Visitors From Beyond

A few weekends ago, my little sister, Marybeth, and her family came out for a visit. It's always nice when we have visitors, because otherwise my life would be rather dull, and I would never go and visit places like...

Duh-nun.....

...Duh-nun....

...Duh-nun....

...Duh-nun...Duh-nun...Duh-nun-nun-nun....

Duh-nuhnuhnuhnuhnuh!!!

[lady screaming in the background]

Pretty cool picture of a shark, huh? And I'm sure you are very impressed with my sound effects. Did it set the mood, or what? Are ya scared? So, perhaps you've guessed it already, but we went to the aquarium.

Marybeth, trying out the diving suit:

For whatever reason, the stars aligned, and I was able to get a few really good, clear, unblurry pictures of Ailee:

Cute little bugger.

A picture of me 'n the kiddos in the glass tunnel:

Maryn loved the "petting pool." (I'm not really sure what it's called. You could reach in and pet various sea life.)

Aaaaaand, a really washout picture of Maryn, Ailee, and Johnny:

The next day, we headed out for a relaxing time at the beach. Seriously, it doesn't get much better for me than being at the reservoir. My kids are entertained, I'm setting in the sun, I can hear the waves roll in....sigh. I had to get a picture of my feet in the sand before they turn fat and nasty.

My bro-in-law, Mike worked most of the day building private cesspools for the kids, complete with foamy bacteria, and an odd warmth to them. The kids were pretty efficient at destroying them.

I did manage to get a cute, non-blurry picture of Maryn:

I think Ailee enjoyed having someone her own size around. And the best part was that he didn't steal toys from her. Score! Johnny and Ailee were awful cute together. From the front:

And from the back:

Maryn worked hard on building sandcastles. She even created her own city of castles, which she named the City of Joo.

After a fun day at the beach, we headed out to a baseball game and caught some action there. On Saturday, we spent most of the day, lazing about, then ended it with a Big Kids night out at the theater. "Young Frankenstein" was playing downtown. It was good. Not my favorite, but good.

It was fun having them here. I'm glad we were able to catch between semesters of a busy life. I hope they find time to come back!