handsful

…than to be in Carolina.  Cousin’s Day came around once again, and this one was Lainey’s first.  She did a lot better on this long trip than the last one in April, thankfully! 

Nana arranged for a photographer to come this year, and that lady’s camera was smoking (literally…it actually overheated at one point). 

Randy took this one of the group shot…hopefully the photographer was a little more lucky.  Tough to get this many people looking at the same time! 

Love this shot of Nana

Yes, it was THAT hot.

Abbey says hello!

Lainey took an immediate liking to Nana and Paw Paw’s dog, Casey.  Could she stick that hip out any farther?

With pictures and devotion time done, Nana knew just how to make the kiddos happy…water slide!  We got Lainey changed and took her to the slide.  We told her goodbye and that mama and dada would be back.  She was so distracted by the fun, that she didn’t fuss at all.  We’re told that she did great all day, playing, napping, eating, running around, chasing the dog, eating, etc.  She slept all night, even through the crazy thunderstorm that night.  We were relieved, though I’m not sure why we were ever worried….Lainey always surprises us by handling everything well. 

The rest of our weekend was full of seeing people.  On Friday, we took the kids to my mom’s “office” (she works at a daycare) for a visit.  I’ll be adding some pics of that on a later post.  After that, we picked up lunch and took it to my grandmom’s house.  My aunt Gail and cousin Michael joined us and we had a great time, catching up and laughing at Lainey as she wore grandmom’s glasses, shouldered her purse, and held onto her cane.  I have no pics of this, unfortunately…forgot the camera.  I know, I’m still mad at myself. 

Lainey was then treated to an eye exam by her own Uncle Tony.  He told us that she has a little bit of a prescription, but nothing that needs attention right now.  He also confirmed what we suspected…her left eye occasionally (about 1/4 of the time) turns inward.  Again, he said there’s no need for treatment right now, given how intermittently it occurs.  It could go away on it’s own.  He’ll check her again in a year. 

Skip ahead to Saturday night (when the kids were at Cousin’s Day), and we had our annual triple date with Tony and Dee Dee (R’s brother and sis-in-law) and John and Kim (R’s step-sister and bro-in-law).  Beautiful restaurant, great food, and not a kid’s menu in sight.  Ahhh…

Church and then a very lazy Sunday afternoon with Randy’s mom Ann visiting us at Tony and Dee Dee’s house.  Then, it was time to get on the road. 

Lainey and her favorite optometrist, uncle Tony

Kissing cousins, Samara and Lainey

All of Lainey’s cousins enjoyed getting to know her better (the little ones high-fived her all weekend!), but Caleb took a special interest in her.  Once he found out that Lainey would eat anything, he set out to find something that she would refuse.  He never found it, but not for lack of trying. 

The NC family and the FL family…all 15 of us. 

We stopped by my mom and dad’s house on our way home…she wanted a new picture to add to her “grandmom” frame. 

An uneventful ride home (love those kind) and a great meal at Cracker Barrel (thanks, mom and dad!) and we were home.