Last Summer Hurrah

 We finally made the plunge and purchased a car large enough to fit our whole family in at once.  It was getting a bit inconvenient to have to take two cars everywhere with our new family of 8 so we decided to by a Ford E-series.  It seats 12 so that gives us plenty of room for all of the kids, the gerbils, and even a friend or two.  :) 

Dustin had to fly out to Utah to find and buy our new set of wheels and got to spend a fun couple of weeks with Grandma and Grandpa Phillips.  They had such fun they decided to drive back with Dustin for a fun road trip and to spend the last week of Summer with us before school began again. 

It was such a fun summer treat to have Grandma and Grandpa Phillips come to work and play with us.  They helped us clean out our old cars, paint all of our brand new detached garage, share their yummy garden produce from Utah, and of course do a few small fixer-upper decor projects around the house. 

Showing off our new family van.  When did we get to be such a big family?!?!

Grandma brought this Armenian Cucumber from her home garden in Utah.  It was delicious, as long as Baby John, and funny. 

When  Maeve saw the giant vegetable she asked Grandma Phillips, "Grandma, what do you call that!?"  Grandma told her, "It's an Armenian Cucumber."  To which Maeve replied with disbelief at Grandma's total lack of being in touch with reality, "Grandma, that's not a medium cucumber.  That's a HUGE cucumber!." 

We all got a good laugh out of that misheard miscommunication.  :D

Grandma also managed to squeeze in a spray painting up-cycling project for our backyard patio.  She showed Xavier how to sand and spray paint our old, ugly iron outdoor table and turn it into a fashionable, attractive new black table.  Xavier did a fabulous job, worked very hard, and got a much needed self esteem boost for a job well done. 

At the end of the week we decided it was much to sad to let Grandma and Grandpa go back to Utah, but their plane tickets called.  The time went by too fast, we had too much fun, we will miss them too much, and it will feel like too long until we get to spend some more time with two of our favorite people in the world.  We love you Grandma and Grandpa P!