Northern Exposure

You know, I really shouldn't be sitting here at the computer. But geez louise. Do you ever have those days when you just cannot get motivated? Miles has croup and we can't really go anywhere. So instead of staying home and being productive (a.k.a. cleaning MY room which is a mess - the rest of the house is almost impeccable *gasp*), I am sitting here. The kids have been out on the deck for a good chunk of the day so they're not even requiring much of me. I need to just GET UP already. But just when I thought I would I realized I hadn't blogged the recent Iowa Kilgore Invasion yet! So here I sit some more.:)

*Warning...there is not a single picture of my brother Jerry, or my SIL, Sara. Apparently I really, really, really love my nieces and nephew a lot more. Though, due to this tunnel vision I am sad to say there are NO PICTURES of "Side Pony Night" which occurred last Friday and consisted of Sara sporting a side-pony that was then duplicated by all the other girls (with hair) in the house. My apologies. I was laughing too hard to think about my camera.

Apparently this is how Owen sleeps every night. He's the perfect Kilgore/Blanchard mix.

This is what Taylor and Lydia did whenever they had a free moment.

Lydia on the park Gaby on the park Miles and Owen LOVED each other. Owen and Sophia? Not so much. Owen referred to Sophie exclusively as, "The Baby." Usually said with a pretty fierce scowl - which was usually a reflection of the scowl Sophie was giving him.

You can take the teenager out of the kid but you can't take the kid out of the teenager.  Lydia found Chase's Russian chess board. And proceeded to skewl Taylor every chance she got. Twilight came out on DVD right before the crew got here. So of course we had to watch it! Jerry joined us (HAH!) and we all had fun cracking jokes at the silly one-liners. As a result we made Twilight-themed cups (everyone knows that when you have Kilgores visiting you have to buy plastic cups and label them, right?). Sara and Jerry got "Stupid Lamb," and "Sick, Masochistic Lion."

After repeatedly referring to Rob Pattinson as "Edward smacked-in-the-face-with-a-frying-pan Cullen" Sara came up with the more brief, "La Push Face." And thus Taylor's cup was born.

Mine: "Chase's Personal Brand of Heroin." As it turns out this turned out to be a PG-13 rated cup. I sat at the dinner table with it and when Lydia asked me to turn it so she could read it I realized that maybe it was more appropriate for an older crowd:)

Owen a.k.a. sCareBear. Owen accessorized this costume with a couple of swords. Sara wanted to put a big red circle with a slash through it (what the heck is that symbol called, Chrysta - you know, like in Ghostbusters?!) over the rainbow. sCareBear indeed.

  This was NOT a costume. This is pure Taylor.

Lydia made this super sweet nature doll for me. That girl is awesome.

Taylor standing on a rock in the middle of the nature preserve parking lot. I managed to make it look like she climbed Mt. Kilamanjaro (or at least Governor Dick? - and you have to be from Pee-Yay to know what Governor Dick is...)

Pretty Princesses.

 

So overall the trip was SO FUN. The weather stank but that just meant that we got to stay home in our pj's. We shopped a little, ate a lot, laughed a ton. I wish we could do this EVERY WEEK...

Have I ever mentioned that I heart my family? I'm a big fan.