Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin, Oh My!

Uncle Matthew, Aunt Elaine and Baby Evie came to visit last week.  We were excited to have this time with them.  Right now they are only about 3 1/2 hours away and we are grateful they were willing to take the time and make the drive for a visit!

Upon their arrival we hurried off to the beach.


Which is what's appropriate when you are thirty minutes away from sand and sun.


It was sunny and not too windy for just long enough to enjoy the-baby-allowed-amount of play time.

It would have been a perfect trip had poor Evie not gotten car sick on the ride home.  It is a pretty curvy drive through the mountains.  I have several memories of my brother not making it through car trips and it seems as though his daughter has inherited this trait. But aside from the baby losing her lunch it was a great trip (sigh).

The next day they joined us for a park day with our friends.  Aunt Elaine bought the girls matching outfits and the cuteness was almost unbearable.






And this outing did not end with baby throw up  - so everybody won.

I tricked them into taking a date night out so I could have some alone time with Evie.  With the right combination of the color crew and her evening milk we made snuggly peace.


They wanted to go to the zoo and we had never been. The San Francisco Zoo was great.  It was clean, well maintained and had a great variety of animals. We will be back for sure.


(Lydia's first zoo visit)

All Colin could talk about was seeing gorillas when we were making our morning predictions.  And boy did we ever see gorillas. It was a great exhibit with many active gorillas.  But most importantly, a tiny baby gorilla.  The Best Ever.



A family meeting. I feel like they were discussing the quality of the human exhibit for the day.

We might have been a disappointment.



And there was great playground where the littlest among us got to express their independence.


Or stay close to daddy, whatever.

(this is my baby brother, y'all.  and his baby. how is this reality?)

A napping koala, yes please.


Even Colin wanted her to stay sleeping.


It is worth noting that my sweet sister-in-law, Elaine, was taking all these trips with her busy twins in her tummy (due early summer).  So long story short she was willing to buy train tickets for the boys if that meant sitting down for a few minutes.


It was an absolutely lovely outing with happy children, perfect weather and fun for all.


We wrapped up the day with greek food for dinner and big hugs all around.

The next morning they stopped by IKEA (who doesn't?) on their way out of town and made it home safely.  We are already planning our next visit down to see them!