After our days on the river (post to follow soon), we spent a couple of days with Lee's family. We had a great time!  Our first stop was Zach & Rochelle's.  We stayed up far too late catching up and were grateful that the twins were enticed to sleep in the following morning after their original rising time of 6am.  9am was far friendlier.  It was such a treat to spend the day with the Adams family.   Max & Miles entertained us the entire time.  I really don't know if there are any two boys cuter than these two.

The twins absolutely LOVE trucks.  Especially big ones.  And although Lee's pickup is of the smaller variety, the boys had a ball playing in the pickup bed.  I think they had a ball just playing with Uncle Lee in general.  When he disappeared into the bathroom to shower, they waited outside the bathroom door until he came out.  It was pretty darn cute.   We were there on a Saturday and took advantage of both Zach and Rochelle being off and went to Lucky Peak/Sandy Point park for a picnic.  Zach grilled us tasty hamburgers and we chased and played with the boys in the water.  We even took the Radio-Flyer for a spin and tested out its amphibious nature.  The boys weren't quite so sure of their wagon turned boat....  The afternoon disappeared and after the boys went down for a late afternoon nap, Lee and I said goodbye and headed to Twin Falls to see the rest of the crew.

We got to Twin Falls around 7pm and were able to finally see the new house Lee's mom purchased earlier this year.  She's got a lot of work cut out for her and it makes me so grateful that we no longer are living in that crazy state of construction.  When it's all said and done, her house is going to be great! We were lucky enough to spend dinner with Cole & Aubrey before heading over to Bryce and Elaine's where we got to meet sweet little Paige (the newest Merrick and three months old) and see our other cute nieces and nephew.  We brought Eli his birthday present and he and Lee stayed up super late on Saturday night assembling the Lego helicopter.  Legos are a part of every Merricks life.  :)

Bryce & Elaine are awesome and they hosted the entire family for dinner on Sunday afternoon.  And when I mean the entire family, I mean everyone in Twin (three siblings, their wives/S.O.'s, mom), the Adams family (who made the drive from Boise for the afternoon), and both sets of grandparents (who drove over from Bruneau).  It was really fabulous.  We never expected we'd get to see everyone during our short visit, and it was just perfect.   We even got a family picture all together!   The other surprise that Sunday was randomly learning at church that my mission trainer (my first companion) was in the area that weekend and her brother lives just down the street from the Merricks.  We were able to catch up for the first time in probably 15 years.  It was a really fun and unexpected treat.

The weekend flew by and on Monday morning after a pancake breakfast, we headed back to California.  The trip was far too short.  But every minute there was really fun.  We love seeing Lee's siblings and love spending time with the kids.  Christmas won't come soon enough for more time together!

Pictures from the weekend are available on the website.   See them here.