Mother's Day Reunion
For Mother's Day this year we made a trip to be with the side of our family that lives in SoCal. We don't usually go out of town for Mother's Day, but this year all 4 of my husband's siblings were in SoCal for about 10 days, so we decided to join them for a 3-day weekend. This was quite a reunion for the family, since we hadn't seen our siblings who live in the Philippines in 2 years! They even have a new son who we got to meet for the first time! My sis-in-law is also home from working overseas in Asia for the past year, so it was good to see her again too.
Between my hubby & his 4 siblings there are now 9 grandchildren. That number may not be too impressive, but consider this: the oldest is 8 years old. The rest are 4 years old and under. Imagine: 8 kids (6 of them boys) under the age of 5 running around under the same roof together for 3 days! (Actually the three youngest can't really run yet, but you get the picture.) It was still pretty crazy. But for the most part, it was crazy in a good way. Obviously all the cousins don't get to see each other that often, so we have to seize these opportunities to make memories together.
Look at all these kids!
Another highlight was getting to meet the family's second granddaughter. Sa-Pe & Sa-Mm had their first baby 2 weeks before Mother's Day. Yay! We are so excited that there is another girl in the family so our daughter will have a buddy amongst all those boys to hang out with.
On Saturday, we went to a park the first night and had a photographer friend take some photos of everyone. It was pretty hillarious to try and get everyone to look the same way at the same time, but I think we did get some cute shots. (they're all over this post!)
On Mother's Day we went to church together and in the afternoon, my sis-in-law treated all the ladies out to foot reflexology/massage and dinner at Cheesecake Factory. The guys watched all the kiddos for us. This was a really late night for us & the kids. It was so nice & relaxing though!
We stayed through until Monday evening. The highlight on Monday was going to another park with all the kids. The weather was perfect. We laid out a couple of blankets, and someone brought a baseball bat & balls. The boys all played baseball then climbed on the play structures, while a few of us adults stayed with the babies on the blankets & chatted.
The trip home was also pretty amazing. After 3 days of playing with cousins and not getting much sleep, our kids were wiped out! After one hour in the car, they were sleeping soundly and did not wake up until we got home many hours later. And then we pretty much just put them in their beds where they kept sleeping. My husband and I were reflecting how nice it was to just have conversation together that was uninterrupted while we drove home. We can't really remember the last time we had so much quiet in the car. We even wondered what we used to talk about during all of those long car trips before we had kids. Who knows? Something really important I'm sure.
The weekend went by much too fast, and I wish we could've had more time to spend with our family down south. We decided that next time, we will all have to go to the Philippines to visit our relatives there!
A special moment with A-Ma
Gong-Gong loves to hold his granddaughter
All the boys
I love my aunties!
Between my hubby & his 4 siblings there are now 9 grandchildren. That number may not be too impressive, but consider this: the oldest is 8 years old. The rest are 4 years old and under. Imagine: 8 kids (6 of them boys) under the age of 5 running around under the same roof together for 3 days! (Actually the three youngest can't really run yet, but you get the picture.) It was still pretty crazy. But for the most part, it was crazy in a good way. Obviously all the cousins don't get to see each other that often, so we have to seize these opportunities to make memories together.
Look at all these kids!
Another highlight was getting to meet the family's second granddaughter. Sa-Pe & Sa-Mm had their first baby 2 weeks before Mother's Day. Yay! We are so excited that there is another girl in the family so our daughter will have a buddy amongst all those boys to hang out with.
On Saturday, we went to a park the first night and had a photographer friend take some photos of everyone. It was pretty hillarious to try and get everyone to look the same way at the same time, but I think we did get some cute shots. (they're all over this post!)
On Mother's Day we went to church together and in the afternoon, my sis-in-law treated all the ladies out to foot reflexology/massage and dinner at Cheesecake Factory. The guys watched all the kiddos for us. This was a really late night for us & the kids. It was so nice & relaxing though!
We stayed through until Monday evening. The highlight on Monday was going to another park with all the kids. The weather was perfect. We laid out a couple of blankets, and someone brought a baseball bat & balls. The boys all played baseball then climbed on the play structures, while a few of us adults stayed with the babies on the blankets & chatted.
The trip home was also pretty amazing. After 3 days of playing with cousins and not getting much sleep, our kids were wiped out! After one hour in the car, they were sleeping soundly and did not wake up until we got home many hours later. And then we pretty much just put them in their beds where they kept sleeping. My husband and I were reflecting how nice it was to just have conversation together that was uninterrupted while we drove home. We can't really remember the last time we had so much quiet in the car. We even wondered what we used to talk about during all of those long car trips before we had kids. Who knows? Something really important I'm sure.
The weekend went by much too fast, and I wish we could've had more time to spend with our family down south. We decided that next time, we will all have to go to the Philippines to visit our relatives there!
A special moment with A-Ma
Gong-Gong loves to hold his granddaughter
All the boys
I love my aunties!
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