..::A Visit From Our Pieps::..

The Piepgrass Family (aka the "Pieps") came to visit us for the past few weeks. This is my sister, Jenn's family. It had been 2 1/2 years since we last saw them and we were soooooo excited for their visit. They drove all the way from the Great White North and we're so thankful that they did. They got here just in time to spend the 4th of July with us! And what a star-spangled good time we had!! :-)

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I made my traditional cake, Jenn made a red, white and blue punch and I made teriyaki burgers for the 2nd year in a row. I think we'll make that a tradition as well. We also had Kevin's brother, Duane, and his family over again this year too....lots of family = lots of fun!! We loved it!

Let's see...I have now known my brother-in-law, Steve, for over 17 years...and I think, at least when we're in the same vicinity anyways, there hasn't been a time when I have developed a roll of film (I know, I know...totally dating myself), or downloaded pictures from my camera, only to find a most glorious up-close, mug-shot-esque picture of Stevie P.! And this time was NO different!! I had a little fun playing around with it a bit on picnik.com! Thanks Steve for making my picture developing/downloading over the years a surprising experience!

While the Pieps were here...fun times were had by all. We spent a LOT of time at the pool! It was so nice to have the extra help so my kids could actually enjoy going to the pool this summer! I've been feeling a little bit overwhelmed with how I was going to get this done with THREE kiddos. Alexa, Max & Norah also took swimming lessons from a girl we know at church and they loved it, they all made big improvements!

We spent a lot of time just hangin' out. After 2 1/2 years, it was just nice to be together. It's easier in this day and age to feel like you stay in touch a lot more, what with Facebook, email, Skype, etc. etc....but it's still nice to be able to visit in person! And my girls absolutely loved and adored their cousins! They had so much fun with them and were always wanting to do what they were doing!

We even got a much needed date night out of it since we had FREE babysitters staying with us!! It was perfect! So we took Jenn and Steve to The Gaslight Theatre. As you know from previous posts, we absolutely LOVE Gaslight and any opportunity we get to go, we take it! This particular show did NOT disappoint and we're so glad Jenn and Steve enjoyed it too!

Ever since we moved into this house, I've been wanting, needing, dreaming about...shelves in my garage! And guess what...while my super-talented BIL was here, he made that dream come true. Kevin and I were both flabbergasted by his engineering mind...he literally went into the garage and took 3 or 4 measurements, then took about 10 minutes and had it all drawn up, amounts of wood, tools needed, everything! So off Kevin and Steve went to buy materials and then spent a couple afternoons working on our project. When all was said and done, they had about 6 inches of scrap wood left over. WOW! And thank you sooooooo sooooooooo much. I absolutely, WE absolutely love the extra storage space in our garage!!

Then we absolutely had to take the Pieps for amazing Mexican food at Mi Nidito's in South Tucson. It's pretty much our go-to place when out-of-town visitors come!

And last, but certainly not least, we all ventured to the Desert Museum. It's a fun place to take my family especially, since the desert is not something the average Canadian gets to experience on a regular basis!

We crammed a lot into the 2 1/2 weeks our Pieps were here, but we sure had fun! We look forward to their visit again next year!! :-) Thanks so much you guys for making the LOOOOONG drive down to see us!