The Henrie Visit

Brigitte is the best visitor there is. We have lived in Connecticut for 13 short months and she has already been out to visit 3 times!! Each time has been so different and fun and this time she was able to bring Caden along with her to experience the beach.

They planned their trip for a whole week and were luckily able to make it on time after Leah broke her toe a few days before coming and it ended up getting infected. On Tuesday, a few hours before their red-eye flight took off they found out it wasn't serious enough to admit her, but she had a fever and would be on antibiotics the whole trip. 

The first couple mornings were spent doing this. It is so fun to have them come for so long because there is a lot of relaxing that goes on. (Notice Leah's little booty on her foot)

There was also lots of this going on. Brig did Hanna's hair, the Monsen's hair and half of the Handy family's hair. Luckily she loves doing it and gets to meet so many of my friends because of her talents. We also had another Glitter Toe party that went really smoothly with tons of cute gals.

We headed to Newport, RI to check out the big waves and gorgeous landscape. We were lucky enough to have our good friends Nicole and Peter come with us and it allowed all of us to go together since the 3 kids took up our back seat, there wasn't enough room for the remaining 3 adults. 

 It took Thad some convincing by Dad, but he finally got in the waves and couldn't get enough!

 Caden had no fear and would head out into the waves as far as he could.

(Notice our fancy foot work on Leah. Band-aids, produce sacks, water proof tape and socks will keep a wound clean at the beach.)

 What a fun bunch!

 These waves were really so much fun and a good change from the tiny ones on our beaches.

 The debris on the children is red algae that was in the water. They didn't care.

 After our long search we finally found an umbrella to buy at the beach...who would have thought!? 

 Thad copying the big kids.

 Sweet Nicole and her awesome baby, Bo.

Our fun travel buddies.
Nicole and Peter are so easy going and Bo was such a good boy. They were the perfect people to go on a relaxing road trip with.

The rest of the weekend was spent worrying about the car and if it was going to be able to be driven to the Hamptons on Monday. The car over heated on the way home from the airport when picking Brig up, but we thought it was taken care of until we were on our way home from Newport. Brian replaced the battery and thermostat Sunday morning, we drove to church and thought all as taken care of. 

Little did we know that we would be spending all of Monday afternoon and evening consumed with car problems. 

We packed up and headed to the Hamptons for our long awaited overnight stay that got cancelled last summer due to car problems. Things were going perfect until we were crossing the bridge into Queens...the car started over heating again! We were so sad, but between coasting and revving the engine, we were able to make it to a car shop to get it looked at. We were certainly bummed, but walked down the street to get pizza and entertain the children. EVERYONE was so nice to us! Even the barber who let me use the bathroom gave the kids suckers while they were waiting for me. We got bad news that the head gasket needed to be replaced and that they couldn't fix it then and there. We decided we would rent a car and still head out. After spending an hour at the rental place and paying for the car, we decided to back out for several reasons and reluctantly headed back to CT to make big plans for the next day. Brig was super bummed, but such a good sport about the whole thing. For some reason our car does not like her and it has just not been meant for us to make it to the Hamptons. We will make it there someday, Brig, I swear!

We decided to rent a car and head to Jones Beach on Long Island and it sure didn't disappoint. 

 The kids ran wild as soon as we got there!

 They barely slowed down enough for me to get these couple shots.

 How fun to be with cousins!

 I love this gal.

 The happy Henries.

 The kids spent a lot of time in the sand because these waves were a bit intimidating.

Brig and I were even a little nervous in these ones.

 Drying off and warming up after playing in the water and getting ready to go. 

Brig and I didn't play in the water with the kids until the very end because it finally warmed up outside. We were so glad we did, because the kids loved running from the big waves with us.

Caden HATED having a damp swim suit on so we had to get him out of it ASAP before he turned ugly. :)

 It was Dad's birthday, so we definitely thought of him all day while we were at the beach wishing he could be there with us. 

Brig and I made his favorite cake, German chocolate, before leaving and it was nice treat to come home to after eating our Chinese take out. 

Their last day was spent taking pictures at the beach (which will come as soon as Brig gets them to me), playing at the park, eating at McDonald's, some more hair and packing up.

 Getting all the last minute cousin time they could!

 Obviously Thad's new favorite trick.

To say the least, their visit was AWESOME! We had such a fun time and lots of other things in between all these pictures. We weren't great about taking pictures, but spent time at some local beaches, were able to go to a movie together, trips to Stew Leonard's and have lots of relaxing time. It's always hard to document everything, but we just had a great time.

Thanks to the Henries for being such fun visitors and dealing with all the car shenanigans. We love you guys so much and can't wait for your next visit.