Mile High Vogels: Cousins n Stuff

Here's a little wedding picture teaser....aren't they precious? I'll do a post dedicated to the wedding soon, but there are a TON of irresistibly lovable pics of cousins and family surrounding the wedding that need attention. I apologize for the mass amount of kid snapshots- these little people (and bigger people) live deep in my heart, so they get prime blogging space.

We arrived in Chicago last week Wednesday afternoon in the midst of severe weather (thank you Mr. Tornado for staying away while we were mid flight). An hour delay was manageable and the kiddos made it in one, happy piece. My nephews, Dylan & Hudson, were waiting for us with Aunt Kira at Nana and Papa's house and D stayed with us until Friday. THAT was a treat. The boys ate up their time together. As did their Nana and Papa, might I add. On Thursday Tim and I brought Squirt downtown to meet Uncle Nick, Aunt Caylei and cousin Chase (3 days younger). It was rather priceless to see the two of them together. Caylei cooked up a masterpiece meal for us - sure do wish we could see them more often.

The Kwas/Vog boys at Nana & Papa's park.

This is heaven to my parents. Does it get better than 4 grand kids all in one place? I think not.

Little clean bundle. No more airplane heebies.

Brownie picnic on the kitchen floor.

On Friday we headed up to Holland, stopping at our favorite lunch spot, Cranes- a quaint orchard with home made pie, fresh cider and a simple menu. A little taste of Michigan heaven if you ask me. The boys relished their time on the stationary tractor and I took advantage of the rustic photo shoot opportunities.

The afore-mentioned stationary tractor. Provided a good 45 minutes of entertainment.

Love this shot.

They both love to randomly hug each other. Just doesn't work out that they love it at the exact same times.

Next stop was Tim's family cottage in Holland. Our favorite place to be. We both said, over and over, how it needs to be our goal to spend summers there some day. How? I haven't the slightest, but we can still dream, right. Tim's brother's family graciously drove in from Toronto to spend Saturday with us, which was just what the doctor ordered. The kids got to spend time together and they all got to meet our little Squirt. The cold, rainy gloom didn't stop us from hamming it up. Thanks for the visit guys! Wish we could do it more often.

My big dude. Isn't he so studly?

After all the kid pics, I thought it might be refreshing for you to see the face behind the camera for once. You're welcome.

The Vog boys, minus baby Chase.

So spankin' cute. Some day Squirt will make the pictures.

Grandma's brood!

Squirt's first beach intro. Didn't have much of an opinion either way.

We walked all the way to Big Red (the lighthouse). Dude ran the whole way there in excitement to touch the huge red structure.

Our chubby monkey and her Nana in their matching green.

Ahhhhh.....

Tim's mom did a lot of babysitting of Squirt for us during wedding festivities, which was a life saver. Quality Grandma time is always welcomed. Memorial Day ended up being a great beach day - thank you God for that! We needed a sunny, warm day to end our vacation. My mom spent the night with us too and we all drove back to Chicago Tuesday morning for a Wed flight home. All in all, it was a fabulous trip. The kids were happy, healthy and well behaved, the wedding was a lovely family event to be remembered, we got tons of quality time with both families and no major catastrophes took place during our 7 days away. We do wish we could have hung with more friends, but time was extremely limited this go round.