Between Erin's Birthday Adventure and our big trip up north was mostly downtime in Cromwell. We celebrated my birthday with pizza, cake, and presents.
As another way to keep kids entertained I ran another treasure-hunt kind of event for Erin's kids. I took pictures throughout the house and then placed a pirate coin near the location from which the picture was taken. I divided them up into easy (wide angle shots with obvious landmarks), medium ("natural" focal distance shots, less obvious landmarks), and hard (telephoto shots with more obscure landmarks). The most difficult, in my opinion, being the one taken zoomed-in through a mirror.
I had the pictures printed at CVS and bought candy for prizes. Working from the pictures, finding each coin earned you a piece of candy and points (2 for easy, 3 for medium, 4 for hard). Whomever got the most points won a pack of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. This was apparently a big motivator for Sawyer who took the grand prize.
On Saturday (6/11) Jess and the girls arrived to bump the cousin count into overdrive.
On Sunday (6/12) I had old high-school friends over to have lunch and hang out for a bit, but took no pictures. Got to see Chris, Bhupal, Matt, and associated families.
And a trip to the splash pad at Watrous Park:
Heather and Corinne had been asking about revisiting Kid City. We thought perhaps they'd grown out of that environment, but with the addition of cousins to play with it was great success.
And, of course, more time playing around Grandma-and-Grandpa's house:
Which included a talent show:
After this, Erin's family returned to Utah and we were geared up for Jess' first international trip!