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Friday, August 18, 2017

Uncle Matt, Aunt Erica, and Cousin Madalynn's Visit!

We had the pleasure of having my brother Matt, sister in law Erica, and niece Madalynn out for a visit from Vermont recently!! I was over the moon excited when I heard they were looking to plan a trip out to us, and we patiently waited the whole year for August to arrive! It was our first time meeting sweet Madalynn, who turns 2 in October, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on her!! 


It was pretty dang hot out their entire visit, so we had lots of inside play time. The kids had a lot of fun showing Madalynn around the house and dragging out new toys for her to play with! I even dug out some of the kids' old toddler toys from the shop just so Madalynn could have her own little box of toys! 


The 2 1/2 week old baby kittens were a hit with Madalynn! If you lost track of her in the house, chances were she was visiting with the kittens in my bedroom, haha!


Madalynn was also such a big helper in the garden! Our onions were hung on the fence for a few days to dry out, and all the kids helped take them down and get them ready to bring inside to clean up. She was also a great pumpkin finder, as well as a wonderful bean picker! For all her hard work, she got the first ripe raspberry and strawberry of August. :) 


Running through the sprinkler and playing with squirt guns was a must for the hot weather we had. I loved watching Molly and Madalynn run through the sprinkler! Then Molly, Madalynn, and Timothy would fill up buckets and dump them on people, haha, which was a welcome relief from the heat! I especially love the time Papa was spraying the kids with the hose, but then Uncle Matt pinched the hose off while standing behind the tree and Papa was like what the heck!? LOL


The mans got in a few rounds of horseshoes too! 


We played outside mostly in the morning and evening when it was cooler. Madalynn explored our tree fort....


The slides....


The sandbox.....


The swings (the baby one I left up just for Miss. Madalynn's visit!).....


And the trampoline!  


We took a super fun day trip to Horsetheif Lake! We were literally there all day and it was so awesome! We packed a wonderful picnic and snacked our way through the day. Our friends showed up later on and brought cake. Hooray! Family, friends, and cake. Awesome! We really had a great time! We brought our kayaks and rented a paddle board and paddle boat for everyone to enjoy. I think it was my favorite day of their whole visit!!


We also took a trip to Maryhill Winery to enjoy a picnic, play boccie ball, and let Uncle Matt and Aunt Erica get in some kiddo free wine tasting! They had just watered the lawn, so the patio area was covered in water....now that was fun! The kids splashed around forever and kept themselves cool. Also, did you know Uncle Matt could juggle? Neither did I! 


If you know Uncle Matt, you know that he likes to game! This was like a dream come true for my kiddos, who also like to get in some gaming time every now and again. They loved showing Uncle Matt and Aunt Erica how to play Mine-craft, hahaha. I was content with watching and getting in some snuggle time with Madalynn!


We made a visit to the local library where the kids played upstairs in the play room and us adults hung out in the AC. Little did we know we showed up right in time for the library's "game time!" We headed downstairs where Anth played a game with a friend, Molly and Madalynn played Wii Dance with a library staff member, and Uncle Matt, Aunt Erica, and I played Exploding Kittens. Yes....that's a game!


Definitely on the must visit list while Uncle Matt and Aunt Erica were here was the Maryhill Stonehenge War Memorial. I love the family photos we got while there....especially the one of just the kids! 


After Stonehenge, we headed to the Maryhill Museum to spend some time there and also eat a picnic snack! The kids were very well behaved and everyone enjoyed their time there! 


We got to make a special visit to Papa's work with everyone, including Grandma and Grandpa who showed up for the last day of their visit! We showed everyone Papa's office, the guys' work command station, and then Papa took us out to a tower so everyone could get a close up view of just how big the wind turbines are! The kids were all adorable in their hard hats!

Afterwards Papa was able to go with us out to lunch before he headed back to work and we headed on home. Thanks for letting us visit, Papa! 

 

Every year on the kiddos' birthdays, we mark their height on our height board. Whenever a family member comes to visit, we make sure to get their height on the board too. Eeekk!! I was so excited to get Uncle Matt, Aunt Erica, and Madalynn's heights marked! We had to do Anthony and Molly's as well since we were on vacation for their birthdays and didn't get around to it until now. It makes my heart happy to have Madalynn added to our height board! Yay!


A must do was family photos! We didn't take very many because it was warm out and kids can only behave so long, let along at the same time, so our window of time was small. But we got some great ones and I'm so thankful!! 


Thank you, a million times over, for making the long trip out to us!!! We had been looking forward to this visit for a long time and we're so thankful you guys were able to make it!! We cherished every second and hope you all had a wonderful stay in our guest cabin and tons of fun during your visit!

We love and miss you all like crazy! If we start penny pinching now, we can be out to Vermont in 13 years. Hahaha

With love,
Mama Hauck

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