Nashville

This summer my kids were completely spoiled to see every single cousin, aunt, uncle and Grandparent from both sides of our families.  While I realize lots of people do this during a normal week, it's a pretty big deal for us  Between the two sides, our families live in 8 different states, so getting together requires a lot of planning and sacrifice.

Dustin's family last got together in 2009, so everyone converging in Nashville was probably on the same scale as pulling off the Olympic games.  Darian and Jennifer opened their home to all of us, even moving into her parent's house for the week so they could give us the master bedroom.

 

Sadie and Luke shared Jennifer's closet, which is actually a converted bedroom, so don't feel bad for them in the slightest.  Sadie was tickled pink because she thought Jerge's closet was fabulous.

 

 She took everyone up for a tour. And she told my sister-in-law Sarah how amazing it was.  "She has the most luxurious fabrics. . . like wool." One night I was putting her to bed and I commented on how great she smelled.  "I know, my room has a whole drawer full of perfume. Wyatt put it on me."

Nate and Ellie bunked up with their cousin buddies in Wyatt's room.

 

 I never had cousins even remotely near by age, but Nate and Wyatt are two months apart and Ellie and Alex Anne are just 2 weeks.

 

They got along like it had been far less than three and a half years since they last saw each other.

Luke also has built in buddies with the twins who are only a month younger than he is.

And of course everyone LOVED the big boys!  They are always amazingly sweet to the little kids.

The house was perfect -- pool, swing set, cousins and aunts and uncles galore.

 

 One top attraction was baby Lincoln.

 

 While he is actually over a year old and technically not a baby anymore, he was everyone's favorite cousin.

There's a trampoline and a hammock too!

We played games, went out to eat, got manicures,

 

We even got to celebrate TWO birthdays

 

 

Luke enjoyed the leftover cake for breakfast

We grilled, laid around the pool, went to story time downtown

 

Basically just enjoyed each others company.  Whenever you are with the Rogers family, there has to be five or six trips to the store each day.

 

 And there is also a massive amount of working out. I have to admit that running in Tennessee is much prettier than running in Arizona. . .if only  it weren't for all the hills.

Darian and Jen are the ultimate host and hostess.  There were little goodie bags in our rooms. Anything the kids asked for they said yes (including cotton candy making).

 

The best present by far, however, was arranging to have a photographer come take pictures of the group.

 

Dustin's dad has Parkinson's disease so every time they are together is something to celebrate.

Our last night there was a sad night.  I told everyone that since we were flying out early the next morning, we were going to stay up all night.  The kids lasted until maybe 11? We roasted s'mores, the boys sang karaoke, played games, but finally sleep set in and we headed to bed.

 

 The week flew by and just reminded me how much harder we need to work to get together more often.