Awwwwwwww

We finally were able to work it out to go down and meet Baby Hugsy (or Baby Hans as Allie seems to have renamed him...)!! It was sort of last minute, but we realized that we either had to go down this week or it probably wouldn't happen until September! Not acceptable.

And my apologies for the terrible quality of the pictures. I still haven't quite gotten the knack of taking pictures in low-light settings without using the flash...

The twins spent a lot of time caring for the baby pig. This was my favorite. They put him in the swing with all of the things he needs (which is apparently 2 sippy cups and 3 remotes!)

Allie meeting Hugsy for the first time.

Napping with Uncle Lucas

"I'm not too big!"

Proud Auntie & Uncle (at least, I was trying to look proud...the look came out more dazed than anything...)

Some highlights of the trip (besides seeing the baby, which is a given):

Being able to help Lala while Uncle G was out of town for a night. She's much more brave than I to even consider doing a night entirely alone!

Chick-Fil-A! Where Ryan got to the top of the climbing structure and wouldn't come down. Lucas had to coerce some of the other kids into forcing him down the slide!

Taking the night shift with Hugsy. I discovered that the night shift with a newborn is a LOT more enjoyable when you know you will get sleep the next night. And it is even more enjoyable and easy to offer when you know that you will never have another night shift with a newborn (unless, as in this situation, I choose to)! I actually enjoyed the middle of the night feedings where it was just me & Hugsy.

The twins LOVE Indy, and really enjoyed playing with her (not sure if Indy enjoyed it though...).

Helping feed Hugsy

Hi, Hugsy!

For Ry-guy, the trip was more about seeing Lala than anything else. The whole morning at church (before we left), he was saying "Go see Lala!" The second the service ended, Ryan started walking out of the sanctuary yelling, "BYE, church! I go see Lala!" And when we were at their house, any time Lala was out of the room he would start saying, "Where's Lala? Wanna see Lala!" He adores his Lala.

Sorry about all of the leg in this picture. I tried to crop it, but it made it surprisingly more prominent! But I love this picture because the twins are singing to Baby Hugsy.

Chillin' together.

It was hard to leave. 3.5 hours doesn't sound like much, but it is just far enough that it doesn't work well for a random day trip or something like that. I've become accustomed to living close enough to my nieces that we can get together whenever, and it made me sad to not know when we would see him (them) again. I think I'm going to have to demand that all future nieces and nephews live within a 2 hour radius :)