We love our visitors!

My sister and her adorable one year old daughter, Avery (husband Ben joined a few days later) came out to visit us.  We packed in a whole lot of fun and good stuff to eat while they were here.

Our first day we headed to the beach.  I think that was on the top of Brittany's list :) and it was a gorgeous day for it!

Twinner cousins, aren't the so cute!

 Kate and her crazy faces

 This boy's pure joy of the summer...swimming

 Avery wasn't a big fan of the waves, I thought it was pretty funny (luckily she really liked our pool)

 We did LOTS of barbequing and eating out on the patio.  I love it!

We also had to introduce Brittany to Rita's Ice.   But did you know Utah is going to be getting one soon...and a Dunkin Donuts!!  Pretty soon we aren't going to have enough draw for people to come out east to visit us ;)

 Blurry, but fun

 Our library had a carnival/petting zoo to kick off the summer reading program.  Kate was fascinated by the llama.  It think they became pretty good friends.  The llama books are some of her favorites.

 You can't come to the Garden State without a visit to one of the local farms to do some fruit picking.  This was our first time ever picking cherries.

 Gotta love that boy!

 We should have stopped sooner because we had WAY too many once it was all combined.  We did however manage to finish them off.  I made a few cherry limeade slushies that were pretty tasty.

 Jake took the big kids one Saturday afternoon to a race track where they got to watch the race cars practicing.  I gave Tommy a hot wheels coloring book for our trip out west.  On the back of it were two ticket-like cards that he cut out.  Almost daily he asked when we could go to the "hot wheels" place.  His wish came true and he loved it.

 So great to have my sister around

We had LOTS of treats while they were in town.  Cotton candy has been a tradition for us on the Fourth of July.  My mom sent us this neat little machine for us to enjoy this holiday.

 And our new family tradition that we had to share was my Blueberry Crisp.  Probably my family's favorite dessert.

 Holiday waffles

 For the Fourth we went to the city.  While Ben and Brittany did the 9/11 memorial, we took our kids to some of their favorite parks in our old neighborhood.  Look at that building, it's come a long way since we lived there.

 Oh why do they not have any splash parks in New Jersey?!

 Hot day, lots of walking, these kids got a little grumpy.  We thought about going to Liberty Island because it opened back up that day (since Sandy) but it's probably a good thing we didn't.

 Then we walked some more and trained over to Hoboken, New Jersey to find a spot to view the Macy's fireworks against the city skyline.

 Katelyn and her dresses.  She loves to twirl and say, "a curtsy."  She's sporting her new underwear there...been potty trained for about a week.

Cute kids, beautiful backdrop

 Waiting for the fireworks

 Katelyn kept saying, "like a rainbow!"  It was truly spectacular.

 And another beach day.  Sadly this one was almost chilly and the water was really cold.  But we still had a great time.

 And more cotton candy :)

Cathching fireflies.  One of my favorite things in summer time!

 It was Katelyn's first experience catching them.  She had a great time running all over the place saying, "I'm gonna getcha!"

Ben made us some delicious homemade donuts

And we topped off their vacation with a trip to Chuck E Cheese

 

Avery was a huge fan of the little merry-go-round

Ben and Brittany also fit in winning the lottery for $30 front row tickets to Wicked, bike rides through campus, a couple trips to the pool, Ben and Jake to a Yankees game, and me and Brittany a girl's night out at the Cheesecake Factory.  My kids loved having Avery around.  Katelyn still talks about her lots and laughs and says, "she's so cute!"  It was fun to get to know my little niece.  She loves to eat and loves to play outside.  I sure miss her!  We miss you all, and hope it's not too long before we see you again.  Thanks so much for coming!!!