Hatch Family Fun

We have felt very blessed to have some of Tyler's family here to visit this past weekend. On Wednesday Tyler's parents and his sister, Jezerea, picked up Mariah from her mission in Minnesota. Thursday they made the long drive from there to our home (still a much shorter drive then from AZ though). They arrived late Thursday night and though both boys wanted to stay up and wait for them, only Steven lasted. Steven got really shy as soon as he saw them and almost immediately determined it was time to go to bed, it really has been TOO long!

That night we stayed up late, sitting on the porch and chatting. It pretty much made me feel even more homesick, reminding of how much I love hanging with family; reminding me of all the we are missing out on by being so far away.

The next morning Lucy was shocked to find these strangers in her house and she became pretty clingy. She also became a super quiet, unanimated child and it wasn't until late Saturday afternoon that she finally began to be her normal crazy self around these "strangers".

When we were all up and ready Friday morning, we took a trip to Greenfield Village. Tyler and his dad had fun geeking out over all the ancient machines and the glass blowing, as always, was a hit. We still didn't make it through the park though, us girls tire easily of seeing machines apparently.

After Greenfield Village I cooked up some dinner and then we walked downtown for some ice cream. This place was slow as all heck at getting us ice cream but that just meant lots of fun quality time together:

On our walk back to our house, they happened to have a little concert happening so we stopped by to listen:

After the concert, we spent the evening on our porch chatting, catching fireflies and arguing over what color fireflies flash. It was ridiculously fun!

The next day we headed to Spicer's Orchard to pick some blueberries and raspberries. This was a new experience for all of us and the kids really loved it, even if they don't actually love to eat them. The boys had fun learning which ones were ready to be picked and helping their Poppy find "the mother loads!" and Lucy enjoyed picking them up off the ground and playing with them.

After Spicer's Orchard we stopped at a deli for some sandwiches and then headed home. While Lucy was napping, I walked downtown with Tyler's sisters and mom to do some shopping. More like window shopping because all those boutiques are ridiculously over priced... We found these super cute dresses for only $75...dream on! I managed to get crazy dizzy at one store which cut our shopping short. I think I had been doing a little bit too much walking in the heat that weekend and not enough drinking water. Lame me. So we went home and I took a little rest.

That night we tried out a new restaurant called South Lyon Hotel. The food was good, nothing spectacular but good. But what we really liked about it was that there was no wait to be seated and it was noisy so the kids blended right in. After dinner we went back home and the kids all had some fun with some Sparklers their Poppy Hatch had gotten them. 

Poppy Hatch also got them so EXTREMELY LOUD fireworks that will have to be saved for a day when Tyler can take them out to the woods to explode them. I don't think our neighbors would appreciate them.

Sunday we all woke up and had some fresh blueberry pancakes and then headed off to church. I don't know how we managed to get all 9 of us their on time but we did, it was miraculous! The kids behaved better than they ever have. They had so much fun being there with their grandparents and aunties. Sadly Tyler's family could only stay until Sunday School and then they had to head off to the airport. It was much too short of a visit and we hope they will come back and visit us again!