Come What May: Pal once said...

"Do you know what the best thing about brothers going on a mission is? The company that comes!"

He's right. Company that loves you and supports you is just the greatest.

We were lucky enough to have Steph and Jen come visit us once right before Justin left, and then again this April right before Cache left. They flew all the way from Canada!

We met them through the boys' trip to Europe a few years ago. They took turns taking care of each other over there, and then the rest of the family was fortunate enough to meet them and call them friends when they got back.

Steph is an amazing photographer. In fact, she is headed to New York this fall to increase her skills. She took these great photos for us on their first visit to our home.


Loot at Calder; what a difference a year makes!

We were so excited to hear they would get to come back and see Cache off as well.

This time they brought another fantastic family member for us to meet - Ben.

We did a lot of the same things as before, like fossil hunting,

walks,

games,

comparing who had the worst chigger bites,

and pellet wars.

But we also did something new with them.

We took a camping/road trip to one of our favorite spots -Louisiana!

These were the masterminds behind it.

Jen and I figured if they'd made their way through China,

then they could figure out how to get to out of the way campsites.

(Oh, did I mention that Steph went to China and taught English with Cache?

You might recognize her from his blog.)

They only got us good and lost twice... :)

Our first stop was Lasyone's for famous meat pies.

We had to stop at Longfellow's 'Evangaline' tree..

And since we weren't sure just touching it would sear our brains with the memory, we decided to lick it for good measure.

We made plenty of pit stops,

And it seems we were constantly pulling out and putting away tents

Sometimes it got pretty dark... and we forgot a lantern. But when we put ten heads together, we came up with a pretty ingenious solution - Did you know that if you duct tape a pickle juice jar to a water bottle, and then duct tape a flashlight to the bottom of those two, that it will illuminate all the liquid into a very respectable card playing light?

Well - it does.