Derek had a whole 2 weeks off school so we decided to make the most of it and spend time with family. We spent Christmas weekend with the Humpherys family (Pics and post to come). On the 26th Derek flew to Atlanta with his parents and I went back to work for two days. I flew up late on Thursday and met the whole Estes clan in Atlanta. It was the first time since our wedding the whole Estes family was together at the same time! It was an awesome weekend.
Carrie and Dusten flew in from Washington state with Gwen and Arielle. They had tons of delays because of the winter storms in the Northeast but the girls handled it awesome. They stayed over at Buffy's with Buffy, Greg and Chloe. Derek, Me, Vickie and Phil stayed at Steve and Wendy's (about 20 minutes away) with the twins, Layla and Luke. They were great hosts! The brothers/boys spent a lot of time together bonding and enjoying being together and us girls had the chance to take the little girls to do all sorts of fun things. My mother in law planned a plethora of fun activities for the girls and they went nuts. It was a little crazy with 6 girls all the time, but it helped that I had two extra hands to help with.
We took the girls to Build a Bear for a party. The girl who helped us was really good with the kids and they loved it. She had the girls give their bear's heart a kiss and had them do a little good luck dance... it was really cute.
Vickie ordered all of the girls sleeping bags from Pottery Barn. She had them embroidered with their names and then got matching sleeping bags for their bears. She also got them matching pajamas. We had the girls go upstairs at Buffy's and then we laid out all of the sleeping bags with their PJs. They came running down the stairs and found their sleeping bags and PJs then laid around and watched a movie. It was super fun!
Since Carrie now lives in washington, she doesn't have Publix so we had to stop in and get her favorites. She exposed me to Publix two-bite brownies and nutella... It literally changed my world. Best snack ever!
We also had the chance to have family pictures taken while we were there, It was really cold out so we ended up doing it at Steve and Wendy's house. I cant wait to see how they turned out. Here is my sneak pic of Mimi and all her grand babies. They are a ridiculously cute bunch!
Buffy, Carrie and I snuck out for a little girl time and saw Les Mis. IT WAS AMAZING!!! I loved it! I was surprised how emotional I was in it. I saw the traveling Broadway a few years back but the movie just really struck me. Anne Hathaway was killer and Hugh Jackman was a hunk. I can't believe how much talent they recruited for the film. Definitely a classic for me now. And I am glad I got to go with the girls because I am sure Derek would have thought I was a crazy person as I cried through most of it.
Even though we all went in differnt directions during the day, we all got to do dinner together each night. It was a little crazy feeding 17 people, but the chaos was fun. I love being around family and I especially love being an aunt!
We also took a trip to Lego Land. Arielle and Gwen are so funny together. Gwen is the lone blondie in the family... all of the other girls have the exact same shade of brown hair. It looks like our kids have a good change of being brunettes like their mom :) Gwen is currently obsessed with Gangham Style. I think she is partly responsible for getting that YouTube video to a billion views. She can do the dance amazingly well! We told Carrie to tape her and send it to Ellen... we were all dying laughing at her!
Here is Derek with the twins and Chloe. They all loved to jump on their Uncle Derek and have him wrestle with them. He was a trooper!
These girls were my shadows. We had so much fun primping and playing. One of the days Vickie and I loaded Tabitha, Tatum, Arielle and Layla in the mini van to go out. Vickie and I looked back to make sure we had everyone and Tatum said "You guys are so pretty." It was pretty much the cutest thing ever. Tabitha loved to come up to me and grab my cheeks and tell me she loved me. Being an aunt is the best!
I didn't realize little kids loved cameras so much but my phone was hijacked more than one over the trip and I found some pretty funny pictures. This was one of my favorites. Gwen is doing her Popeye smile.
All in all the trip was awesome! I have the best sister-in-laws. They are amazing mothers and I love that we can all be friends. Vickie did so much to plan this trip... it really was a dream for all of us! I look forward to many more trips like this in the future. Hope you all had a great Christmas with your families!
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