Gallingers Come to AZ!

May has been such an exciting month; however, it has definitely made me fall behind with blogging! The week of May 3rd (yes, I'm 3 weeks behind!) was quite the busy week in the Poortinga household!!  It started off with my parents visiting & getting in some shopping & good eating.  It was also their 35th wedding anniversary, so it was fun to get to celebrate that with them!

Gallinger's Fly in
A few days later, my brother's family flew in from Omaha.  From the moment my adorable nieces walked in the door, our house seemed to jump into high gear!  Maree was immediately shown lots of cousinly love & you can see that Maree loved the attention :)

After Caylee gave Maree pretty much every toy that was in her toy bin, they decided it was time to try out the pool!!  I wish I had pictures of how brave little miss Anna was - she sure had to work up the courage to jump in - but once she did, there was no going back!!

I can't believe Anna is grown up enough to hold a 20lb Maree!!

Bed Time Fun
The first night was the only night we had them all in the same room.  A "slumber party" in Maree's room, on a blowup bed, lost it's appeal pretty quickly and poor Brett and Tara had to spend the rest of the vacation sharing a queen bed with their two little ones.   BUT, at least we got a couple sweet pictures to remember this night!

We had some trouble getting Maree to look at the camera - but she was mesmerized by Brett & would just stare at him  -so he provided some help in getting her to look for this one

3 peas in a pod!

Girls Day!
Another day was spent shopping and going to lunch - it is so fun to go out as a group of all girls!!

St. Louis Cardinals
While we girls did arguably more "fun" things, the boys golfed.  However, the main purpose of the visit for the guys was to get to watch the Cardinals play.  So one of the nights, my mom babysat all the grand girls and the rest of us went to the game!  It was a lot of fun, and of course, it helps that the Cardinals won!

Marc isn't included in this picture for two reasons:
1. he didn't wear a cardinals shirt & 2. he is a cubs fan!

Before the game Miss Maree was SO happy to be with Grandma & Grandpa

Pool Time
Every time I talked to Tara leading up to their trip out, I would hear the girls talk about how excited they were to go swimming here in Arizonia (as Anna calls it). So, I decided that the walk-in pool at the Fairmont Princess Hotel was the way to go so we wouldn't have to constantly worry that the girls were going to go under & therefore the adults could enjoy a few drinks & some sun too!  I the girls liked it - especially Anna who threw water in the air and told us all that this was the "BEST DAY EVER!!"

Anna was brave enough to give these slides a try, but Caylee wasn't so sure about them

All Tuckered Out
And, as it always seems to happen, the heat combined with playing in the pool made for tired girls.  Maree was always the first to lose the battle... but on our second day, Miss Caylee was done for too!

Having everyone out was so much fun, and I really hope it happens again sometime soon :)  Before I end this post, I have to state some things that I learned from this trip:

• We need a bigger house!!
• My nieces were able to make Maree laugh, but I can't - apparently I'm not very funny!
• Doors can't be left open in May because scorpions are already looking to find their way in to escape the heat
• Two year olds are a lot of work!!
• Minivans may not be stylish, but they are AMAZING for hauling kids around.