A Very Donovan Weekend

Saturday night we had another installment of company come~the Donovan family from Connecticut, who are a very dear family to us. They have 6 children, ages 4 1/2 to 12 (2 sets of twins)! It was a very energetic, crazy, and FUN weekend! I'm starting to really love when people with kids come, since they usually entertain Noah (and vice versa). :)


They came Saturday evening and stayed until 2pm today. It was so wonderful to have Don and Birgitta to talk to and get advice from! Jen and I grilled Birgitta Sunday afternoon about how to succeed at this wild ride we call parenting. She had some good tips, but mostly great encouragement that it does get better, that I am now in probably the hardest part of parenting, but it should get easier if I do my job well now. I was so grateful to have her to bounce my troubles off of, and get great feedback "from the trenches." Thanks, Birgitta!


I also have to give a HUGE Thank You to Jen, who was a great help with all the meals. As you might imagine, it's overwhelming to go from feeding 2 1/2 people (at this point Noah only eats enough to count for 1/2 a person) to feeding 13! On a Sunday, no less! She stepped right up and helped prepare and buy all the food. THANKS, JEN!


This morning we all went to the beach for a some fun and sand before they hit the road this afternoon. Here are some pictures from the morning:



Noah walking toward the water. He was a regular Nervous Nellie when we got to the beach (wanted nothing more than to return to the safety of the car), and finally settled down so he could enjoy himself. What a goober!



Birgitta with Joshua, the only boy of the bunch!


Krista, the second-oldest. I love this shot of her!


Matt, Jen, and Brianne



Okay. Why didn't somebody TELL me my hair looked like this? Polite people, I tell you!




Don and Birgitta, Elisa, Krista, Sarah, Joanna (very cool name!), Joshua (also a nice name, don't you think?), and Rebekah





All the kids were into shell-collecting!



Uncle Matt took Noah to chase some seagulls




Noah climbing all the way to the top of this rail. He then wanted to jump off into the sand.
We all had a great weekend! I know especially Noah appreciated having so many friends around; he woke up from his nap today, asking for the "kids" ("A kid? A kid? Get!").






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