Quality Time with the Reitz's

Yesterday LL and I were able to spend some quality time with the fam, minus Gram Reitz and Great Uncle Barney. Every year before all the kids went their separate ways, the family would get together at a state park for a picnic. This year, with all of the kids back home and a passel of grandkids, we returned to R. B Winter State Park for a combined 1st birthday party for my nieces... both of Lloyd's brothers' little girls turn one 10 days apart! What's really crazy is they both have little boys who are 4 months apart, so these cousins are all really close in age, and LL's sister's little girl was born in between the boys and the other girls...so that makes 5 Reitz grandchildren, with the oldest 2 and a half! And by January there will be 2 more- INSANITY! Anyway, LL was able to get another Dr. to cover his on-call time Sunday afternoon so he could join us (they call him the "cursed Dr."--every time he is on call he gets a million emergencies in and spends 12-20 hours straight at the hospital), so we were able to go for a few hours before he had to be back at 6:00pm for a c-section. It poured in the morning, but the rain cleared up just before lunch and we had a wonderful picnic! Here are a few shots of the festivities:

Karen and Tabby ready to try their cake:


They were a little unsure at first, but then they got into it! Karen was the first to dive in....


But then Tabby got into it too...


Both girls loved the presents!


But not quite as much as their big brothers! Here is Oliver helping Karen with her new ride-on toy (such little Blondies!)


And Isaac helped out Tabby, too (don't you just LOVE the red hair? Although I may be a little biased! lol)


I was taking pictures with multiple people's cameras, and I realized a didn't get as many pictures on my camera as I thought I did, so I don't have a great close-up of Autumn, but here's one with Matt and Gwen and Autumn, with LL relaxing in the background. I don't want her to be left out! :o)


I was able to give the girls some gorgous dresses made by my great friend Amanda The dresses turned out so precious and I can't wait to take pictures of the girls wearing them! They each have one matching dress and one different dress, and when our little one comes she also has one matching dress and one different one. So fun! Thanks Amanda!!

After the cake, ice cream, and presents, we all decided to go down to the beach for a little bit. We had literally just put one foot on the beach when the park officials called for everyone to get out of the water because of thunder, and then about 5 minutes after that the sky opened up and it POURED! They guys did a quick run to get all of the vans (we are a total mini-van family lol) and load everyone--chaos! The drive home proved challenging... there were tress down everywhere, and even some trees on fire on power lines! Because we live pretty well in the middle of nowhere, we had to take a lot of back roads to get home, and each way we tried we were stopped by either downed trees or flooded roadways! I swear it was like a small tornado had hit! We did finally make it home, and LL wasn't even late for his surgery, so it was a good day.

Either late tonight or tomorrow my mom comes to visit! I am so excited to see her and I will undoubtedly have lots to post after our time together!