Lexington's Hotel Clifton

In the past month we have been the honored hosts of a pile of fun visitors!

We were so excited that Aunt Capri flew into Atlanta to be with her parents after her mission for a couple weeks and was able to spend a couple days up in Kentucky before heading home to Utah. We were expecting them mid-day Tuesday. With impending severe weather they decided at the last minute to drive up late Monday evening. Trent decided not to tell me and just let me find out about their arrival in the morning. He was worried that telling me at bedtime would make me stay up late making sure the house was just right and beds made etc. So, after I went to be he stayed up late blowing up air mattresses and preparing for their arrival. They pulled in around 1:30 am.

As I was bustling around getting kids ready for school the next morning I opened the curtains and was very surprised to see their car parked out front. How surprised we were to find them cozied in downstairs!

It was SO nice to see Capri again after so long and to hear about her mission. And so wonderful to have Grammy here and get some precious time with her before she heads off on their next venture to Boston.

Here the kids are going through the posts on our blog Aunt Capri missed while she was on her mission.

It was hard to say goodbye to them after a day and a night together but we were so very happy they took the time to come to our home!

A week or so later we had the privilege of hosting Trent's cousin's wife's parents who were on a cross country road trip. The original plan was for Lee (Trent's cousin) and Jaclyn (his wife) to bring their family up for the weekend and everyone stay here at our place a tour Kentucky for the weekend. At the last minute sickness kept the Snyder's home and we were sad not to get to spend time with them! Jaclyn's mom and step-dad still spend two night's here and it was super fun to get to know them.

They overlapped one evening with my parent's arrival. We had so many visitors and it all made us sooo happy. 

My parents arrived Monday evening to hugs and smiles from some happy kids. 

We had plans to tour a horse farm and visit Shaker Village the next day but that was completely derailed when Matthew came down with a nasty case of croup. That kept us pretty close to home for most of the week with a sick baby. That being said, it turned out to be really nice to just have them around our home and live life with them here. 

Grandpa and Nathan enjoying "just being":

 Who knows what they're doing here...I know that Nathan showed Grandpa every tool in his tool box and then it appears Grandpa is looking in Nathan's eye with a flashlight! Haha!

And of course life is more fun when ice cream is involved! 

We enjoyed having them here for Family Home Evening and played games together. And one night Grandpa pulled out some tricks for the kids, including having them hold a cup full of water to the ceiling with this broom. They got a little shower from that!

With my parents leaving Friday morning, Trent got a call from his dad Wednesday night saying he was driving through Lexington on his way from Atlanta to Boston where he was starting a new job. Of course we had some floor space to spare and invited him to spend the next night with us. He arrived the night my parents left and we enjoyed having them all here for dinner. Being that Trent's and my parents live across the street from each other we just needed Grammy Joyce to make things complete! We said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa and sent them on their long journey back to Utah. It's never fun to say goodbye!

The kids had Grandpa Chuck read bedtime stories that night and that was a special treat indeed! They were having so much fun talking about the fire fighting he was reading about in the book that they didn't even have time to finish the chapter.

We had breakfast with Grandpa the next morning before he began his drive to Boston.

And then a week or so later we were very happy to host Grammy for 2 nights as she drove to Boston. Her car was filled to the brim and Daddy was happy to help her get it all sorted and packed before her long drive.

She even had managed to fit this recliner in the back- we love it!

The day Grammy was here the kids LOVED playing games and reading with her and just being together.  We were so grateful that she was able to stay an extra night!

 Some Grammy time was very much cherished!

Our friends the Smiths, who we knew in Arizona were moving from the East coast to Nevada and we were excited to have them stay a night with us as they started their long trip. It was fun to see how much both of our families had grown and the kids instantly hit it off and had a wonderful time playing together. 

And then just like that, the house seemed strangely quiet and a little bit lonely. We loved our visitors!