Another Visit from Aunt Blanche!

For the third time in the past two years, we were treated to a visit from Ron's Aunt Blanche from San Francisco.  Like the first visit, she flew up to see us over the Veteran's holiday weekend.  Unlike last time, Ron was not here the majority of her visit as he left early Thursday morning to drive to Montana to spend the weekend hunting with my nephew, Spencer, while I stayed behind with the kids to host Aunt Blanche.  Ron arrived back home Sunday afternoon and Aunt Blanche flew out a few hours later.  During the four days that she was here, I planned an outing for every morning.  We then came home for a quiet afternoon so that Emmett could take his nap and then we spent every evening also at home for dinner and a movie night.  It was a simple, more relaxing pace that we all were in need of having.  As always, Aunt Blanche came bringing gifts and activities for the kids and was full of fun-loving energy.  All of the children just loved being with her and were so sad to see her leave (especially poor Ella who just craves constant attention from anyone who will give it to her).  I am grateful that we were able to find this weekend to fit Aunt Blanche into our busy schedule before the holiday season really whips into high gear in the next week or so.  Here are a few pictures of our weekend together.

On Thursday morning, November 11th, I took the kids and Aunt Blanche to Defy recreation center in Tacoma that I had discovered the day before while doing some research online.  This facility was amazing and the kids had such an great time playing on all of the incredible equipment.  Here are the kids posing with Aunt Blanche next to the Christmas tree in the entry way.

Ella and Logan swinging through the hanging rope vines above one of the many massive foam pits.

Emmett, Lia, and Ella getting ready to go down one of the trampoline slides.

We managed to stop all four kids from moving for a few seconds to take this group picture of them.

Logan flying out on one of the aerial silks.

Ella landing on a large pad.

Lia getting ready to go out.

Logan flying along on the zip line.

Lia's turn!

Ella getting ready to take off.

Ella following Emmett through the obstacle course above the foam pit.

Logan and Ella posing for me after battling it out with massive, padded clubs on the plank.

Aunt Blanche helping Emmett across the foam log.

My cutie trying to climb out of the pit.

Although the kids technically had school again on Friday, November 12th, I decided to pull both Logan and Ella out so that they could spend the day with us.  I took all of them to our favorite Children's Museum in Tacoma that we haven't visited since before the pandemic.  They all loved it--especially Emmett who has no memories of ever being there before!  Here is Emmett and Logan playing in the cute, interactive water section of the museum.

Ella playing inside the massive log fort.

Logan "painting" with water on one of the tile canvases.

Ella climbing around inside the massive rope structure that was installed during the closure of the pandemic.

Ella walking along on the wooden boards below the ropes.

The great picture Aunt Blanche took of Emmett climbing around on the ropes.

On Saturday, November 13th, we went to both of Ella's and Logan's soccer games with a quick lunch in between the two.  I was so glad that Aunt Blanche was able to watch both of them play, especially since this game was Ella's last one of the season.

Aunt Blanche kindly joined us all for church on Sunday morning, November 14th.  We came back to the house for nap times and Sunday dinner before leaving at 7 p.m. to take her to the airport.  Here is a group picture of the gang all dressed up in their Sunday best after we came home from church yesterday.