What a great weekend....

The pictures posted backwards.... so to see them in order you have to scroll down to the last picture and go up. I'll get the hang of this sooner or later. After his bath to get the clorine out, getting
ready to go to dinner

Looks like he's thinking

"But mommy I want to go in again."

Drying off after his swim.

Xavier's first swim.

The picture that was textd to me saying they

were at a gas station.

My parents and I left home after Sunday school to head to Cincinnati. After several phone calls and text messeges to and from different family members we arrived at our hotel. If I'm not mistaken it was 24? floors? We found out that Aaron, Chris, Xavier, Ashley, and Adam were sharing a room on the 17th floor, mom and dad were on the 14th floor, Carrie, Robert and the boys were on the 12th floor, Frances, Marlissa, and I were on the 8th floor, and Marlina, David and Daniel were on the 7th floor. Even though we were all on different floors we kept in touch by a WHOLE LOT of cell phone calls.

So all of us, except Marlina and David's crew walked to Skyline chili for dinner,(Which made poor mom sick all night) and then headed to the river. We never met up with the B crew until we got back to the hotel and found out they were all in the parents room. So I collected the girls, and we headed to our room.

I have to admit, at first the thought of sharing a room with two teenage girls that I knew very little about made me a wee nervous. I really didn't KNOW my cousins. I mean sure we see each other what 4 or 5 times a year? But to share a room? Not only that, but the fear of offending Marlina and David by "allowing" the girls to do something they may not be allowed to do normally, put fear into me. I kept thinking to myself... "It's only for 1 night, I CAN do this, surely I can put up with two girls for 1 night."

One of the first things Marlissa stated when we walked into the room was "I've never been to a slumber party,'" so it didn't take Frances or I long to decide to make this a fun filled evening for Marlissa. After showers were taken, we pulled out my dvd player to watch (I was afraid of turning on the tv, I know hotels usually have cable and stations like HBO. That's why I brought the dvd player) "Enchanted", which Marlissa loved. Frances? Not so much.

Afterwards we talked. We had each other laughing so hard our sides hurt, and tears were falling. At around 3 AM we were thirsty and didn't feel like paying $4 for the liter of water that was left in the room. Since it was officially Monday, and knew it wouldn't offend anyone, we went to the vending machines.

Marlissa fell asleep sometime after 4:30 in the morning. Frances and I talked long into the night about everything from siblings to sharing WKFM experinences. But mainly she told me about her angel experiences, she has stories that gave my goosebumps goosebumps. And one particular story had me in tears. I told her she HAS to write down her experiences, and maybe someday in the future maybe even get it published. I would be first in line to buy the book.

I finally told her at 7 AM that we really needed to get some sleep, since I had to be checked out and meet my parents at 9:30. I was so afraid of the girls not being ready in time, I set my alarm for 8:30. When my second alarm went off at 8:40, I found both girls up, dressed and waiting for me.

After sending the girls back to their parents room, and the rest of us meeting in the lobby, We kind of went our seperate ways for breakfast. Marlina and David had to run up to GBS while the rest of us headed to Dunkin Doughnuts. Since Robert went with my parents, I had the priveledge to ride with Carrie and the boys.

After eating breakfast Brennan and Jared wanted to ride in my dad's truck, so I got to ride with Carrie and Robert. The truck went to the park, while we drove to meet up with Marlina and David. When we got to the park, we realized that Austin and Mary Beth (Austin's girlfriend) were already there, so we went and found the picnic area we stayed at last year, and settled in for the day.

After eating, dad and Chris rented a motorboat, Austin, Mary Beth, Ashley, and Adam jumped onto a paddleboat, Carrie's crew and Marlina's crew went frisbee golfing, while mom and I sat on the bench under a tree with Xavier and watched our crew boat. Chris, mom, and I had a "code", every so often dad would go past us, if we waved at them, Xavier was fine, however if we waved our arms, it meant Xavier needed Chris.

I eventually called Marlina and passed the word on that dad had rented the motorboat for 3 hours, and anyone who wanted a ride could get one. Robert took Daniel, Brennan and Jared out, and then he took Carrie, Marlissa, and I out. Who went out when is such a blur, since they were coming in about every 15-30 mins to switch riders. I would have to say Carrie's boys and Daniel got most of the time out on the water. Eventually Jeremy, Beth, Frances and Jes decided to take a rowboat out.... Poor Jeremy, it didn't take him long to be willing to pass the oars over to Aaron so he could take Mary Beth, Ashley and Austin out.

All in all EVERYONE had fun. Then we went back to the picnic area, ate, and shortly after started heading home. It was a great weekend