Visiting the Summit and Fitch Families

Today got off to a slow start. Aiden made the waffles for breakfast this morning with Vavu, so he had fun with that. He stirred the batter and watched the waffle maker to see when the light indicated the waffles were done. Vavu said it was nice because he was able to load the dishwasher while Aiden watched the waffles. And they came out perfect! Vavu also said that when they were done making and eating the waffles, he told Aiden that he could get down to go play. But Aiden’s response was, “No, I’d like to sit here and visit with you.” So they sat and had a conversation together. Vavu thought that was really special that Aiden would want to do that. Maria thought it was pretty neat, too.

In the afternoon, Uncle Howie took the boys outside to play on the neighbor’s play structure. The neighbors have twins that are 4 years old and volunteered the play structure for our use during our stay. It was a great time for the boys. Too bad the neighbor kids aren’t home during the day. Both of the parents work, so most days, none of them are home.

Then we headed over to the Summit’s house for a visit. They installed nice new floors in the living room. It looked so good! The boys played with Madison while the adults sat outside on the screened in patio. It’s so nice to have a screened in deck area here, because there are lots of bugs, and they are big! What do they feed these bugs in the midwest? They must be eating all the fried chicken (there’s lots of fried chicken places around here)...

It was nice to sit with Steph and Dave and just hang out. It was a very nice relaxing afternoon. The weather was great. We just sat out there with no jackets – just perfect temperature. And the kids really entertained themselves inside. At one point, Jeremy came out dressed up like a princess. He informed us that he was beautiful. As we all were talking to him and checking out his outfit, Madison came out laughing. She said, “I did it!” It wasn’t much of a surprise, as we had pretty well already figured that out. They did have one incident toward the end, where Aiden came outside very upset. Madison had colored a tiny little mark on Jeremy’s arm, retalliating for Jeremy coloring on her paper. And Aiden got really protective of Jeremy, quite upset by the violation. So we washed Jeremy’s arm off and showed Aiden he was okay. Aiden said, “but I don’t like it when people do that to my favorite friend.” It was sweet. Later when we came inside, Madison had written a letter of apology and an explanation about her feelings. It was super cute. But then it was time to go, cuz Maddie had bible school and they had to take off to get her there on time.

In the evening, Vavu made meat pies with the leftover “Thanksgiving” turkey and chicken from the Monte Ne Chicken House. We invited over the Fitch family to see if they would like to join us. It was quite last minute, so we were very happy that some of them were able to come over and visit. First Uncle Chuck and Aunt Diana stopped by. We had a nice visit with them – sharing Maria’s blog book from the last trip and reminiscing. Later in the evening, Kevin and Angie came over with their 3 sons to visit. Their boys are so cute! Vavo offered them ice cream, and all the kids bonded over yummy treats before it was time for them to head home for bed.

Late that night, we decided to play the Bean Game. It was all the adults who were left – Uncle Howie, Vavo, Vavu, Andrew and Maria. It was a fun game. We started to wear out toward the end, as we grew tired. We were playing the game at the stroke of midnight, when it officially became Maria’s birthday! It was a nice way to start the day. :-) Vavu won the game, beating out Uncle Howie by 3 coins.

Now it’s time to head off to sleep. Tomorrow we’re going out to dinner for Maria’s birthday – she’s selected a local Mexican restaurant called Maria’s. hehehe.

(top row) Maria, Andrew, Joseph, Angie, Kevin

(shorties) Joshua, Aiden, Jacob, Jeremy