Family Cookout

My mom finally got approved on my brother's prison visitation list, so we all traveled up to my sister's in Portage to hang out while she went and visited him.  It was SO much fun!  Not only did Mom get to see all of her descendants (minus the ones adopted into other families), but we had a blast just playing together...and, of course, eating together, too.  :) 

After Mom dropped us all off, she went to visit with Seth.  Meanwhile, Caida helped me make the fruit salad (she put in all the grapes, and peeled and sectioned off mandarin oranges all by herself, and handed me the rest of the fruit we cut).  Cerene brought out the photo albums and we sisters reminisced for a while.  Paul got to play with puppies and kiddies (what a trooper!)...

Paul was in DEMAND--Tanner (a real guys' guy), puppy Riley, and Caida on the Wii all demanded his attention at the same time.

 Then we adjourned outside...the weather was just about perfect (if not a little too sunny) for playing!

Paul spent just as much time playing with Leo...

...and drooling with James about the neighbor's car and how much cooler it looked parked in the yard instead of the driveway.  :)

And then he came back to playing with the kiddies...he and Tanner threw a ball around the yard.

My cutie nephew.

He likes to wear his hats backwards...he's from the hood.  ;)

He liked stepping in things that weren't grass.  He's a lot like his daddy (my brother), who liked to get in the middle of everything.  Also, he ran happily into walls and people and didn't mind pain at all.

He also liked to get right in the middle of Caida's first baseball swings ever.  She's going to be enrolled in baseball this summer...and I think it'll be a lot more successful than soccer, because she's not afraid of the ball in THIS sport at all!

Here is mommy (pitcher) and Aunt Charissa (catcher) playing ball with her.

She occasionally needed some help, but whenever someone helped her this directly, she just giggled.

Still, perfect practice makes perfect!

Look at that stance!

She's got the LOOK of a ball player down, anyway!

She also had several good hits...can't wait to see her after she's really practiced!

When Mom got back from visiting Seth (an experience in and of itself), she was pretty worn out.  She learned how to take awesome pictures and videos with her new Windows phone, so mostly that's what she did.  :)

Meanwhile, James manned the grill.  AND IT WAS SOOOOOO GOOD!  We had grilled porkchops, corn on the cob, and potatoes (with all the fixin's).  Also, pasta salad, fruit salad, and Hawaiian bread.  I wish we could eat like that every day!!! 

After that, we all digested for a bit on the couch as they showed us their Kinect.  I want one now!  :)  Then we had to head home.  :(  It's always so much fun to be with family, especially now that it takes a little more effort and planning to do so with everyone's school and jobs and lives getting in the way.  Thanks again, James and Cerene, for a FUN Saturday family cookout!