New Jersey...

We made it into Jersey Tuesday afternoon.  It was great to see my sister and her three boys!  My sister's husband is traveling on business this week, so we will see him this weekend.  We unloaded our bags, started doing our laundry, left our girls with my sister, loaded up two of her boys and took off for Philadelphia to catch the Phillies / Dbacks game.  It was a fun night, although the Dbacks lost the game.  

Yesterday, Wednesday, was the first day since we left AZ that we actually got to wake up, sit and relax with a cup of coffee and not run.  It was wonderful. My sister recently moved into a new, LARGE house that we all are totally enjoying. The whole house, three levels, is about 7,000 square feet and the absolute best feature is the beautiful, finished basement, also known as the kid area. The seven kids disappear into the basement and we don't hear them at all.  They are having a ball down there playing xbox, ping pong, pool, riding the treadmill, watching TV and just "hanging out"....it's the perfect "kid area".  Meanwhile, the adults are enjoying lazy mornings and lots of relaxing, fun conversation.

 Fun in the basement...

Today, we've been watching a large flock of geese that have settled, quite unwelcome, into this lovely neighborhood.  We woke to a strange horn this morning and saw the man next door blowing an air horn and waving a large broom as he tried to chase the geese away. An hour later, they were parading through my sister's yard. Audra was a big hit with the neighbors as she ran out in a full sprint clapping her hands madly and chased the whole flock of geese, about 20, up into the air and out of the neighborhood. The man with the air horn yelled from his front door, "Thank you" and then came walking down the street to shake her hand. He called her the Track Star and thanked her again before going inside. It's been several hours now and we've not seen the geese again, and my sister is hoping they are gone for good as they leave a tremendous mess behind.

Today we are relaxing and trying to decide what we want to do. The kids want to go see the Cake Boss, from the show on TV, but we're still in discussion. Yesterday we went to their swim club and the kids had a ball jumping and diving from the high dive, which we don't do much of at home. We may go to a movie or go bowling today (if the Cake Boss doesn't work out) or maybe we'll just enjoy a quiet day at home. Tomorrow we are planning to go the beach and this weekend is NY (where Colton hopes to ride in the Cash Cab), so a day of rest would be good.

That's Colton on the high dive and his cousin Austin on the low dive....

Audra and Sierra in the pool with their cousin Travis, who loves the water!

Aunt Kimmie with Travis, Sierra, Audra, Dylan and Buck.

After a sand volleyball game at the swim club....

We are enjoying our time with my sweet sister and her boys. She is a wonderful hostess, extremely organized and tidy, so we feel like we are living in a very upscale hotel.  It's a great day and time to get back to visiting...