North Country Kids

It doesn't seem possible, but I was pregnant with Ezekiel the last time we drove to see our North Country kin.  Everyone agrees that that's five too many years between visits.

We thought we might stay an extra night, but the milk inspector was due for a visit, and the family was already stretched to their limit finishing all the necessities before Monday.  Next time, we'll call the milk inspector first, just to make sure Scott and the boys won't have a slew of extra chores on their plate.  Then there'll be time for more games, more tent-sleeping (withOUT a pregnant belly), more story-swapping, more guitar-playing, and more knock-knock jokes, because everyone needs more knock-knock jokes.

Zeke was a wombkin last time, clean and warm inside my belly.  This time, he was free to gleefully layer himself in manure from head to toe.  The girls kept laughing because after jumping off the manure pile multiple times, he walked right into the center of a barn gutter and got stuck in more manure.  On the way to church the next morning, I half-heartedly tried to clean him up with baby wipes, with little success.

He would be the happiest farmer.

The boys made a fire and served up s'mores!  All you can see here, though, is John's magically floating cowboy hat.

After church on Sunday, I tried for a quick picture of all the children together.  Cadence was coughing, Aidan was shooting me...success!  (Rebecca, the girls want you to show this picture to Corynn so she will believe how tall John is these days.  He towers over me! Still just as polite and thoughtful as ever, though...)

I ordered them under the tree for one more, but Aidan was still determined to shoot me.  Oh, well.  It'll do.

A short time for play and tall tales after lunch, and then we were off.  We're already hatching plans for the next visit-- a longer one, for sure.