Birthdays and Good-Byes

September is my favorite month of the year for many reasons.

                                   

We celebrated Aaron's 39th birthday over Labor Day weekend.

Best ribs ever!

Janene's birthday is just two days earlier so we made a 'mud pie' for each of them.

Bob and Janene

Kristen and Steve

My parents came up to sift and sort stuff at their place in preparation for renters.  It wouldn't be Labor Day weekend without a sizable project included, right?

LaVerne and Ruth - Great-grandparents

Jared and Stephanie

Brinley is getting one last foot zone from Stephanie -- for a very long time:(

My kids LOVE their cousins and spent every possible moment together over the weekend. Along with playing at the tree-fort, the kids had a 'movie night' (while all adults enjoyed an evening out together), rode the carousel and had pizza at the park, went swimming in G-ma and G-pa M's pool, played night games and stayed up late.

  

Elsie in the hammock.

Jantzen waits for his turn on the rope swing - even Tanner still enjoys the 'tree-fort'.

Alison, Jantzen and Grant - making their own river.

Sariah and Anna stop "creating" long enough for me to snap a shot.

While walking from the 'tree-fort' back to G-ma's house, I could hear Jared and Stephanie's kids bidding  fond farewell to this magical place of imagination.

Posing on the porch before our final farewells...

After their group hug came a few tears - my own!

We'll miss you guys! 

And now we have a fabulous reason to visit Hawaii....