Mann oh Mann

We went down to Redding last weekend for a work convention and we got to meet up with my sister Amber and her family -- their last name is Mann -- get my title? Funny right? Right?!?

Anyways - anyone who knows me knows that my family is everything to me. We are all extremely close -- and most of us live extremely close together. All but my oldest sister Amber -- she is still down in California. We used to live in San Luis Obispo together and we got to raise our girls together there for a while - but then they moved away and then later we moved up to Oregon. I hate it that we live so far away. Our kids have a special bond. Addie --my shy shy girl is her total self with her cousin Ella. I love the way they bring out the best in each other. They all watch out for each other and they have so much fun together. I really hate that we live so far away. So any chance we have to get back together -- we jump at it. I know I mentioned before that they met up with us to go to Disneyland -- but what you may not know was that it's an 7-8 hour drive for them -- and they only stayed 1 day!! That's love. :) And I would do anything for them as well. Just being around them makes me happy.

So when Sam said he had a convention down in Redding -- I said I would only go if Amber and Thomas were going. And they did -- so me and the kids went too. It was a short trip -- but we made the most of it and it was a really fun weekend. Here is a bunch of pictures from it....

this is from a cool children's museum.......

it was hot -- needed an ice cream break.............
inside a butterfly atrium -- Nia and Gwen are examining the different kinds of species.....
the little window they are looking at have a bunch of chrysalis's hanging -- while we were watching -- we saw two butterflies hatch out of them -- it was really cool. (i also love how the girls are always touching each other - so sweet)...........
The next day we went to this really cool park -- here is me and my sister Amber..........
the kids having so much fun playing together...............
the boys swinging -- Tomasi and Jackson..............
This was a cool water feature in the park -- it was a volcano thing that would errupt with water every 6 minutes (well it was suppose to be every 6 - but sometimes it was longer) .......................
the water exploding out of the volcano.............
addie...................
Ella and Nia.................
you can kind of see Gwenny here -- I had to crop the picture because Addie kept jumping in front of her......................
haha -- Thomas walked thru the water with Lisi and Jackson -- they didn't like it so much :)

** side note: Thomas is a wonderful uncle(and bro-in-law) -- he truly loves my kids and both me and the kids can sense that -- we're so glad Amber married him :)
We went out to ice cream at Leatherbee's (don't know if that is how you spell it??) - it was good :) ................................
back in the hotel -- we played cards, a tradition -- this time the kids played their own game.

Amber and Thomas also had my girls come stay at their hotel with them 2 nights -- they loved that.
The last day we walked out on this cool bridge. The ground is glass. Sam stepped in dog poo -- hahaha. We put our feet in the river (and other body parts ended up being dunked by Sam) -- the water was painfully cold -- but it felt good because it was hot!!
The kids posing -- this picture of Jackson cracks me up..............
the girls -- Elisiva (Ella), Gwendylan (Gwenny), Veisinia (Nia), Addie, and Tolisi (Lisi)
Now comes the hard part -- saying goodbye. I'm pretty good at shutting down all emotion when it's time to say good bye otherwise it's too hard for me -- but my children's little hearts break every time. And truth be told -- so does mine. Even looking at this picture now makes my eyes teary.

Until next time ---- and hopefully someday we can live close to each other again. Have I mentioned -- I LOVE my family!! :)