Our Bellingham trip was a lot of fun. Bellingham is a beautiful city, but the real draw for me is my sister who lives there with her husband and 5 kids. A little side note about my sister – three months after she had her third baby she found out she was pregnant with twins. So, when the twins were born she had 5 kids 5 and under. My older sister has two, so when we are all together it is a beautiful kind of chaos. We are trying to make a trip to Bellingham to gather together an annual tradition. I adore my family, and we all had a lot of fun.
We have these two beautiful people to thank for the their unending love for the kids and 10 grandkids. These are my parents. My mom is the one with all the recipes, and my dad is the one with the marshmallow tree.
We were celebrating our summer birthdays in Bellingham, so we bought a cake to enjoy together. We decided not to do gifts, and the kids seemed all perfectly content just being together. There were gifts for my mom and sister, who were celebrating their birthdays as well.
My older sister came up with the idea to do a chubby bunny contest with the kids. My younger sister and I had visions of our children choking to death on marshmallows and vetoed the idea. I know, “Every party needs a pooper…” We decided to let our husbands choke to death instead. I tell you that it was a much better idea to let the dads to it. It was hilarious, and the kids had a blast watching it.
What kept the kids occupied the whole time? My mom was brilliant. She came up with the idea that the kids should put on a performance for us. These thespians wrote a script, got in costume and rehearsed two different shows practically the whole weekend. The older kids are huge leaders, bent toward the arts and were able to lead the littles in a couple wonderful productions. They had a blast.
Here’s the link to the video for those interested in their production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVE_3XK-1-k&feature=youtu.be
What did the adults do during that time? We were organizing meals, hanging out casually, having deep theological discussions on hard topics (my brother-in-law is a pastor, and we were discussing some points of his sermon) and we even got a game of Phase 10 in the mix.
The great thing about this trip is the bonds that are happening among these sweet kiddos. What a blessing to have a close family.
