Oom Ed and Tante Jan visit

My Tante Janet (my Mother's sister) and her husband Oom Ed came into town to visit us for a few days. They arrived on Wednesday afternoon and left this morning. While the visit was short, it was incredibly sweet. Here are some photos that they took while they were here.

The boys loved playing with Ed. He really "thinks" like a kid.

JB bought Isaac the famous "Lincoln Logs" for his birthday. While still a bit young for the boys, they enjoyed watching Ed build a house so that they could knock it over. Here is Elijah, still red-faced from his nap, about to destroy Ed's creation, yet again.

Once Isaac figured out that this lining up thing was a cool thing, he got really into it. Ed did this with his own grandson with the same measure of success.

Once upon a time, we only had 9 matchbox cars in the house, and we counted them to make sure we hadn't lost any. Now? No clue. No clue at all how many of these cars we have. And despite that, they are fought over with great fervor on a regular basis.

Even Isaac has started calling this guy "Elijah Boy".

More lining 'em up!

Love these little men.

The Lord always seems to give me one boy, at a certain time, who is willing to not cling to Mommy. This week, Isaac has been the clinger, and Elijah was totally cool with hanging out with whoever wanted to hang out with him. Here, he and Jan are reading a book although I think Jan was probably spending more time trying to prevent Elijah from ripping the little flaps.

I found this fire engine at a yard sale this past weekend for just 25 cents! It came with batteries and made all kinds of cool sounds. The boys love it.

We had lunch at Guissepi's Wharf. We thought it would be too hot to sit outside, but the breeze off the Bay made it perfect! However, before lunch, we had to investigate the motorcycles outside.

We also took a walk down the dock. Extra hands made this possible.

Love these guys! Love Ed's t-shirts too!

Ed and Elijah had great fun during and after lunch. Elijah was quite content to chill with Ed the entire two days.

What a nice lunch date.

More goofiness with Oom Ed.

We finished lunch at 1pm and were meeting JB at the post office to get tourist passports for the boys and a renewal for JB at 2:15. So we decided to stop by Lincoln Park to kill the 45 minutes we had. Here I am facing a serious Mom-moment. Elijah was insistent on going down this chute, or at least pretending he would. I, was stuck on the outside. How to change his mind? Ultimately chasing Isaac in the other direction did the trick.

We weren't planning on playing in the water, but the boys were! They loved it. Only the waves from a passing boy, concerned Isaac slightly about the idea. They romped and splashed and got filthy and just had a great time.

Splash!

I love that Elijah is hiding behind us here.

On Wednesday night JB cooked a fantastic Mediterranean meal. Last night he made paninis.

Ed and Jan have moved in the direction of home, while we are moving in the direction of preparing for Isaac's birthday party tomorrow and the arrival of Joan and Bri. Gotta run!