Exciting Weekend Ahead!

Yea! Tomorrow morning we leave for a long weekend trip to visit our family up north! The kids, my hubby & I always look forward to our trips to visit Gram & our Aunt's, Uncle's & cousins.

This trip is extra special for a couple reasons.... 1) we'll get to spend time with Lil Chris, M & Big Chris who we haven't seen since March & 2) we'll get to introduce everyone to our two new boys, Lil Chris & my son R. My girls have grown a lot since our last trip so I know Gram will love seeing them now that they're "big girls". In their minds being 9 & 5 is all grown up & of course I am positively ancient. LOL!

I was looking for a good picture of all the kids from M & Big Chris' visit in March & of course I don't have a perfect one, but this one's not too bad. My little guy is on the left & the blondie on the right is our sister C's son (how cute is he?). My big girls & Lil Chris are in the middle. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to post after we get back so you'll be able to see how much they've changed since this picture was taken in March.

Just to give you a little taste of where we'll be spending our weekend...here is a picture of a small part of our Uncle's property.

Isn't it beautiful? This part of the land was where my grandparent's original home was when my Dad & his siblings were very small. They moved up the road a ways to a different part of the property when the children were older. When the time came for my Dad's oldest brother & his wife to build their own house they decided to build it themselves on the site of the original home. Pretty neat, huh? I love to hear the stories of Dad's family as they were growing up. Running in the fields with the cows, fishing, hunting & of course working. When your Dad is a lumberjack & your Mom is raising 5 kids on a farm that's miles from anywhere, work is a natural part of life & it builds character. It wasn't an easy life but they have wonderful memories of their childhood & it helped to shape some great men & women as did our Gram who is an amazing woman herself! I see a lot of her in M as she faces every CF challenge & weathers it calmly & with strength of character. We are fortunate to have been given a great legacy to carry on from both sides of our family!

Have a great weekend everyone!