the girls, Max and Mason were the best babysitters and the girls played with them non-stop while the grown ups ate lunch. We kept hearing giggles, counting to ten during hide and seek and lots of running pitter patter coming from the upstairs; every time we went to check on them, it looked like all four kids were having a blast.

Max and Amelia trying out the roller coaster in our garage.

The boys helped Samantha and Amelia with their all-time favorite activity– painting. It was cute how their cousins really made an effort to try and differentiate between the two girls. By the end of the afternoon, they were able to tell the girls apart, even though the girls were wearing identical clothing that day.

Thanks for visiting! Angie, Amelia, Jake, Samantha, Gigi, Mason (Max was already in the car).

Hope to see you soon, Aunt Gigi!

After their cousins headed back to their hotel, we went to the Montage for a dinner picnic. Daylight Savings Time had just hit and we seriously underestimated how dark it would be at the beach now that the sunset was an hour earlier, but rolled with it and ate in the dark! The girls loved playing with the flashlights on our phones, of course and found the whole picnic in the dark experience exciting. It’s the little things.

Baby Girl and I enjoyed the fresh ocean breeze.

Samantha with the closed eyes, Amelia right.

Amelia kept giggling and saying, “We’re eating in the dark! Tee hee tee hee!”

Samantha helped herself to all the pita bread.

Cousins time and picnics in the dark = fun Sunday!

Lots of love,